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WALTER PROFILE Carolina Ballet: two decades young
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Carolina Ballet co-artistic director Zalman Raff ael in the company’s rehearsal studio.
Below, left to right: Luke Potgieter, Kathleen Black, Max Isaacson, Elizabeth Ousley Munoz, Raum-Aron Gens Ostrowski
Opposite page, left to right: Reigner Bethune, McKensie Van Oss, Sophie Nelson, Bilal Smith, Amanda Babyan
TWO DECADES YOUNG
Carolina Ballet’s fr es h perspective
by JESSIE AMMONS photographs by JULI LEONARD
When the curtain fell on Carolina Ballet’s fi rst performance in 1998, the audience exited Memorial Auditorium to a hushed downtown Raleigh. “Th ere weren’t even restaurants open aft er the theater,” says Melissa Podcasy, ballet master and founding company member. Today, audiences exit Memorial Auditorium to a lively downtown Raleigh with plenty of options for a post-show bite or drink. “Raleigh has grown up around us,” says principal dancer Margaret “Peggy” Severin-Hansen, another founding company member. It’s an energy refl ected in the nationally renowned professional dance company: As Carolina Ballet celebrates its 20th anniversary, new co-artistic director Zalman Raff ael brings both fr esh perspective and seasoned vigor to the troupe. His approach is rooted in tradition and talent, with a renewed emphasis on community
Th e foundation
Since its inception in 1997, Carolina Ballet has produced a large volume of high-caliber shows. “Here we are 20 years later because of a lot of tenacious hard work and excellent product,” ballet master Podcasy says. Podcasy has had a fr ont-row seat fr om her roles as a founding company member and former principal ballerina, and as wife to founding artistic director Richard Weiss. Carolina Ballet is Weiss’s vision and his career’s work; his latest act is his protege, Raff ael. “As a choreographer, your clay, your medium, is the dancers,” Weiss says. “If you’re lucky, you get to also teach a young choreographer.” Raff ael, known as Zali, came to Raleigh in 2005 to dance for Carolina Ballet. He trained at the School of American Ballet in New York City, an education shared by much of the Raleigh dance company. (Weiss began his career at the New York City Ballet, where he was eventually a principal dancer.) Weiss says Raff ael’s talent for choreography was always evident, but “it’s an expensive, risky investment to mentor a choreographer, because you have to get them studio time, you have to get them dancers. Th e work can’t be done alone.” Raff ael, he says, was worth the investment. When Weiss considered the future of Carolina Ballet, he says he knew it would involve the young choreographer as more than a dancer, in a larger creative role. Now, at 32, Raff ael is Weiss’s fi rst-ever co-artistic director. Raff ael has been tran-
This page, left to right: Alyssa Pilger, Keifer Curtis, principal dancer Margaret SeverinHansen, Taylor Ayotte, Nikolai Smirnov
engagement. “We’ll always push to innovate and bring the highest level of technique to the stage,” Raff ael says, “but realistically, we can’t do that without the support of the community.” Under Raff ael, Carolina Ballet in the next 20 years will be plugged-in but still studious, both innovative and traditional. Raff ael wants to continue to “institutionalize Carolina Ballet,” so that dance becomes a necessary part of Raleighites’ art diet. “My hope is to reach people in a meaningful way, so that they understand the importance of what art is, and what it can do to, or for, their own lives.” 74 | WALTER
This page, left to right: Courtney Schenberger, principal dancer Marcelo Martinez, principal dancer Jan Burkhard, Scott “Ike” Hawkersmith, Mandy Gerhardt
sitioning into the role for two years and says he feels that he has found his creative voice. It’s with this voice he plans to impact the public, but it’s also a voice that speaks a language largely taught to him by Weiss. “While he is on planet earth, I will always consult with him,” Raff ael says of working for and alongside Weiss. “Th e relationship I have with my mentors are what give me energy and enthusiasm. We have an unmatched rapport.” Weiss and Raff ael’s mutual respect is evident in Carolina Ballet’s anniversary season, which began in September and runs through May. Of the eight productions – each production includes fi ve to 11 performances – many of them are Weiss originals. “He has created a repertoire of ballets that are the foundation of this company: his Mes siah (in November), his Nutcracker (this holiday seas on), his Sleeping Beauty (in May), his Romeo & Juliet (in February). Th ey are the bread and butter.” Mixed in are a guest-choreographed world premiere set to Ravel’s Bolero (in March); the return of New York City Ballet co-founder George Balanchine’s Serenade, which was performed by Carolina Ballet in its inaugural 1998 season; and a Weiss-Raff ael collaboration, Th e Legend of Sleepy Hollow & Other Haunted Tales, that premiered in October. Th ere’s old, there’s new, there’s tried-andtrue. “We bring more ballets to the stage than almost any other American company annually.” Behind the curtain, in the company’s studio on Atlantic Avenue, the pace is constant, nearing relentless. Like Weiss before him, Raff ael sees no other way. “We have to push to have this as a part of the thread of Raleigh.”
