Wendy Whelan: Former New York City Ballet Member: Her Rise to Stardom

[@daysjours]

I met her in a subway station buying a ticket from the machine. I went up to tell her how much I was indifferent to ballet, how boring it was to me -- she stood there quizzically but patiently listening to me tell her how blah ballet was. ¨Then I saw you dance, ¨ I said. And I explained how it was as if I had at last found my vision and was able now to see far off galaxies -- that she opened me up to the poetry and wonder of dance itself and forever changed me. As she listened to me her face became as open and warm as the sun -- ¨That is the most amazing compliment I have ever gotten.¨ She is charming and has a generosity of spirit that is rare and you get a sense that ballet for her is as fresh as it was for her as a child.

[@lots2learn373]

@daysjours ~ your words are poetry and pure grace. Your heart is surely a fount of warm generosity as well. Your comment, like Wendy's response to you, is a gift. Thank you. 🌹

[@daysjours]

@@lots2learn373 🙏❤️

[@deborahhillcone2769]

​@@lots2learn373 Yes thank you so much for sharing this.

[@deborahhillcone2769]

Thank you so much for sharing this. You are a writer.

[@kellybeckner8121]

That fact that she never thought she was beautiful...makes her more beautiful. she looks so frail... until you see her move... She is pure strength. she is memorizing to watch. She is Art.

[@manichairdo6346]

I've just discovered Wendy 2 hours ago. Superb. I love her honesty and openness...and her movements.

[@marilynfavaro8189]

She is amazing. I love her dancing and her ability to articulate her experiences in the dance world to me who so badly wanted to dance.

[@kathymyers7279]

Marilyn Favaro me too. It’s in you. Dance anyway. It will heal you.

[@adelasussman3838]

Yes, me too, but I was given little opportunity for lessons as a child/young girl. In my next life!!

[@kellyusher1]

love this lady. such grace. for hours I can watch her and a few others. I hated it when she left

[@mannageist]

Thank you so much for this honest and inspiring conversation. I learn so much about how to be real and vulnerable. I am so glad that you found fearlessness, grace, strength, dignity, and good health to move forward to keep on exploring. Once again, thank you for your spirit, energy, and kindness.

[@germaineprien7691]

I was always facinated by ballet, and this was sooo amazingly insightful and interesting. I really admire her because she expanded the boundaries of classical dance and overcame sooo much. Enjoyed this more than I thought but then I love STRONG Women!!!

[@kristiLB93]

Legendary. And what she will give to generations to come!!❤️

[@a.phillips6892]

I love Wendy and always will be grateful for her performances and perspectives on the dance world and life in general.💕💕💕

[@kevinwhelan9607]

The young Wendy truly embodies the sentiments expressed in my poem 'Nota Bene Dreamer': "If you truly believe that you too/ could be there/ doing that/ then you're halfway/ to doing it. / It's called a head-start./ But...be careful sharing your dreams for a dream/ is a tender, God-given thing/ and can disappear in a puff! of wind./Share them with one but not everyone."

[@fayeray6797]

What dedication to the art, so beautiful, so talented. The years of starving must be tough but at the same time she is giving such poetry in motion to the world. Its her body to do with what she wants, and she certainly has given it her all.

[@Ludmillawings]

She is a truly stunning dancer.

[@Aelea]

I can't get over how much she looks like Scully from the X files

[@Hans6789-j9t]

Wow how powerful words can be 😮

[@Hans6789-j9t]

Look where each are now😊❤

[@PRANCERETTE]

A GORGEOUS DANCER; A LOVELY HUMAN BEING 🤩🤩🤩🤩🤩🤩💜💜💜💜💜💜

[@debrapaulino918]

🥲❤️🥰💕🔥 My childhood dream. I still have slippers. I'm 71. It was my magical Saturday appt to grasp the antique brass door handle, enter, climb the old narrow wood staircase, then another door into heaven. I was 12 when life closed my magical world. Sorrow as a mourning of death gripped my soul.

