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Interview: New York City Ballet Corps Member Laine Habony

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Laine Habony. Photograph by Kenneth Edwards
Laine Habony. Photograph by Kenneth Edwards.

by Rachel Hellwig

At what age did you begin ballet? Where did you receive your early training?

I began dance at age 3. Both my older sisters danced and I begged for a year to take class too. I started in a combo ballet/tap pullout class at a Montessori school and my first recital was a tap recital.

The next year, I started ballet and tap classes at a small studio called Denton Ballet Academy. I moved to Ballet Conservatory (BC) when I was 8 to train with Kelly Kilburn Lannin. Ms. Lannin introduced me to classical ballet, modern, tap, jazz, and musical theater. It was a great performance studio that fed into a local company, LakeCities Ballet Theatre (LBT).

I was invited to join LBT at age 11 and performed many ballets there for two years before leaving for NYC. At BC/LBT, I was able to train with Ms. Lannin, Shawn Stevens (NYCB and Twyla Tharp), and Allan Kinzie (Boston Ballet) as well as guest artists including Michael Vernon (Royal Ballet), Josh Bergasse (On The Town, Smash), Marco Perins (La Scala), Julie Kent (ABT).

When did you realize you wanted to be a professional ballet dancer?

I always preferred tap/jazz over ballet until I was 11 years old – then I got my pointe shoes! I auditioned for summer programs that winter and spent my 12th summer at ABT NYC. I knew then I wanted to be a professional ballerina in NYC. When I was 13, I performed Serenade with LBT and knew then it was Balanchine all the way.

I saw on YouTube that you competed in Youth American Grand Prix (YAGP) when you were 13. Tell us a little about that experience and what you learned from it.

I did compete in YAGP when I was 13. It was a great year. I did two classical pieces – Satanella and Aurora’s first variation from Sleeping Beauty. I also did a contemporary piece choreographed by Shawn Stevens to Vivaldi called Red Cardinal. I had gorgeous tutus sewn by Elizabeth Schillar, a tutu designer in Texas. She allowed me to help with the creation, picking fabric and even sewing on all the crystals.

I won 1st place in Classical in Dallas and Top 12 in Contemporary and went on to compete in the YAGP NYC Finals. I had great scores and great comments and was offered full scholarships to quite a few places including Canada National and John Cranko, but I had to decline them all because I already knew I was going to the School of American Ballet (New York City Ballet’s official school) on scholarship.

Training for YAGP is an experience a young dancer cannot replace at that age. Private lessons that provided individual performance coaching were so valuable for my technique and confidence. My coaches taught me to work for the sake of experience, not to win a contest. I learned that a dance career is a marathon not a sprint, and not to get caught up on losing or winning any one thing.

[Read more…]

Finding Balance: Dancing Through Summer

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The town of Minturn, CO taken on a hike in the mountains

by Emily Kate Long

Fun & Classes 128 Partnering class at SSDI (photo credit Susan Blackburn)

As I wrap up my summer travels, I’ve been working to identify a theme for the experiences I’ve had over the past two months. It’s been a summer of learning what to do and what not to do: in the studio as a teacher and student, onstage and in the audience, and in how I interact with other people and with myself. How do I take everything in during class while holding on to what I know works? What about carving out time for physical and mental rest and recuperation? How can I be an open yet critical audience member, and how can I more easily drop personal hang-ups and anxiety to fully experience each moment of performing?

To begin with, a great aid in approaching my physical needs honestly was Dr Linda Hamilton’s most recent book, The Dancer’s Way (St Martin’s Griffin, 2008). Hard science wrapped in compassion and empathy, The Dancer’s Way was a timely reminder that I’m not the machine I’d like to believe. My body—and everyone else’s—needs what it needs, period: fuel and rest. That means sufficient calories, macronutrients, and fluids every day. It means 8-10 hours of sleep each night. It means time each week for restorative activity. It means giving muscles a chance to forget about dancing for a little while and repair themselves every few months, and then giving them enough time to return to a full rehearsal schedule. Put simply, we are people first—physical beings with physical needs that must be acknowledged and met before we can demand anything more of our bodies or minds. The Dancer’s Way is the collection of information I would have loved to have when I was a student, and I plan on sharing a lot of this information with my students.

