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Entity interviews ballerina Theresa Farrell.Photography by Anastasia Petukhova.

Ballet is easy, right? A plié here and a pirouette there.

Theresa Farrell, a professional ballet dancer, would argue otherwise. According to her, ballet dancing is one of the most grueling, disciplined activities that one can engage in. “You’re surrounded by a group of people [who] knew from a very young age that this was something that they wanted to do,” she explains. “Every single day [they] go in and practice very strenuously. I mean, I’m so drenched in sweat after practice it’s like a wet bathing suit. I have to change my leotard between one and three times a day.”

The physical maintenance that ballet dancers must go through to perform requires a tremendous amount of discipline, a characteristic that Farrell credits her parents with.

Her father’s mantra: “Work is prayer.” And her mother’s: “Consistency.”

With those mantras in mind, the inspirational woman attests that ballet is not for the weak-willed. You’ve got to be driven, determined and fearless. “To make it as a professional dancer, it’s a directed path from the time you’re a kid,” Farrell says.

In the small, quaint town of Saratoga Springs, New York, a younger Theresa Farrell slid into the front row seats of a ballet with her friends just before the curtains were raised. They paid $10 for obstructed-view seats on the side, but when front row ticket-holders didn’t show up, the prime seats became hers.

“It was lovely,” she recalled. “It was really, really special. I was so fortunate to have seen pretty much every ballet of Balanchine’s.”

Theresa Farrell. Photography by Will Adler.

Theresa Farrell. Photography by Will Adler.

George Balanchine, a renowned ballet choreographer, has always been Farrell’s idol. Although Farrell began dancing years before, at 14 years old she saw a production of Balanchine’s, “The Four Temperaments,” and knew “without a doubt” that she wanted to be a dancer. “[It] moved me unlike anything else,” Farrell says.

Even from a young age, Farrell was passionate about ballet. She chased down lessons, schools and summer programs from her hometown in upstate New York all the way to New York City, Harlem and North Carolina. And the person, aside from her supportive parents, who nurtured this drive the most was her mentor, Michael Steele.

“He was a real character,” Farrell recalled warmly, her demeanor softening at the mere mention of his name. Having been trained by Balanchine, who he also danced as a soloist for, Steele understood greatness. Thus, he worked Farrell and his other dancers intensely, demanding from them their best.

Steele inspired Farrell so much that she wished to one day reunite with him to impress her former teacher with all that she had learned from institutions such as the Joffrey School of Ballet and the North Carolina School of Arts School of Dance. Unfortunately, however, Steele passed away in 2011, after having retired from teaching ballet five years earlier.

“I was really, really upset about it,” Farrell reflected, visibly pained. “I never got that chance.”

Teenage Farrell, hell-bent on becoming a dancer, was becoming very serious about her future, hoping to attend a boarding school in North Carolina to further refine her talent. She was met with some resistance by her parents, especially her father who was a first generation college student. Her siblings went on to attend prestigious institutions such as Cornell University and Harvard Medical School, so the increased pressure to attend traditional college created tension between her and her family. But, both Farrell and her parents came to the agreement that her clear talent for ballet pointed her in the direction of becoming a professional dancer.

In order to earn extra money to help pay for her lessons, Farrell spent time cleaning studios and her father’s office. Each step that Farrell took towards becoming a dancer tested her parents’ acceptance of their daughter’s passion. Eventually, Farrell’s parents became supportive of her decision to move in a serious direction with dance.

Her mom used to sit in on classes to watch her elegant daughter dance gracefully, with a precisely measured balance of force and control. “My mother is my biggest fan,” she asserts with her beaming smile.

After completing boarding school in North Carolina and giving a try at a semester at Rutgers University (“It was so not for me,” Farrell adds.), Farrell concluded that she wanted to focus completely on dancing. She worked as a freelance dancer at a small ballet company while she auditioned for several other companies.

Exhausted from all of the auditions she attended, she was reluctant to go to another one that her friend urged her to. But Farrell eventually relented. After meeting the choreographer, Lincoln Jones, who loved Balanchine as much as she did, she was glad she listened. She knew from the moment they met that she had to work with Jones, and was so sure of it that she told the company she danced for at the time that she had to quit.

All she and Jones could talk about was Balanchine. Later, that talk began to shift towards working together to establish a company of their own.

This thought was pushed into motion after Farrell saw a production of Balanchine’s “Square Dance,” which left her in tears. In 2004, she and Jones launched American Contemporary Ballet in New York.

According to Farrell, companies were previously founded by “affluent socialites.” Thus, the prospect of Farrell and Jones, who had no financial backing, creating their own business boggled the minds of Farrell’s parents.

“I was a little bit of a wild child,” she joked. But one thing that becomes apparent the more you get to know Theresa Farrell is that if she wants something, she will go after it with firm determination.

In search of a permanent location for their company, Farrell and Jones boarded a plane that would take them to Los Angeles, California, the future home of American Contemporary Ballet.

“I found it so exciting,” Farrell recalled of her first time in the Golden State. The moment she saw the ocean, she ran into it with all of her clothes on in complete nirvana. After spending some time in the city, Farrell and Jones decided that Los Angeles would be the permanent home for the company.

Farrell did a few commercials, some modeling and ballet, but behind the scenes she and Jones were busy recruiting dancers and gathering funds to start the company in their new area. Finally in 2011, American Contemporary Ballet began its first season with seven dancers; and since then, it has grown to sixteen in its fifth season.

 

American Contemporary Ballet. Photography by Jeanine Lund.

American Contemporary Ballet. Photography by Jeanine Lund.

With a company of sixteen, Farrell believes that her dancers require a more intense drive than most people. She invoked Balanchine’s famous quote as an explanation: “I don’t want people who want to dance, I want people who have to dance.”

As the Associate Director for American Contemporary Ballet, an average day for Theresa Farrell begins at seven in the morning to attend to her emails and calls. She still, however, spends much of her day dancing, breaking for lunch at three in the afternoon and then dancing more ballet. Most days, she works until eight in the evening.

No matter how long her day may be, it’s a dream come true for Theresa Farrell to have chased her goals and gained immense success while doing it. And despite the company’s recognition and praise, she probably would have chased her passion even if it had not been as successful.

The desire to dance and produce shows is so deeply rooted in Farrell’s being that it seems like an innate dedication to ballet has been coursing through her veins her whole life. “The ballet, I feel, is my soul,” she revealed with serious, concentrated eyes. “I’ve been carrying this with me since I was eight years old or younger.”

Although success is important to her, it doesn’t seem like Farrell is as concerned with it as much as she is with pursuing a dream or passion. “If you’ve got a dream, that’s it. You go for it,” she wisely stated. “I really believe in that. How you spend the majority of your hours … that’s your life. To get to do what you love, that’s it. That’s above the money.”

Entity interviews ballerina Theresa Farrell.

Photography by Anastasia Petukhova.

When asked about the legacy that she wanted to leave behind, the beauty remained silent for a minute, focusing her gaze and furrowed brows to the years that lay ahead as her chin rests in her palm. Farrell resembled a real-life Rodin sculpture, taking a break from her exuberant, emotive self to seriously consider what she wanted to accomplish in life.

Finally, she broke the silence. “There are ballets that I’ve seen that have inspired me and invigorated my spirit,” she started in a soft, pensive tone. “I want to create a company that’s creating work like that and can captivate other people in that same way. To invigorate the human spirit.”

If you want to learn more about American Contemporary Ballet, visit their website here.

Edited by Angelica Pronto
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