[@auroraborealis6009]

The body standards for women in sports or dance are insane. Way too many of these young women destroy their health by trying to stay skeletal and pushing their bodies to extremes. I would rather see healthy athletes and dancers out there. This applies to the males as well.

[@annephillips1870]

Actually, she’s very thin for a dancer. Some would say too thin. It’s just her body type. It hasn’t changed since she was in her teens.

[@belladonna5904]

She looks normal for a dancer and pretty strong. The muscles indicate that..

[@dolcepeter]

❤❤❤❤❤❤ I adore her thank you

[@karenkaren3189]

Wendy is a once in a generation dancer and also appears to be an amazing human being. I watched Restless Creature about four times! These ballet videos are really helping me get through the pandemic.I am a retired nurse and struggling with isolation and also some physical issues (my back). I find it incredibly helpful for dancers like Ashley, Farrell and Whelan to discuss how they coped with their injuries. All three of them, in various interviews taped over the years, keep coming back to a theme. Doing the best they could with the body that they had at the time. (injured or non injured.) Listening to the wisdom of what their bodies was telling them. Wendy is not anorectic. She just has a certain body type, (ectomorphic) and always danced 8-10 hours a day for her entire career. She appears to me to be a very healthy woman. ( I was a nurse and actually took care of anorectic patients.) I think there was a real problem from the late 1970's to the early 1990's with anorexia and distorted body image in the ballet world. You can see the vast majority of dancers looking frightening thin in videos from that time on YT. I think it has changed a lot in the last 30 years or so. The dancers look fit and healthy to me. There is also a greater diversity of body types. You can see this especially at NYCB. I am sure that there are some dancers who struggle with this issue, but honestly you can't stay healthy and perform well with their schedules if you aren't eating!

[@SlpBeauty333]

She also had scoliosis and I bet that shifted her weight to her legs more than if she hadn't. She's the living example of the "green wood bowl". I hope you're doing ok today. I also deal with chronic pain and it's really rough, especially now. This pandemic is so rough on all of us.❤️ And hugs if you want them!🤗 I forgot to mention that there's a series by Sarah Jessica Parker called city.ballet and one part is about dancers coming back from an injury. Sarah Mearns broke her back and was able to get back to dancing. It's inspiring! I'm sorry I can't link it for you but YT is eating my posts with links. It's really frustrating because AOL's channel is on KZbin smh.

[@IsaureVita]

Bonjour Karen J’espère que vous allez mieux. Merci pour votre commentaire. Amitiés. A.

[@dirgesinthedark5637]

Wendy girl...I think Peter didn't like the fact that you wanted to "branch out" to administration...totally threatened by you...if he lashed out at you with dropping that bomb on you about not doing Nut...in that meeting...that is beyond childish, and a total lack of respect for what you have already given to company. So sorry you endured that. Really..

[@tiphanyd73]

He was canned during the scandal involving Alexandra Waterbury.

[@shayekisitu]

My goodness what a beautiful dancer. Her body is amazing. What every ballerina aspires to. ❤️👌🏻💕

[@b00i00d]

One more time I had this awesome experience - everything in my gut was telling me she's a taurus and indeed...

[@heathermorse2018]

She’s so amazing. The best dancer ever

[@carolh9452]

She’s frighteningly skeletal and she has a short torso. But her performance is amazingly beautiful. Much respect.

[@choirkitty]

She was and is such a unique dancer. Very slim and delicate in frame and appearance but at the same time very strong and powerful. She had such a grace and flow about her its indescribable. I had the privilege to see her on stage in 2006 and I dont think I breathed at all that entire performance, it was just magical :)

[@marniebryks1981]

“Frighteningly skeletal” is something you think conveys “much respect”? She is muscular and lean- she is an athlete. And it’s usually people who make excuses for being chronically overweight that make comments such as yours.

