Grant a wish

Photo: Stephanie Berger/MMDG

How so?
Mark’s had a lot of Pilates; he has a really great sense of placement. Dancers don’t learn that. When dancers come to his class new, he has a lot to work on. For me, he said things like, “Stand up!” And for many years, I didn’t understand what that meant. When I finally went to Pilates, I realized there was a whole new way I could stand and walk that I never knew before. I still take Pilates and go to Mark’s class and it’s just a constant exploration for me on how to do things with more efficiency. I get injured less and I feel better and Mark’s happier, I think. It helps me dance differently.

How did Mozart Dances come about?
It’s funny. We knew there was this Mozart thing looming. Before that, I had gotten some nice semifeatured roles. That means an extra minute in a dance. It’s tiny, but if he wants to use you for one second alone on stage you feel he doesn’t hate you. I thought, That must be it for my career. Now I’m going to just be corps—he’s done using me. In a way I was sort of dreading the Mozart rehearsals. Anyway, he starts choreographing, and the first thing I do is come out facing back and I look at the audience and I do four measures of music and leave. He did that with me one day and I was so excited. I was like, Oh my God, I have four bars of myself in the Mozart! That was more than enough for me. And then it kept going. [Laughs] It was so funny how it unfolded. Every day, my jaw would drop farther down. I kept realizing more and more, This is kind of a nice part. It was unexpected but very welcome and a wonderful challenge because it’s very dancey. I have a nice part in The Hard Nut, but I’m playing a little girl, and it’s just a lot of running and glissades and arabesques; in this, I can employ my artistry as an older woman.

Did he rehearse with you alone?
Yes. It was thrilling. We kept laughing together. I will say this about myself: I’m a very quick learner with movement. I wish I was as quick with history. With history, I have to look at the text three times to get it in my head. With movement, it’s pretty instant and sometimes I get a little bored. I wish I had more rehearsals where something was thrown at me and I could have that feeling of when I was young and auditioning and my adrenaline was going. This threw me right back to that place. He was like, “Do this, this, this, this,” and I could barely remember everything. I worked on it constantly, and it was exciting.

Did you know it would be a great work?
I feel like we never know what anything is, but at a certain point I knew. He worked with the men for a week while the women were on vacation and then he worked with the women for a week. When I came in to see what he had done with the men…God. I had such a reaction to watching some of the dance. It was like being on a roller coaster. My heart was jumping. Even now when I watch Double, which is the men’s dance, I think the third movement is one of the best pieces I’ve ever seen. I can’t really see the women’s dance, but I have a sense of it and how it’s all connected. It’s amazing.

From Old Seville, which is mainly a duet for you and Morris, was also a big deal, right?
It was huge. I don’t know what Mark would say, but it feels a little bit like a turning point. I don’t think he really had me in mind—unless it was a setup. One day, he said, “Who plays the castanets?” I play the castanets.

Where did you learn?
At dance camp where I had every kind of dance under the sun—even my first taste of modern, although I was so not ready for it. What I took to were the flamenco classes. I’ll never forget camp shopping; we found little plastic castanets for a little hand, and I loved that class so much. The old Spanish man who was the teacher loved me and he let me dance with him as his partner. Once you learn, you don’t really forget. So I anyway, I raised my hand and was instantly Mark’s partner in this dance. It was 2001; we did it for Richard Move’s Martha @ Town Hall. I feel, at least for myself, that it’s gotten a lot better recently.

Mozart Dances is at the New York State Theater Wed 15–Aug 18.