(Music playing)
Christopher Wheeldon: That’s a very good question. I don’t know. I think it goes
back to, I’m not chances of opt out of this answer but it just feels
very much like it’s what I’m meant to do. I don’t really approach
my work on a spiritual level. But somehow, I’m always left in awe
of what comes out of me, good or bad. And there are times when I
make work that profoundly affect people. And people have been
moved to tears by one piece in particular that I choreographed.
And I remember the process of choreographing and then thinking,
“Oh, these steps are linking together really quite beautifully.” And
I’m really enjoying this. It feels like it’s flowing really easily.
And then we performed the piece for the first time. And people
started to cry.
And I was like, I don’t get it, really. I don’t, I can say that I’ve
done good work. But I think, I guess, that’s the most, that’s the
closest I guess I’ve come to having a kind of a spiritual epiphany, I
guess, as far as my works concerned because to see that I can
actually create something that’s beautiful and powerful enough to
really move people but not really know how I did that is kind of an
amazing thing.
It’s a part of it called After the Rain. And it’s a duet that made for
Jack Sodo, who is a prince for dance with the New York City
Ballet for many years, very famous, famous dancer. I mean, he
was retiring. And for Wendy Weilan who is a principal ballerina
with New York City Ballet who I worked with on a pretty regular
basis. She and I really work very well together. I mean, she’s
inspired me so much over the years. And I think, you know, we go
pretty well hand in hand. And yeah, it just kind of happens. And it
ended up being very much I guess a meditation on how I felt about
the two of them as dancers together, how I felt about them as
personalities, as people, as friends.
And I think what started out as being something very personal
suddenly was very, became very resonant to a lot of people.
People were seeing different things in it, which is why I’m often
more attracted to the abstract rather than narrative work because I
like for the possibilities for individual interpretation to be there.
And some people see it as a duet of love and longing. Some
people see it as some, you know, death, of lost. And it’s just very
interesting to get the different perspectives.
(Music playing)
Transcription by:
Scribe4you Transcription Services