INTERVIEW: American Ballet Theatre Studio Company dances its way into transatlantic collaboration

American Ballet Theatre, under the artistic direction of Kevin McKenzie, is a deserved leader when it comes to showcasing classical works for audiences in New York City and around the world. One of the reasons for the company’s success is because of its well-organized and effective means of recruitment, development and sustainment.

Helping with its overall mission is the ABT Studio Company, under the artistic direction of Kate Lydon. The second company trains the best of the best among young dancers with the hope and expectation that they will apprentice with McKenzie’s group and eventually take over professional roles. The success of the Studio Company is obvious and validating. After all, many of the dancers in American Ballet Theatre, including Misty Copeland herself, can trace their professional roots back to spots in the second company.

This dedication and mastery of classical dance will be on display at New York University’s Skirball Center for the Performing Arts Friday, Feb. 10 and Saturday, Feb. 11 when ABT Studio Company joins with The Royal Ballet School of London for a joint program.

“We are very excited for these upcoming performances,” Lydon said in a recent phone interview. “This performance is our annual exchange with The Royal Ballet School. We’ve done an exchange, I believe, since 2003. They’ll come here a year, and we’ll go there a year. So this time is their turn to come here, and the energy is incredible.”

The program includes a motley variety of choreographic pieces, including Dana Genshaft’s Chromatic Fantasy, Ethan Stiefel’s See the Youth Advance, excerpts from Frederick Ashton’s Birthday Offering, Kenneth McMillan’s Concerto pas de deux, Helgi Tomasson’s Concerto Grosso and world premieres from Liam Scarlett and Marcelo Gomes (his is a three-movement piece with two separate pas de deux and a final dance for four dancers).

The pieces by each individual company promise to impress. ABT Studio Company will take the pieces by Genshaft, Stiefel and Gomes, while The Royal Ballet School will offer the work by Ashton, McMillan and Tomasson. That leaves Scarlett’s world premiere in a special showcase. Why so special? Because that’s the piece that has been singled out for a true collaboration: Dancers from both ABT Studio Company and The Royal Ballet School will dance the piece on the Skirball stage.

“A couple of years ago, Christopher Powney, who is the director of The Royal Ballet School, brought up the idea of having The Royal Ballet School dancers and the ABT Studio Company dancers do a piece actually together,” Lydon said. “We’ve done this exchange for quite some time, and the dancers take class together. But the rehearsals though were always separate, and then they perform together. … And so we did our first combined piece last year. Ethan Stiefel was the choreographer. He started the piece here, and then he went to London for a week, worked with those dancers. And then when we arrived in London, he put it together with a mixed cast, Royal Ballet School dancers and ABT Studio Company dancers together. That ballet was See the Youth Advance, so this year, we’re doing it. Studio Company is doing it as one of our rep pieces since nobody got to see it here in New York, and then the new combined work this year is a world premiere by Liam Scarlett who spent [time] working with our dancers [and] had already worked with the dancers in London. And then when they get here, we’ll put the piece together, and working with him was just a dream, an incredible experience. So the fans will get to see the ABT Studio Company dancers, our next generation of up-and-coming, beautiful, exciting talent, and they’ll also see The Royal Ballet School’s graduating class.”

Trying to fit in the ABT Studio Company’s work with Scarlett’s choreography was trying but necessary. Usually the second company has a full schedule that includes long-technique class, pas de deux class and variations class, among other sessions. However, when Scarlett was working with them, the school augmented the schedule.

“When he was here, we just did one class in the morning, an hour and a half, to get everybody ready for the day, and then we gave him the rest of the day,” Lydon said. “So he would start at 11:30, and then they would have a little break for lunch after a while. And then he would finish around 4:30, and he only had five days to work with our dancers. And he got all of the material done and meanwhile taught them so much. He was just teaching them all the time about movement, about partnering, about performing.”

The plan is for The Royal Ballet School to arrive early this week and perform the piece with their across-the-pond partners in rehearsals throughout the week, all in time for Fridays’ debut. “We’ll do separate rehearsals of our own pieces that will go on, but primarily we’ll focus on putting the Liam Scarlett work together so that it’s ready for Friday,” she said.

Currently, ABT Studio Company has 14 performers, seven female dancers and seven male dancers. The goal for them is to find success with Lydon and then enter the ABT Apprentice Program. After apprenticing in the big leagues, some of the dancers will enter American Ballet Theatre.

“If they don’t go into the main company of American Ballet Theatre, then they’ll go into another professional company, but we are absolutely preparing them for professional careers in ballet,” Lydon said. “I believe it’s more than half [in American Ballet Theatre] began their career with ABT Studio Company — Misty Copeland, David Hallberg, Isabella Boylston, Cory Stearns. Actually Cory Stearns was a graduate of The Royal Ballet School, and then he came to ABT Studio Company, which is kind of fun. So, so many of the dancers started in ABT Studio Company.”

The young dancers in the Studio Company don’t talk about their nervousness with Lydon, but she knows they have a healthy dose of goosebumps over the performances Feb. 10 and 11. She said they’re excited and realize the importance of the dances. Plus, as the artistic director put it, nerves are a part of professional dancing, and they need to understand that feeling comes with the territory.

“Really what’s magic is these young people,” she said. “I think the number one thing that people connect with is that when these dancers move on, they get to say, ‘I saw them when they were with ABT Studio Company before they even joined the company.’ And then years later, they get to watch the entire trajectory of their career, and I think that’s the most special part.”

Lydon has been with American Ballet Theatre for quite some time. She first came to the company as a student when it was called the School of Classical Ballet under the direction of Mikhail Baryshnikov. After that role, she traveled to San Francisco Ballet but soon enough returned to ABT.

“I didn’t perform for that many years with ABT, but I was here,” she said. “And my time made an incredible impact, and I always wanted to be here.”

After her own dancing ended, Lydon took on a role that handled schedules for the main company. She then moved away from New York City for a bit, but like before, she came back to the group and never could say a final goodbye. She started teaching in the ABT Children’s Program and then ABT Studio Company.

“I was rehearsal coordinator and teacher for Studio Company, and then I started doing more and more and more with Studio Company and then eventually was named the artistic director,” she said. “I was the director and then the artistic director, so I’ve been with ABT for a long time and have taught in many, many different capacities. And, of course, Kevin McKenzie hired me as a dancer when I was in my early 20s, and so I’ve known him for many, many years and trust him. And so it’s great. I have a great job. I love my job.”

By John Soltes / Publisher / John@HollywoodSoapbox.com

American Ballet Theatre Studio Company will offer a joint program with The Royal Ballet School of London Friday, Feb. 10 and Saturday, Feb. 11 at New York University’s Skirball Center for the Performing Arts. Click here for more information and tickets.