A Continuation

JASON FOWLER: I enrolled in the [School of American Ballet] when I was 16, got into the company when I was 18, and danced with New York City Ballet for 15 years. [Christopher Wheeldon] and I became friends when I was in my first year at the School—that was his first year since moving to the States from England. He was in the company already and was quarterbacking for SAB a little bit. Then we danced together when I joined the company, and we remained close friends. I was in a few of his pieces, including the original cast of Polyphonia. 

I had been staging a very, very little bit for the company he’d started, Morphoses, by the time I retired [from performing with NYCB] in 2010. I wanted to do this sort of work; I liked being a rehearsal director at the time. Wheeldon offered me a position to stage Continuum for Morphoses’ tour in January of 2010. Then I was sent right away to stage DGV: Danse à Grande Vitesse for a company in Spain; he gave me a video and said, “Go do this,” and that was it. I've been doing it ever since. 

Katey [Tracey] and I danced together, and she was also a repertory director for some of Chris’s ballets when I was still in the company—she and I go way back. I was the last person to stage Continuum for a company, and she had done it as well prior to that, so Chris thought we should work on it together this time. It's really, really fun to be able to stage with an ex-colleague of mine. We’re usually alone on the road when we’re staging ballets, which is a lot for something as complicated as Continuum, but the fact that we get to do this together has been a dream. 

ALEXA MAXWELL: I’ve done one of the principals in Polyphonia. I also got to work with [Wheeldon] and dance a principal role in the last work he choreographed for the company, From You Within Me. And I've done the corps of a lot of his ballets throughout the years. So, I actually feel really comfortable with his ballets, and I really enjoy working with him. 

JOVANI FURLAN: The first ballet of his I did was Polyphonia, while I was still at Miami City Ballet. I also worked with Jason then. I remember it was kind of a marathon: we had our first runthrough on the fifth day of having learned the ballet, which is a lot for a work like that. Polyphonia has really followed me through my career. When I joined New York City Ballet [in 2020], I did it during my first season. And DGV was actually the first ballet I did with the company. 

So I've done DGV, Polyphonia, Liturgy, From You Within Me, and now, Continuum. He's very musical. He does sometimes have you do things to the left side, which is a little unusual, and he's very mathematical in a way, because the counts are very difficult. And he chooses very interesting music to work with. But I feel very at home in his ballets. 

MAXWELL: Even though the steps are a bit acrobatic, and some people would feel that they’re unnatural, something about it actually feels really natural to me, too. I’m also really comfortable and at home in this style. I felt this way with Polyphonia; Continuum seems very similar to that—it's like the continuation of Polyphonia. It feels almost like he leveled up the complexity.

FOWLER: Even though [Katey and I have] done many productions of this ballet, we always have to go back to the very, very original, so we’re using a video of the original cast at San Francisco Ballet. The Ligeti score is very challenging—I think having previous experience with Polyphonia helps. We are actually making some of our counts up; we're listening for things, we’re doing a little sing-song. It’s necessary with these really complicated pieces. The same goes for other NYCB repertory, like some of the Balanchine ballets. I remember [former Senior Repertory Director] Rosemary [Dunleavy] putting up a video of the conductor that we watched to learn part of Episodes, because it's so difficult—you had to watch his downbeat. Continuum is one of those ballets where you have to listen, watch each other, and of course: repetition.

MAXWELL: There are so many counts and so many little notes, and it's very challenging, but as we listen to it more and more, and the more we rehearse and the more comfortable we get with it, I find that there are little markers—there are certain notes or parts in the score that you can find and think, "Okay, I know where I am right now because I heard that note. I know this is a 12 because I hear this.” So the more we listen to it, the better it gets. But I do think it's one of the hardest pieces of music to play for the pianist. And our pianist, Stephen Gosling, is a rock star. 

FURLAN: For the opening, it's a little more square, but for the finale, that’s the one that I keep counting even after rehearsal—for example, the initial counts are like, 123, 1234, 123, 1234, 123, 1234, 12345, 1234, 123, 1234, 12345…. That piece of music is called “The Devil's Staircase,” because it's crazy, but in a way the title helps because it kind of goes in a staircase… but it's really hard. 

Then again, because you have to be so in it, you have to know it so well, and you're so connected to the music that the challenge and complication actually make it easier for you to be one with the music. You have to know it by heart. 

