Seeing Signs
Bringing the Gianna Reisen ballet to the NYCB stage
October 10, 2024
,When Signs premiered at the School of American Ballet's 2022 Workshop performance, choreographer Gianna Reisen had completed her own time as an SAB student just five years before. In the meantime, she'd already created two works for New York City Ballet—Composer's Holiday (2017) and Judah (2018)—and would soon celebrate the premiere of her third ballet for the Company, Play Time, set to an original score by Solange Knowles. She'd also danced with and created works for other companies around the country and the globe. In some ways, restaging Signs on NYCB now provides a symbolic closing of this creative circle, underlining Reisen's graduation into the next phase of her choreographic career.
For Corps de Ballet Members Grace Scheffel and Mia Williams and Repertory Director Adam Hendrickson, each of whom were part of Signs's creation at SAB, this NYCB debut is similarly symbolic. We spoke with them about their memories of the 2022 rehearsal process, revisiting this pivotal moment in their careers, and what they're most looking forward to about the upcoming performances.
"I remember being quite nervous to assist Gianna," recalls Adam Hendrickson, who became a faculty member at SAB in 2018 after dancing with NYCB for 14 years. "I didn’t have any prior experience working alongside a choreographer in this capacity and I was coming into this process with a huge amount of admiration for Gianna’s previous ballets. I really wanted to make sure I was helping her achieve what she envisioned. And, I enjoyed getting to see my students working in a more professional capacity."
Grace Scheffel looks back on the challenges of the creation process with fondness. "It was really collaborative," she says. "Gianna had an idea of exactly what she wanted; things did change over time, but she had a really clear vision from start to finish. With the pas de deux [in the second movement], we were in the studio for something like three hours at a time, trying new things, seeing what fit the music and what fit us. I didn't know it at the time, but that was kind of the culmination of my time at the School."
"Looking back at that moment now, I’m realizing how lucky I was to be a part of something bigger than myself," Mia Williams agrees. "I feel like being able to take part in the creation of Signs changed the trajectory of my career. It was my first year at the School and Signs was the perfect opportunity to show the faculty everything I had. The next year, I couldn’t perform in the annual Workshop or participate in any of SAB’s showings due to an injury. I believe that my participation in Signs got me my apprenticeship with NYCB, so I feel an emotional connection with the ballet."
Reisen told Carolina Ballet when they were staging Signs that the work is "...a neoclassical ballet set to three solo piano works by Philip Glass. Its gestural movement vocabulary and playful structure is meant to challenge audiences to discover the human being beneath the performer." What is Signs about, from the perspective of these three artists who contributed to the ballet's development? "I think that Signs is presented from Olivia's perspective," Williams suggests. Her colleague and Corps de Ballet Member Olivia Bell will be reprising her lead role in the NYCB debut, an experience she recently described for The New York Times. "It seems like she initiates many of the connections between the dancers in the ballet and has a kind of control over us," Williams continues. "It feels as if she's almost narrating the story of someone else while also being in the story herself, and she is doing that through the rest of us."
"The steps feel really, really natural," shares Scheffel. "It has three completely different textures and musical paces. The first section is kind of upbeat, very happy and go, go, go. The second is the pas de deux, which is heart-wrenching and set to the most beautiful music. And the third section is just an explosion. The ballet starts with us walking towards each other and slow-dancing, and it finishes with our eyes being opened, embracing and dancing again. It’s such an emotional roller coaster, dancing it and watching it."
"I have always viewed Signs as a post-high school prom party," says Hendrickson. "There’s an underlying loneliness that I feel sometimes watching it—the alienation of teenage years. There’s silliness, longing, romance… but I view it all through the lens of adolescence."
This same lens colors Scheffel's reflections on performing in 2022. "When it was originally made, I was 16, and now I'm 19, so with age and maturity, I think I’ve found myself a little bit more as a dancer. Hopefully I've improved. I have more of an intention behind everything I do," she says. "When I was dancing it originally, everything felt natural. But when I go back and watch the video now, I'm like, 'Oh, I could have done a little bit more of that, or been a little bit more intentional with that.' It's such an emotional ballet that you want to show that emotion, so there are certain moments where I'm like, 'Oh my gosh, I'm so dramatic. There's no need for me to be doing all of that.' That's just how I felt in the moment, dancing it. But now, as years have gone by, I've definitely learned that there's a way to show the emotion, but to show it in a really human way that's not so over the top. And that's what I love about this ballet, too—that it's so human. It feels like a lot of the Robbins ballets."
"It’s been nice revisiting Signs," adds Williams. "I have sentimental feelings towards the ballet. I feel comfortable with the choreography, and most importantly, I’ve reframed the jittery feeling before dancing it as excitement instead of anxiety. I feel like I’ve matured as both a person and a dancer since the premiere of the ballet in 2022. I’m no longer the nervous teenager I used to be. I’m approaching Signs with a calm energy I haven’t felt yet while in the Company. I feel totally in control and ready to perform."
Though the dancers had several months to create and learn the ballet while students, rehearsing as a Company dancer has been limited to just weeks. Being able to contrast these perspectives—and the differences between the Workshop performance and the upcoming debut on the Company's stage—has been informative for Williams and Scheffel, and has provided other rewards for Hendrickson. "These are all dancers that I love and have watched grow over the years," he says. "I’m looking forward to seeing Signs on a larger scale; the steps take on a different life when they have so much more space to expand within. I’m also excited to hear Michael Scales playing his NYCB solo debut. The dancers all love having him at the piano, and since the ballet begins with his quiet interaction with Olivia before the curtain rises, to me he is part of the cast."
"I've gotten really lucky with certain opportunities. I don't know what position I would have been in if I didn't get the opportunity to perform in and dance the pas in Signs," says Scheffel. "I'm very grateful to Gianna for seeing something in me. I'm dancing a different part this time, so it's cool to look at the ballet from a different perspective, and see the piece from a different angle. And, it's cool to see two dancers who I'm such a big fan of, and really look up to as role models, dance the original parts."
Rehearsal photos © Erin Baiano