Former ballerina Gavin Larsen and photographer Gene Schievone have collaborated on a stunning dance book titled ‘Infinite Steps’ with photographs of dancers alongside mini-biographies. In her introduction Larsen writes that the project was “a chance to talk to a huge panorama of other (33) dancers, learning how our experiences differed and where we aligned…in order to paint a comprehensive picture of how many different definitions there are of being a dancer.”
Larsen danced for 16 years, teaches and is the author of “Being a Ballerina: The Power and Perfection of a Dancing Life.” The dancers are open about their personal lives and that includes how the demands being in a company has impacted their personal lives.
The book chronicles the diverse backgrounds among the dancers- cultural, ethnic, education and their training background that brought them all at some point in their careers to audition at the School of American Ballet, leading to many performing at American Ballet Theatre and other top tier companies.
Their interviews are both intimate and instructive, as they relate their experiences backstage and onstage and turning points in their careers in regional, national and international dance companies. Their shared commitment to their art form and how that impacted their lives- in and out of the ballet world and their individual artistic journeys. personal challenges.
Vjola Hajati at 16 had just joined Albania’s National Ballet de Tirana in 1990 when the Communist government collapsed and her family fled the country. She moved to Paris and began dancing at Moulin Rouge as a cancan dancer. Going from classical ballet to the flash cabaret showdance. Despite her uprooted adolescence, difficult training, a bold choice to leave her familiar world of ballet behind, she said her love of dance in any form, made it fun and fulfilling…” If you listen to your heart and your head, follow what you feel, you are never wrong.”
Misty Copeland speaks about the decades of racial barriers dancers of color faced in the ballet world. Copeland was the first Black ballerina to become an ABT principal. Her focus–breaking all the racial barriers against black and brown dancing bodies which have remained in classical companies.
International superstar Roberto Bolle, when he is not onstage at the Met, gives street performances. He tells Larsen, “It’s important to me to change the mentality and perspective people have about ballet, to bring it to the public, to the squares, to the big arenas. Ballet is not considered at the same level as opera or music or theater. I want to bring it to prime time.” Making a point much more from lived experience than an off-handed comment about nobody caring about ballet anymore.
Argentinean ballerina Paloma Herrera was trained in the Vaganova technique, but wanted to expand her range at a six-month residency at SAB, learning a different syllabus, but on the eve of her returning to Argentina she decided to audition for the company just for the experience. Afterward, she was called into the green room and was offered an ABT contract. Herrera told Larsen, “The higher you set the bar for yourself, the more you have to do to stay there.”
Photographing dancers in performance or in the rehearsal studio wasn’t Schiavone’s original specialty, but over time it became one, working for many years with Boston Ballet and as staff photographer at ABT. Schiavone is known in the industry for possessing a signature photographic dance aesthetic that documents the dance moment and catches the dancer’s technical prowess and their unique artistic energy.
ABT prima ballerina Misty Copeland describes Schiavone’s unique artistry- “ I look back at these photos. and I see joy in my face. I see the freedom that I feel when performing and also the community we had within the company. To have those things captured, reminding you of what you felt and also why we do what we do, is really special.”
‘Infinite Steps’ is a rare insider look at the experiences of ballet dancers and the current state of ballet arts as lived by these dancers, each career and personal relationship to their art unique. Kudos to University Press of Florida and their commitment to books on the arts. Their focus on international dance and dancers past and present is truly admirable.