FOWLER: I do think the Ligeti music is very emotional. It can stir you up, like the first movement in Polyphonia; it can also be very confusing and disorienting—which is the point, which is fun. I think it's got a lot of tender bits, some strange moments. When Chris choreographs, it's about the music for these one-acts, not so much of a narrative. But I do think that with my extensive experience with Polyphonia, I just understand the juxtaposition of the movements and the architecture. Continuum is very reflective of that. So that gives it a natural feeling. 

FURLAN: I think it's amazing that Chris is such a great storyteller with his Broadway musicals, like An American in Paris and MJ, but he's also able to come to the ballet and do something that’s completely abstract, like Continuum. Because it's so musical, you just find the character in it. You don't need anything else. All you need is the music.

FOWLER: There is this harpsichord pas de deux—everything else is piano—that is a reflection of 9/11. If you watch that pas de deux, there are lots of linear shapes, and looking up, and towering arm movements; that's one moment where I know it affected his work.

MAXWELL: The part that I do in the first cast—Chris said the other day that it's as if you're in Greece, and the sculptures that are carved into the walls are coming out of the walls and coming to life. So it's about shapes, but at the same time, they're coming alive, so there's a fluidity to it, and it's almost like being the sunset in Ancient Greece. That really resonated with me. I also have a solo in the first cast, and it feels very meditative, and actually very calm and beautiful. That's turned out to be my favorite part of everything so far. 

The other part I dance in the second cast feels totally different. It's a little more angular, with extreme positions and really complicated partnering. 

FURLAN: For the men, there's a lot of prancing-like movement, and the beginning is a little militaristic, but then you go into more sinuous movement with some drags and long arms. And then I have this beautiful pas de deux with Alexa that's kind of like moving through mud, and it's very moody. The music is beautiful, and it's hard sometimes not to portray a lot of sentiment, because the ballet doesn't have a story. But because of the way he choreographs to music, I do find myself very “in” it, for sure. 

MAXWELL: I think the biggest challenge for the dancers is that even though the music sounds very complicated at times, we have to be really calm and very clear, under control, and fluid. So it can't look all chaotic. When that's done effectively, it makes the music even more special.

It's been so great to have Jason and Katey together. I'm always the type of person who likes having an extra set of fresh eyes in the studio, and Jason brings a different perspective because we don't get to work with him all the time. Chris has been in the studio this week too, so it's been great to have all three of them working with us. It's like three different sets of opinions, three different sets of eyes. Nothing goes unnoticed.

FURLAN: It’s definitely taken longer to learn than most ballets—it’s more challenging to piece it together. The choreography is so intricate, there's a lot to think about, and there's a lot of detail. Chris was such a clean and precise dancer, and he wants to see that from us.

FOWLER: You’ve all been responding really well. The dancers are so quick at City Ballet, and they just understand Chris’s movement, especially with a work like this that’s based on the Balanchine aesthetic, which is obviously ingrained in all of us at NYCB. It's been really wonderful to work with these dancers—the rate and the speed at which they pick it up, they just understand. There's a lot of respect in the room too. That's what I love about City Ballet: there's no drama. You just get in there and you get the work done, because everyone's got 17 other ballets to do.

MAXWELL: I think during the first rehearsal of the finale, we all felt extremely overwhelmed. But now, as we've had more rehearsals, I've actually calmed down a little bit. A lot of it is partnering, and I have two great partners, so just letting them sort of drive me through it has been so fun. Then when we finish the finale, we're like, “We made it, we did it.” It's very rewarding. 

And working with Chris is always, always a joy.

FURLAN: He has a very special way of being in charge of a room that’s really inspiring. I think it's just who he is; he knows how to be really demanding without making you feel less-than. 

FOWLER: I would have loved to have been in the room when he choreographed Continuum. We had so much fun with Polyphonia, because we had nothing to lose and we didn't know how significant it was going to be. Coming off of such a high [from Polyphonia], and to then go to another company and to hit the same aesthetic—I thought that was pretty brave. He loves working with San Francisco Ballet, too; it’s like his second home in the States, because he's worked with them so much. The stager nerd in me would love to get the original counts, would have loved to have done all those weird counts, to be a fly on the wall. 

MAXWELL: We usually do ballets that were choreographed on NYCB, so to be able to watch videos of the original cast and get inspiration from them and learn from what they created, but at the same time, to make it our own here at NYCB: that is such a special opportunity. 

There's always nervous energy with a big premiere like this, where the entire cast is debuting, but we're all friends, so I think that it's actually going to be really fun. I’m looking forward to it.

 

_{Photos by Ella Spruill © New York City Ballet.}