Five years after taking her last curtsy with New York City Ballet, Wendy Whelan has relinquished the most rigorous aspects of a star dancer’s life. “All I want to do is spread,” she said, laughing. “The vertical ballerina is now happily getting horizontal.”
But her post-retirement career — in February, she rejoined the company as its associate artistic director — is a different kind of demanding, which suits this restless creature. “It’s challenging, but I do love it,” she said. “And I’m really grateful to be able to love it from this side so deeply.”
In between rehearsals for “The Nutcracker,” playing through Jan. 5, and the winter season, starting Jan. 21, Whelan revealed her 10 cultural must-haves. These are edited excerpts from the conversation.
1. Stravinsky “Stravinsky has been my all-time favorite composer for most of my life. When I was 12, I danced with the Louisville Ballet in ‘Petrushka.’ Baryshnikov came to perform, and Nicholas Beriosoff came and set the work. It was a really profound experience to play a peasant child in this very Russian piece in the middle of Louisville with all these Russian influences around. And ever since then, Stravinsky strikes my heart like a bolt of lightning.”
2. Patti Smith’s “Just Kids” and Andre Agassi’s “Open: An Autobiography” “When I was a young person, I always thought I would grow up and be either an athlete or an artist. And then I realized ultimately that ballet was both of those things. So these memoirs really struck me — reading about Patti Smith, and her experience with Robert Mapplethorpe, growing up in New York and developing her own artistry, and Andre Agassi’s intense focus, and his struggles and success as a great athlete. I was actually beginning to write a memoir, but I’ve put it on hold because I have to push through a few more years to really be able to discuss this new aspect of my career and life. And I look at both of those books as, if only I could put a book together as beautifully as these books are.”
3. Sia “She’s one of my favorite get-me-going anthem-song artists. I have a bunch of her songs on the top of my playlist for any time I need a pick-me-up. The No. 1 one song is ‘Move Your Body.’ I am so tired lately because I’m using a new part of my brain, and that always knocks a person out. I’m using my eyes a lot and my ability to articulate what I’m seeing and thinking about each dancer’s need. I feel like a mother of a hundred now. I’m not a mother in real life, but I’m trying to look after and help cultivate and bring the best I can to each artist in the New York City Ballet. So, whew, I do need that song every once in a while.”
4. The Mall in Central Park “I love the mall in any season, and walking through that avenue under the trees. I remember it as a kid from ‘Kramer vs. Kramer,’ and when I moved to New York, I was like, ‘Oh, I’m here.’ I grew up in a town that has a number of Olmsted-designed parks, so it reminds me of home quite a bit. It’s where I take deep breaths and drop down because it’s so vast and I feel quite small, but within nature instead of these high-rises.”
5. The Atrium at MoMA “I love that white-box space where they have the dance performances. When I take a moment to meditate for myself, that is the empty space I focus on. There’s something about the light that comes in and hits the walls, and the levels that are open above it. It’s just beautiful to see dance in.”
6. Foyer de la Danse at the Palais Garnier “It’s this golden studio at the Paris Opera theater — it’s behind the stage, and it’s all gilt. There’s a mirror and ballet barres, and it’s like a salon. I remember hearing that it’s where the dancers used to meet the benefactors back in the day when the ballerinas were sort of romantically involved with their patrons. I spent time in that studio when our company went there in 2008. It was a really special space to be in, partly because my teacher Cecile Gibson grew up at the Paris Opera School. She got me out of Louisville, and I got to dance with her school’s company in the Paris Opera in this iconic Balanchine piece, ‘Symphony in C.’ There’s this circular history for me, and that memory is one I really, really cherish.”
7. American Apparel Socks “They’re calf-high, three-stripe tube socks, and my go-to foot gear. I live in these socks when I’m working in a studio with a choreographer or taking a class. They really cling onto the foot, and they’re a nice thickness. I don’t wear ballet shoes or pointe shoes anymore at all. The thought of it does not appeal to me in the least at this stage as a 52-year-old who still likes to move and explore.”
8. The Joyce Theater and Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival “Both of those institutions are really democratic, and they try to fill their programming with every kind of dance artist, which is something I love because I can expand my thinking on dance and enjoy new artists and think of possible new collaborations. They inspire me, and I find a lot of ideas there. And I love the directors, Linda Shelton at the Joyce and Pamela Tatge at Jacob’s Pillow. I find them mentors as women leaders.”
9. Chanel No. 19 “Chanel No. 19 was given to me when I was 18 for my graduation at the School of American Ballet by the ballerina Karin von Aroldingen, a Balanchine icon. She staged ‘Who Cares?’ on my graduating class. Karin chose specific perfumes for each of the principal dancers in the piece, and I was very honored and surprised that she chose for me Chanel. I felt very special with that, and it’s something I’ve worn my whole career. Every time I went onstage I would douse a little bit of that confidence juice onto me. And I still wear it today.”
10. Ballet Classes at Steps on Broadway “When I was a principal ballerina, I would take Willy Burmann’s class. He’s very speedy and very challenging and wants a specific physicality, and he got me to be fearless at the start of my day. Now I enjoy taking class with Heather Hawk, who used to dance with me. I love the different people that come into that class. I love the energy of that space. I don’t really jump anymore but it feeds what I need to keep moving and to feel good and to feel open and to feel challenged and to just feel comfortable in my body where I’m at now. I think of it as my happy place.”