My strategy this summer was to avoid the trouble of getting back in shape by not planning any rest. Bad move. I would have avoided serious physical and emotional burnout, along with a lot of guilt and self-judgment, if I had just built rest into my schedule to begin with! It’s still a process, but realizing my body can’t take care of itself enabled me to relish being completely immersed in dance all summer.

Being present at two summer intensives (Saratoga Summer Dance Intensive and Vail Valley Dance Intensive) as both a student and a teacher allowed me to analyze every aspect of class. It was wonderful to take multiple classes per day and test endless hypotheses on myself and on others. On an interpersonal level, I got to observe and engage in many different communication styles, classroom organization strategies, and the particular learning processes of different age groups. Being in classes of mixed ability shone light on the importance of teachers’ knowing all the building blocks and progression of technique in order to accommodate students of different levels. [Read more…]

Dance In The UK: NYCB’s Nutcracker Production

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by Jessica Wilson

The Nutcracker

There’s an extremely Christmassy privilege heading to the UK on 22nd December, in the form of New York City Ballet’s brand new production of George Balanchine’s The Nutcracker, with tickets priced at just ten pounds. This multi-million dollar production includes a forty foot Christmas tree which weighs a staggering one tonne, seventy ballet dancers, fifty children from the School of American Ballet – the official school of NYCB – and a sixty-two piece orchestra. It is ultimately described by the New York Post as “the Christmas show of all Christmas shows”.

NYCB has an unparalleled active repertory of more than 150 works, many of which are considered modern masterpieces. The Company was established in 1948 by choreographer Balanchine and Lincoln Kirstein, joined by Jerome Robbins in 1949 as associate artistic director.  Now under the artistic direction of Ballet Master in Chief Peter Martins, the company performs an impressive annual 21-week season in New York, the longest home season of any dance company in the world.

The production’s defining feature is its vast scale, described as a ‘virtually live performance’ to be screened in cinemas all over the UK. This will ultimately provide mass audiences with the chance to view such an iconic and prestigious work by Balanchine, who is generally argued to be the father of modern ballet. This great accessibility is proved unhindered by the extremely limited run, due to the fact it is the ‘golden ticket’ of ballets for all dance lovers, available nationally. [Read more…]

Review: The Dancer’s Way, By Linda Hamilton, PhD and New York City Ballet

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by Catherine L. Tully

Once in a while a dance book comes out that is so on-target you want everyone to read it. The Dancer’s Way is such a book.

Written by Linda Hamilton, PhD and New York City Ballet, this book addresses the dancers of today and provides guidance for them by sharing information about tools that are used in the NYCB wellness program.

Some of the subjects that are covered in this book include things such as good work habits, cross-training, eating right, weight control strategies and stress management. These are broken down into sections and grouped under the heading “Five Keys To Peak Performance”.

There is no doubt that the considerable information here is the best available in the business. Dr. Hamilton is the wellness consultant at New York City Ballet, as well as a member of the International Association for Dance Medicine & Science. She has written a column for Dance Magazine for many years, and is also a consultant for the Ailey School and Career Transition for Dancers. She was also a dancer at NYCB.

Peter Martins himself wrote the introduction for this book–an appropriate selection, given the fact that he was Ballet Master in Chief of NYCB when the wellness program began and has worked with it ever since. In the introduction, Dr. Hamilton mentions the fact that in only three years this approach has slashed disability at NYCB by 46 percent. To me–that is truly an amazing number.

The fact is, the information contained in these pages is used every day by some of the best dancers in the world. That’s a big-time endorsement, in and of itself. But one of the best things about the information in this book is that it can apply to everyone from the casual dancer to the serious company member. Those who are interested in learning how to protect their bodies and enrich their health while being physically fit will appreciate this comprehensive approach to wellness. There is something here for people of all levels.

In addition to the information mentioned above, other gems that this book shares with the reader include:

+ Information on getting an orthopedic screening. This type of exam can help identify orthopedic issues that may arise, depending on the individual’s body. It was developed by Dr. William Hamilton.

+ A list of books, DVDs and Web sites. Resources for everything from eating disorders to dance medicine education and referrals.

+ A food diary worksheet.

+ A dance medicine glossary.

This is a book that belongs in the library of every dancer and on the shelves at every studio.

Buy Now

For more information on Dr. Linda Hamilton, including other books she has authored, wellness tips and more, visit her Website

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