At this point, the ballet is certainly a thread of Raleigh’s cultural identity. From day one, there has been a devoted audience, one that has continued to grow. Th e company estimates its more than 1,000 performances have reached 1 million people, and the past two years have seen a consecutive 20 percent growth in ticket sales. Th e growth can be attributed, in part, to consistency. “We have been so consistent in the amount that we perform, in the amount that we are out in the community, and in the quality of the work,” SeverinHansen says. Th e growth can also be attributed to new audiences. Principal dancer Yevgeny Shlapko, who joined the ballet in 2007, has especially noticed a younger demographic. “Zali’s fr esh perspective on things is bringing in a new crowd,” Shlapko says. “He’s loyal to the traditions Ricky (Weiss) set up for us, and he’s building on it.” Raff ael says the arts community in Ra-
This page, left to right: Lauren Wolfman, Alicia Fabry, Nicholas Fokine, Lindsay Purrington O’Hara
leigh today is robust and eager, providing an opportunity for dancers to be involved beyond the studio, and in turn bringing a broader audience into the theater. “We have these young, beautiful, talented, intelligent people that are the vessels of this art form, dance. Th ey’re interesting “We have these young, beautiful, and they should be. My hope is that they talented, intelligent people that become immersed in the community. are the vessels of this art form, dance. Th ey’re interesting and … When they are accessible, the place becomes accessible.” they should be.” Accessibility is key and has been, by all accounts, the constant challenge to overcome. “People always ask me, ‘What does the ballet mean?’ and ‘Would it have been more helpful with a narrator?’ … If you’re watching it and you’re trying to fi gure it out, you’re never going to understand. You have to give it time,” Raff ael says. “My hope is that we can get people to come enough to … understand that whatever the ballet makes you feel is the feeling it’s supposed to.” “Just go,” Podcasy says. “You just go to the ballet. Th e lights go down, the curtains go up, and there it is. I don’t think it needs to be explained.” An even younger audience can be found in the dancers’ own students. Most of the core performers also teach at local dance schools, including principal dancers Severin-Hansen and Shlapko. “Performing is something that I give to myself and that I give back to the audience,” SeverinHansen says. “It’s my learning process: how my body works, how I connect to the audience. What I really enjoy, also, is to be able to give that experience back to the kids.” She leads Carolina Ballet’s summer intensive; is the assistant director of Triangle Academy of Dance in Cary; and teaches at Triangle Youth Ballet in Chapel Hill. Teaching allows her to give back to her vocation, she says, by taking what she learns on a professional level and “translating it to the next generation.” Shlapko considers teaching another Carolina Ballet thread woven into Raleigh. “I remember being a student and seeing one of my teachers perform at the ballet. Seeing them on stage, applying the corrections they had told me in the studio to themselves – everything clicks. It’s really something incredible to experience.” Shlapko’s experience came full-circle last fall, when he danced a lead role in Sleepy Hollow. “I went to do my bow and I saw this group of kids standing in the audience – they were my students. I’m sure it was
DANCE DRIVEN
Raff ael still rehearses with the company most days.
Below, left to right: Christian Gutierrez, principal dancer Lara O’Brien, principal dancer Yevgeny Shlapko, Carmen Felder, principal dancer Richard Krusch
This page, left to right: Sam Ainley, Randi Osetek, Lily Wills, Sokvanna Sar, Jacqueline Schiller
a big deal for them to see their teacher on stage. And I will not forget looking out and seeing them. It’s fulfi lling.”
Forward thinking
When Weiss arrived in Raleigh 20 years ago, he hoped to create an avenue for “professional art,” Podcasy says. “Th e product we put on stage is very diverse. It’s a mix of classical and contemporary and it’s very theatrical. Th e audience demands that of us, and we have given it to them since the beginning. We don’t talk down to our audience.” Raff ael’s task is to interpret the legacy for a fast-paced, diversions-aplenty culture. What can we expect? At fi rst, “subtle little things that I believe will make a diff erence.” Take this season’s company headshots: Each dancer chose his or her own outfi t and was encouraged to be candid for the photos. In a disciplined, ensembledriven operation, the portraits are a chance for individual personalities to shine through. Th e mix of old and new will continue. “We create new ballets and we preserve the old ones. Th at is the ballet.” Increasingly, the
new might run the gamut, with a spirit of measured experimentation. If something doesn’t work, Carolina Ballet will move on to the next production. Now that the groundwork is laid, there is a companywide faith that there will always be the next production. “It will still be here in 20 years, I am certain of that,” Podcasy says. “Having the co-artistic direction of Zali is like having two Michelin star chefs in the kitchen,” Shlapko says. “You know you’re going to have really good dishes.” Raff ael is at the helm, with Weiss’s steady guidance. While the two decades of work is “We bring more ballets to the not lost on either of them, in characteristic fashion, Raff ael fl ips the paradigm. He cites stage than almost any other the hundreds of years of ballet before them, and the dynamism of Carolina Ballet’s dancAmerican company annually.” ers today. “Th is is a humongous milestone. It is so incredible what Ricky has done. But it really is just the beginning.”
Th e backbone
Carolina Ballet founder Richard Weiss began dancing professionally when he joined the New York City Ballet at age 17. After 17 years in New York and 8 years as artistic director of the Pennsylvania Ballet, in May 1997, Weiss and wife Melissa Podcasy moved to Raleigh to build a professional dance company from scratch. “Not to take anything away from the talented people who have helped him, but the amount of work that Ricky has done here – you cannot compare it,” Raff ael says. “He gives his everything to this company.” Weiss and team raised $1.2 million and sold 2,600 subscriptions before staging the fi rst performance in 1998, and the number has grown by at least 10 percent every season since. The New York Times has called the founding artistic director and CEO a “trouper” for his devotion to build a company, or troupe, of “national signifi cance” in a mid-sized city. He relies on world-class talent, including the core ballet masters pictured at right.
Clockwise from top left: Founding artistic director and CEO Richard Weiss, founding member and ballet master Melissa Podcasy, ballet masters Debra Austin and Marin Boieru, founding member and ballet master Dameon Nagel
This page, left to right: Jenny Palmer, Miles Sollars, Ashley Hathaway, Sara Roe, Rammaru Shindo
