The Afterlife of a Ballerina
November 5, 2016 5:09 PM   Subscribe

At age 16, Alexandra Ansanelli was anointed a prodigy. By 22, she was a principal for the New York City Ballet. At 26, she was a principal for the Royal Ballet. By 28, she had given it all up.
posted by Etrigan (14 comments total) 46 users marked this as a favorite
 
(This is a very self-centered, bathetic comment, but what of my personal experience can be anything but bathos after an article about 26 year old principal at the Royal Ballet?)

I studied ballet for all of three months, as an adjunct to a ballet-influenced folk dance which I study more seriously. The adult classes at this school are graded: Intermediate, Beginner, and the one workshop for Absolute Beginners. Ah, that's the one for me, I thought.

On the first day, we went around and introduced ourselves. People were weirdly verbose, going on about their jobs, and their hobbies, and by the way, I've been studying ballet for three years. Or two. Or five.

So there I was, less experienced by multiple years than the Absolute Beginners, and it really showed. With surreptitious glances, I discovered that everyone else could manage at least 120 degrees of turn-out, while I struggled to maintain 90 consistently. When we did grand battement, my foot fluttered like a wounded bird at knee level as my ostensible peers' lofted easily above their waists.

Near the end of the article is a photograph of Ansanelli in 2016. In the foreground, she stretches deeply. In the background, another dancer peeks at her. Oh, man, memories.
posted by d. z. wang at 6:34 PM on November 5, 2016 [10 favorites]


Really interesting article. I'm glad Alexandra is cultivating a future for herself. And that it seems she comes from a supportive but sane and stable family. (As soon as the article mentioned Friends Academy I said "Ah." As a kid my family had a membership to their pool over the summers; sending your kids there is no small investment in them.)
posted by bleep at 7:48 PM on November 5, 2016


I'm so glad my body is wrong for ballet in pretty much every way, and I've known this since I was about 8, but love it anyways. It's always just been something I love, a way to exercise and move and be happy. It was very freeing to be good at it, but to know that I could never be professionally good at it and so I can just enjoy myself.

(I just got back from my adult ballet production of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, which has every spectrum of adult ballet dancer, from "started 4 months ago" to "former professional," and we all love it and it's a lot of fun. I'm icing all my joints as we speak!)
posted by ChuraChura at 7:49 PM on November 5, 2016 [17 favorites]


I'm so glad my body is wrong for ballet in pretty much every way, and I've known this since I was about 8, but love it anyways.

But that just really means your body is perfect for ballet.
posted by polymodus at 7:58 PM on November 5, 2016 [6 favorites]


Great article. I've been taking ballet as an adult for several years now and I love love love it, but I know my experience of the ballet world is extremely different from those who pursue it as a profession. I think I'm in moderate denial about how cruel and unforgiving the art can be. I hope one day Alexandra can be happy about the fact that she got to live two lives in one lifetime.
posted by Rora at 9:23 PM on November 5, 2016


Retired ballet dancer here. I'm on career #3, depending on how you're counting.

You might find the Dancer Transition Resource Center of interest. Started in Canada by a ballerina who saw four friends retire and then commit suicide. They really do amazing work.
posted by sixswitch at 1:54 AM on November 6, 2016 [27 favorites]


Great article, seconded.
posted by infini at 3:01 AM on November 6, 2016


One of the best graphic designers I've ever worked with was a dancer with ABT in her first life. It's so hard to wrap my head around, that you can be at the absolute top of your game in your field, and still have to have an entire plan B career.
posted by Mchelly at 4:06 AM on November 6, 2016 [5 favorites]


Dancers typically form friendships in the corps, where they spend long hours rehearsing group dances, and where the pressure is less intense. Alexandra had skipped that stage, and she struggled to fit in at the Royal. "She was quite individual I suppose, and quite isolated," says Lauren Cuthbertson, a principal dancer who once shared a dressing room with Alexandra. "Of course she was always very glamorous—just absolutely mad as a box of frogs."

(no faux astute comment, just like the quote)
posted by sammyo at 4:13 AM on November 6, 2016


Mchelly: One of the best graphic designers I've ever worked with was a dancer with ABT in her first life. It's so hard to wrap my head around, that you can be at the absolute top of your game in your field, and still have to have an entire plan B career.

I knew a former prima ballerina. After a bad knee forced her into retirement at 25 she went to law school. She'll be entering the legal workforce only a few years older than her classmates. One thing she mentioned is that she leaves an entire world behind that she'd been a part of for almost her entire life.
posted by Kattullus at 4:53 AM on November 6, 2016


interesting read.

I'm still in the dark about specifics around her decision to quit. Were there other moves she wanted to make (eg change companies again) that she found herself blocked from? Realized that she'd accomplished all that she wanted from that career, and prolonging it would just be to endure a plateau or a slow decline? The life outside of dance just looked better?

I guess that what makes this one newsworthy is that it was a choice to go out at the peak, rather than an exit forced by injury or other crisis.

Anyway, nice that she's sort of giving back to her family and working closely with her Dad.

As with many athletes and other artists, dancers give so much of themselves and their life to their career there that they do need a lot of support and guidance when that career ends.
posted by Artful Codger at 7:37 AM on November 6, 2016 [2 favorites]


That one scoliosis mention and no follow up?
posted by notyou at 8:44 AM on November 6, 2016 [1 favorite]


Ballet, tennis, gymnastics, and ice skating. They all check the exact same boxes.
posted by Beholder at 6:30 PM on November 6, 2016


I'm not familiar with ballet but i'm quite familiar with sumo wrestling and it's shockcing to me how the wrestlers face the exact same issues. it's just that their bodies go in the opposite direction.
posted by SageLeVoid at 12:16 PM on November 7, 2016


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