fall 2003

Julie Kent
Incandescent Beauty

by Nadine Lavi

Amidst the technical dazzle so appreciated by ballet audiences today, there is something finer, more rare: a ballerina whose artistry draws a public in search of the elusive and the genuine. Julie Kent, principal dancer at American Ballet Theatre, is one of these, revealing the delicacy and steely,fine-spun strength that is hers alone. Kent, with her exquisite lines and beauty of face and form, is the embodiment of a 19th-century classical ballerina.

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There is, in her dancing, a quality of longing that suggests a woman in search of love. And that quiet yearning inevitably captures the audience's hopes, whether Kent dances as a princess, swan queen, sugarplum fairy or contemporary woman. Kent's technical abilities and aesthetic have seen a gradual flowering over the course of her career, and a new confidence has recently given her a more fluid technique. Now at the height of her powers, she gives performances that set the standard for excellence. Kent embodies a ballet ideal - beautiful, with a haunting, otherworldly quality, yet romantic and accessibly human. As a child, Kent observed her mother in ballet class, and began lessons herself at age eight with Hortensia Fonseca at the Maryland Youth Ballet School. "Fonseca was at that time producing dancers who were coming to American Ballet Theatre - like Susan Jaffe, Cheryl Yeager, and her son, Peter Fonseca. She herself was a beautiful dancer, and she gave me a real concept of the beauty of the classical ballet line." Kent credits Fonseca with excellent training, specifically in terms of

After attending American Ballet Theater's II's summer session and the School of American Ballet, Kent joined the company as an apprentice in 1985. The next year, she won a medal at the Prix de Lausanne. In 1990, she became a soloist, and three years later was named a principal dancer and won the Erik Bruhn Prize at The National Ballet of Canada's competition. "I feel that American Ballet Theater has brought me up. Mikhail Baryshnikov had tremendous influence on me because he brought me into this company. He gave me wonderful experiences that other teenagers just dream about, like being in the movie Dancers. But my real joy was that I was now going to be in American Ballet Theater ."

Kent's coming of age as a dancer occurred at a time when the company's very future was in question. "In my first two years as a principal dancer, we only worked 26 weeks a year, and it was right at a crucial time for me. There were several times when we didn't think American Ballet Theater would exist anymore and it was very stressful. It was very hard to build on anything, because I would do one Swan Lake and it would be another year before I would do my next performance. Some people peak when they're 17, 18, 19, and then have to struggle to maintain interest, inspiration and desire, and other people just bloom later. When I became 25, 26, 27, I really started to understand what I was doing. I definitely was a late bloomer," she adds.

After Baryshnikov left, Georgina Parkinson took the young dancer under her wing. Parkinson recalls her first impression of Kent at the company's audition when she was 16. "I was struck by her physical beauty. And just that, because she wasn't strong, she had no confidence, but she worked very hard. When she first came in, she did corps work, and I didn't have much to do with her. Then I had to get her through a little variation in Sleeping Beauty, and that's when we started to work together." Kent credits her husband, former principal dancer Victor Barbee, now American Ballet Theater's assistant artistic director, with helping her find the key to many characters. "My husband helped me find the key to Manon - you can look at her as if she loves everyone and everything just like a spoiled child, and then she's more sympathetic." Kent recalls dancing with her husband earlier in his career. "The first time we ever kissed was in Firebird in rehearsal in Studio 1, and then onstage. He was Prince Ivan and I was the Czarina, so that was very romantic. First it was before we were involved and then it was after. My parents remember sitting in Washington and thinking that was the longest kiss they'd ever seen in their lives."

Of her other partners, she says, "They all gave me something different and something wonderful. My earlier partners were Robert Hill and Guillaume GrafÞn. They both gave me so much of themselves, patience and physical and emotional freedom. Angel Corella is a joy, his energy is just so contagious. Jose Carreño is such an incredible turner that he makes me feel very centered when we dance together. Ethan Steifel has such a unique quality and Vladimir Malakhov is a very generous spirit." From the moment the music begins until it ends, Kent's arms are in motion; she never affects the pose of being at rest on stage until the next enchaînement begins. This quality of continuous movement is engaging: she is calm and easy - a simple pas courou across the stage lulls the audience into a peaceful hush, and then, with a high developpé, she changes her dynamic. She has an ability to overcome "a little bit of misconnection between getting on the stage and what I had been doing in the studio perfectly well for the past two months. I was able to keep my conviction through to the end. I had to isolate the artistic side of my brain from the technical side. Kevin [McKenzie, American Ballet Theater's artistic director] put it very well: I

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need a role, not a part. But it's also experience, confidence, a sense of centre. It's going on stage and trusting that you'll do what you've been doing all these weeks and years before." She notes that "articulation of the feet, which is very beautiful, is something you can constantly improve, and I've worked very hard on the concept of speaking with my feet in the past few years." According to Parkinson, Kent "evolved, like you dream about them all evolving. It was just very gradual, every year she was stronger, she was freer. It was a mixture of extreme hard work and monumental dedication, battling her demons and overcoming them, making sure that she strengthened herself - she even changed the shape of her legs, it just happened."

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Of creating a character, Kent says that "I try not to have a preconceived notion about how a character is because it taints the process. My first step is a clean slate, you learn the choreography and then make your own personal discoveries like, 'Oh, this is where she knows she loves him, this is where she thought she loved him, but this is where she knows it.' The job of the artist is to weave it all together, and then as you get deeper you just add layers so you see this beautiful intricate embroidery from beginning to end." Kent finds that certain ballets affect how she connects with the audience. For Le Corsaire, she says, "I'm certainly not a pyrotechnical dancer, but I still have to approach it in the sense that it's a show, as opposed to how one would approach Giselle. In some ballets, like Other Dances, I think the beauty in them is that you're not performing, you're just dancing. When you play to the audience and include them in everything, you get a larger response because they feel like they're part of the show. But I think for me, in some ballets, it takes away a little bit of the privacy or dignity of the art." An emphasis on artistry is hard won in today's dance world, in which the box office measures success. Parkinson says of ballet today that "the

In 2000, Kent won the Prix Benois de la Danse, and this past March, she danced Giselle with the Kirov Ballet at the Maryinsky Theatre in St. Petersburg. Her partner was Andrian Fadeev. She danced with American Ballet Theater at their Spring MET 2003 season from May to July, and she also guests with companies around the world. Of her career, Kent says, "You still have to work hard every single day. You constantly have to produce. Your 50th Swan Lake is more difficult than your first, second or third. But, in the end, I only have things to be thankful for. I have had a very blessed life."

Other features:

Reinventing Veronica
Former prima ballerina Veronica Tennant now explores artistry in new ways, including producing and directing for television

Forsythe's Futures
Artistic Director William Forsythe is leaving Ballett Frankfurt behind, but will continue to explore dance's progress beyond theatrical boundaries