Fri 6/26-Fri 7/10
We’ve been interested for a while now in the phenomenon of ballet mavericks, accomplished ballet dancers who leave a big company to search for another path, another way to be ballet dancers. So when we heard that Michele Wiles of Ballet Next was coming to Cleveland in July to be part of a two-week dance intensive for students sponsored by the organization Ballet in Cleveland, we were very excited, for we consider her the biggest ballet maverick of all, leaving the most behind but perhaps doing the most along that new path.
She’s notably slim and long of limb, even compared to other principal dancers in their prime, but it’s her facial expression that we found most notable in YouTube interviews. Horizontal lines appear and disappear across her forehead as she listens and speaks. As we were to learn, it’s talking and listening as well as dancing that define Wiles.
With the help of Ballet in Cleveland, who had brought Wiles to Cleveland for a master choreography workshop last March, we lucked into an interview, called her up and asked her the crucial question.
CoolCleveland: All those years at American Ballet Theater (ABT), all that amazing achievement, why did you choose to leave while you’re still in your prime?
Wow! I have to go back to the beginning of my career to answer that question. I started out at a local dance studio in Baltimore. Two and a half, three years old dancing tap and jazz. Eventually the teacher at Susan Ina Dance Studio said that in order to improve my technique I should start taking ballet and I absolutely became obsessed with ballet.
When I was ten years old, I won a scholarship to the Royal Ballet but sending a ten year-old to England? Signing over guardianship? My parents weren’t feeling it. But then we learned about the new Kirov Academy of Ballet in Washington D.C. I went there with a one year scholarship and ended up staying 6 years. (Laughs.) I got the training and I will say, that Kirov / Vaganova training really builds a strong technical foundation. I owe a lot to my teachers there, Adrienne Dellas and Alla Sizova.
CoolCleveland: Vaganova training is rigorous and demanding. Not everybody can hack it.
I think because I was young – I started there when I was eleven – your bones are still supple enough.
But that was not the only thing I did. I still kept going to New York City to my other teacher, Lisa Dinias. She was in New York City Ballet (NYCB) so I got the feeling of how the Balanchine Technique worked. She coached me for competitions and I’d keep working in contemporary and other styles, which I think helped, instead of being strictly Vaganova training.
So, six years at the Kirov Academy and lots of competitions. I won Gold at (the 18th International Ballet Competition at) Varna, Bronze in Nagoya, Japan…Then it was time for auditions. I was accepted at Boston Ballet and American Ballet Theater so I chose Ballet Theater and New York’s dance scene. I went straight into the studio company (now known as ABT II), then corps de ballet, then soloist. At age 25 I was juggling a full soloist schedule and principal roles – a great ride!
CC: That’s something that comes through in everything I’ve learned about you. As hard as you worked, you were always really enjoying it.
MW: Sure, but then I got injured. There’s a developmental stage at about age 25 that people don’t usually talk about. There’s a maturation, an evolution. I had a back injury so I had time to think, to ponder, to navel-gaze and ask questions. What do I want? Where do I want to be? How do I want to do this?
Recovering from my injury, I took some classes from David Howard. The first thing he said to me was, “Let go.” Through him and Georgina Parkinson (both formerly of the Royal Ballet) I learned to connect my emotions to my dancing and eventually found a heart connection to English choreographers like Frederick Ashton and Antony Tudor.
After that I had a really amazing run in 2008 performing in Ashton’s Sylvia with Roberto Bolle and dancing lead roles in Tudor and Balanchine ballets. I wouldn’t change that for anything.
CC: You’ve done everything at a very high level.
MW: But then I knew it was time. The more I talk it out with people, the more details I remember, the more it’s like, “Oh, this is the next step for me; Ballet Next is just the organic thing for me to do.”
CC: So that’s why you left ABT. Telling your story from the beginning does make it clear. How did you come to form Ballet Next?
MW: It was what happened naturally. I was having lots of conversations with people; with my husband who has put together a lot of companies…
CC: Biotech, wasn’t it?
MW: Yes, his business background helped quite a bit. And Charles Askegard was leaving his company (NYCB where he was a principal dancer) and we were talking and we eventually formed Ballet Next together. It was a very different idea at first. Charles and I were talking about half classical and half new work but that’s the general idea of other companies. At ABT they do classical things like Swan Lake and then they do more contemporary things and I wanted to do all new work. (Laughs) I wanted to be creating something new all the time but I also wanted to respect the phenomenal technique that’s been built over the years. Classical technique is the foundation that makes it possible for most ballet dancers to do other forms of dance.
CC: What exactly is Ballet Next?
MW: Especially in New York City, you’re either at ABT or NYCB or you’re a modern dancer. At least that’s how it looks to me. But I want to build something in the middle. That in-between. I’m asking, “What is that in-between?” And in looking for that I’ve discovered that I love teaching class, I love choreographing. I’ve discovered support in places I never knew. It’s been a lot of surprises.
CC: We’ve heard about your collaboration with Jay Donn, the Flex dancer. How did you meet?
MW: I was introduced to Jay by Chris Lancaster, the electric cellist.
CC: Jay’s longtime collaborator.
MW: Yes. I met Chris in a ballet class he was playing for. We started talking and he said, “Do you want to come to Brooklyn? There’s these amazing Flex dancers.”
So I went and I was completely blown away by their passion and energy and particularly Jay Donn. He was quite the leader. A choreographer and a dancer. Chris and Jay and I decided to collaborate on a piece so we went up to http://www.kaatsbaan.org/ KAATSBAAN in upstate New York for 3 weeks. I just wanted people to get in a room together and throw out some ideas but I’d never worked that way before in my life. Before I’d always gone into a room and the choreographer is in there. It’s all about taking that risk and doing something new, not about something perfect, which was different for me.
CC: And that’s the origin of Something Sampled?
MW: Yes. Something Sampled, that whole piece with Jay, is outside the box for me, jumping off a cliff and building a plane on the way down.
CC: Is that what you’re going to dance at Playhouse Square, Something Sampled?
MW: There are sections to the piece.
CC: What’s the best video to show our readers what Jay’s dancing and Something Sampled is like?
MW: I like https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=NgWsAxXRJPA
THIS ONE.
CC: Has your creative work – Something Sampled and Ushuaia – influenced your teaching? Would ballet dancers benefit from more creative work?
MW: Sure. I ask my dancers questions. “What do you think we should do here?” They look at me like, “Huh?” but then they come up with something and they get so excited. And that makes them take ownership and feel part of the process. It’s interesting having Jay come in. He’s really good at group building and they become this team.
CC: Is this a preview of what your students can expect in your master class in Cleveland?
MW: Yes. One of my students in Cleveland, a little girl, got this look on her face and she said, “I never thought of it that way before.” So we’re not just standing at the barre doing the same thing every day.
I think the change really comes from the relationship and the conversation and the different influences you bring in and how all that works together.
CC: Do you have a parting thought for us?
MW: Something I learned from Something Sampled. It’s worth taking the risk. Throw ideas out, improve it, and keep moving forward.
At the same time you have to build the foundation, in this case the business, to support this creative platform. In the art world now we have to work on that business model. The reason I’m able to take all these risks at the moment is because the business is becoming stronger.
Michele Wiles and Jay Donn will teach and perform Wed 7/1 at the Gund Dance Studio at PlayhouseSquare for students only. Learn more about sponsoring organization Ballet in Cleveland and its upcoming events here. Learn more about Ballet Next here.
[Written by Elsa Johnson and Victor Lucas] [Photo by Ken Browar & Deborah Ory]Cleveland, OH 44115