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DANCE magazine|NOVEMBER 2O15|VOL. 89 NO. 11|IANA SALENKO|SASCHA RADETSKY ON “FLESH AND BONE”|BACKSTAGE SUPERSTITIONS

TV’S NEW
BALLET SERIES
SASCHA RADETSKY ON
“FLESH AND BONE”

THE AFTER
PARTY
DOS & DON’TS
WITH DONORS
BREAK
THE RULES
STRETCH THE
LIMITS OF
TECHNIQUE

THE POWER
OF “MERDE”
Ballerina Without Borders: WHY BACKSTAGE

Iana
SUPERSTITIONS WORK

TAP’S

Salenko
FORGOTTEN
GENERATION
TODAY’S BRILLIANT &
OVERLOOKED HOOFERS
Dazzling Audiences
From Berlin To London NOVEMBER 2015

& Beyond
THE WORLD AT YOUR FEET

DNC1511_CV1r1
 in every issue
58
Off the Page 6 Jeremy McQueen‘s
Met Opera gigs
gave him the
Inside DM
BY JENNIFER STAHL
10 stability to pursue
dancemaking.

On the Rise
ABT’s Hannah Marshall
22
By Joseph Carman

Advice for Dancers

Boost your freelance load.
24
By Linda Hamilton, Ph.D.

DM Style: Get the Look

Like their dancing, Bolshoi
42
ballerinas’ fashion sense is
both bold and classic.
By Suzannah Friscia

Ad Index, Classifieds,
Dance Finder
59
From the Vault 67 your body
45 years ago: Natalia Makarova
defects from Russia. The Science Behind 46
Superstition
Why I Dance
By GuillaUme Côté
72 Why rituals could help—
or hinder—your performance
By Olivia Aylmer

Working Out With…

Hubbard Street’s
50 “Dance can make
Jacqueline Burnett
By Lauren Wingenroth
you feel as if time is
42 suspended.”
A modern —g uilla U me c Ôté
training & career
72
ballerina: The
Bolshoi’s Maria
Vinogradova Breaking Ballet’s Rules
When it’s okay to stray from
52
what you’ve been told
By Ashley Rivers

Teach Me to Teach
Three dance pedagogy programs
54
By Suzannah Friscia

Dancer, Meet Donor 56

From top: Jubal Battisti, Courtesy Jeremy McQueen; Quinn Wharton

The dos and don’ts of
professional mingling
By Julie Diana

Not Your Average

Song and Dance
58
What it’s like to dance
for the opera
By Zachary Whittenburg

4 n o v e m b e r 2 015

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DNC1511_004r1
 yourcareer | SMART MOVES

A Longtime
Dream
McQueen (right,
with partner)
in Ratmansky’s
choreography

Realized
for Aida

Jeremy McQueen found

an unexpected path
to the Met stage.
BY ZACHARY WHITTENBURG
For some dancers, the ultimate goal isn’t nec-
essarily performing with a particular company,
but on a certain stage. “I always wanted to
dance at Lincoln Center,” says Jeremy
McQueen. “As a kid, I would record ‘Live packed with pirouettes and tricky combina- at studios in the tri-state area. “Where I am
from Lincoln Center’ and ‘Great Perfor- tions of jumps. in my career right now,” he explains, “I want
mances’ on PBS and watch the tapes over and That first job led to others: In the fall, he to establish myself as a young choreographer
over again. But it’s not easy to get to Lincoln was hired as a dancer in Ratmansky’s five-min- and an educator, and the Met allowed me that
Center if you’re not with a company like New ute, Egyptian-flavored contemporary ballet in flexibility.”
York City Ballet, or Ailey, or ABT.” Aida; for roles including a dancing clown in It also boosted his finances. Rehearsals
So, while in college, McQueen, now 29, the vaudeville-like Les Contes d’Hoffmann; pay a flat hourly rate for single-role perform-
researched alternate routes to the famous and as a cover for Ben Wright’s earthy peasant ers and covers, who understudy multiple
venue. One that grabbed his attention was the and elegant court dances in Don Giovanni. He roles. Covers only make less than single-role
Metropolitan Opera. “I looked at the roster says of working for the Met, “We danced, but performers if they don’t go on during a given
of who the Met brings in to choreograph. we weren’t the primary focus, for sure.” show. Since Met dancers are part-time, they
Mark Morris, Christopher Wheeldon, Alexei Just like its performance calendar, the do not receive health and dental benefits, but a
Ratmansky—all these people whose work I Met’s rehearsal schedule changes each day, daily morning ballet class is open to all artists
admire and I thought, How awesome would it with multiple productions being practiced in with contracts, regardless of whether their op-
be to get to dance that?” different rooms throughout the building from eras are being rehearsed that day or not—a big
For the next five years, McQueen went to 10 am to 5:30 pm. Staging an existing produc- perk for a freelance dancer. Another advantage
open auditions at the Met, which draw hun- tion only calls for a few dozen hours of dance is membership in AGMA, the performers’
dreds of hopefuls, and he would often make rehearsals, sprinkled over a couple weeks. union.
it to the final round. He was successfully Long breaks can land in the middle of the af- Although McQueen was not cast in
booking other work, like the national tours ternoon, which gave McQueen, who also cho- any operas this season, he hopes to use his
of Wicked and The Color Purple, but his Met reographs, time to update his website, work experience at the Met to his advantage as he
Opera dream eluded him until 2013, when he on his press kit and prepare for teaching jobs. tries to get other opera gigs at Lyric Opera of
became a cover for Die Fledermaus’ 14 per- He teaches ballet to high-school students in Chicago, San Francisco Opera and Washing-
formances. He loved performing its Broadway New York through American Ballet Theatre’s ton National Opera. For now, he is continuing
jazz-inspired dance scenes by Stephen Mear, education and outreach initiatives, as well as to freelance as he choreographs a ballet about
Nelson Mandela called MADIBA. “Perhaps
one day I could even choreograph for opera
companies,” he says. “That’s the ultimate
dream.”
The COLLEGE GUIDE brings a But his Met experience gave him an op-
dancer’s perspective to college portunity to check something off his bucket
list. One of his performances of Les Contes
planning. Part guidance counselor,
d’Hoffmann was broadcast live from the Met.
Marty Sohl, Courtesy McQueen

part search engine, the annual Among the thousands watching in movie
COLLEGE GUIDE delivers it all in theaters around the world was McQueen’s
one convenient source. mother in his hometown of San Diego. “I was
NEW one of the first people you saw on screen at
EDITION! PUT IT TO WORK FOR YOU TODAY! the top of the broadcast,” he says. “She told
me she screamed.” n

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