When we started rehearsing the Winter Season, I was originally cast as an understudy for A Man in The Four Seasons but was still given private rehearsals with Artist-in-Residence Rex Harrington. After James Kudelka, choreographer of The Four Seasons and Swan Lake, came to rehearse the company I was told that I would get one performance in the role. My heart started racing so fast as this was one of the roles I’ve always wanted to dance.

Rex gave me all the little tricks of the trade, especially with the tricky partnering. He also helped me pace myself so I wasn’t actually dead by the end of Winter.

My debut last week couldn’t have gone better. All my partners were excellent, the music was amazing to dance to and the whole experience was so heart warming and exhilarating.

When I learned I was also dancing Rothbart in Swan Lake this season, I was thrilled because I’ve never played a bad guy before. I was delighted to be given this challenge and I got a lot of great feedback from James on this role as well. He helped me really understand how he saw Rothbart and inspired me to try to bring that image to life on stage. James also gave me some room to play with, which was quite generous, so that I could make him my own character as well. Principal Artistic Coach Magdalena Popa also really helped me bring this character to life.

The sections I love the most are when Rothbart joins the ballroom scene in Act III, portraying the Surprise Ambassador. I also enjoy the transition from that to the pure evil in Act IV. Rothbart is such a great acting role and is going to be a lot of fun to dance.

[Photos: Top, Noah Long in The Four Seasons. Photo by Cylla von Tiedemann. Above, Artist of the Ballet in Swan Lake. Photo by David Cooper.]