[@carolh9452]

@@marniebryks1981 so vicious. I stand by my statement.

[@marniebryks1981]

@@carolh9452 “She’s frighteningly skeletal and she has a short torso”. Your comment is vicious.

[@carolh9452]

@@marniebryks1981 she is highly skilled and very talented despite her physical shortcomings. You probably don’t listen to sports broadcasts, but it’s common for the athlete’s physical makeup to be discussed, the length of a basketball players arms, the weight of a quarterback, the calf muscles of a weightlifter, etc. A dancer is also an athlete, as well as an artist. I suggest you round out your spectator experience by tuning in to other types of physical performances and listen to the conversations there. It may temper your keyboard reactions.

[@kathymyers7279]

I wonder what Mr B would have created for her...

[@allicianpeters3595]

HUMANS beautiful... ? There's one crack that NO HUMAN can EVER FILL and it doesn't matter how intelligent you think you are, or how physically strong or even how many times you have broken and filled yourself back up again! There's one beautiful lock and it requires the ONE AND ONLY PERFECT KEY!! IF YOUR LUCKY ENOUGH TO TRULY FIND THAT... YOU'LL KNOW BECAUSE THAT'S WHEN YOU REALIZE EVERYTHING ELSE WAS AN ILLUSION!!

[@dalehoward8352]

She resembles Sarah Jessica Parker to me. And yes, they are both beautiful!!!

[@SlpBeauty333]

If you haven't already seen it, SJP made a series for AOL called city.ballet. It's a really good series about the ballet and what they go through. Sorry I can't link it because yt is eating my posts with links and I have no idea why. The AOL channel is on KZbin, smh. But it's a great series and worth watching if you haven't already.

[@SlpBeauty333]

She was a principal from 1991-2014!!? Is that in the Guinness Book, because it should be! She started in 1983 at the school. That's insane!!

[@teijaflink2226]

I thought she was much younger than she is.

[@SlpBeauty333]

@@teijaflink2226 Yeah people who exercise especially dancers age really well. The constant movement never lets them age! My Dad exercises a lot and people always mistake him for my husband!

[@ib.2995]

🖤✨

[@kathymyers7279]

I B. You danced the comment!

[@marilynfavaro8189]

When are you going coming to Chicago! Bucket list. To see you live!

[@kevinwhelan9607]

For the record-- Whelan is pronounced "We-lan".

[@djondjon]

Beautiful, extremely talented dancer ... but is she anorexic? She's awfully thin.

[@lots2learn373]

No. Respectfully, no. Her muscles are highly toned and tuned. She is an incredible athlete, filled with energy, elan and the music of loving dance, people, and life, in all of its season. I doubt there's room for self neglect nor self disregard in her repretoire ~ which includes her dedicated, disciplined daily workouts/practice, her close family relationships (mom a basketball coach, dad a banker), her philosophy, her ethics, her continuous desire to learn, grow, recalibrate and to mend. She describes herself as an explorer, and that certainly fits her well. God gave her the lithe body so she could dance. Perhaps you're more accustomed to seeing athletes with bulked muscles. Different performances, different sports.

[@djondjon]

@@lots2learn373 I hope you are right. Yes, high level dancers need strong bodies. But I have family involved in the arts and in professional ballet, and I know that anorexia is a real danger, particularly with pressure to have a particular physique. They can view it as discipline and self-care, rather than self-neglect. Perspective matters. I wasn't aware of her parents' professions, and again, I hope you are right about all you expressed. But I know that professional activities can be time- and energy-consuming and it wouldn't be the first time for little patience and/or energy to be left for a person's family and home life.

[@Xi_chi]

thats race-sis sugar plum, tart

[@lovewillwinnn]

Meh

[@normamimosa5991]

Wendy Whelan, one of the great ballerinas performing at that time. You've got to be kidding us. Either that, or you have no idea who the great ballerinas of that time were.

[@lindanicholason878]

# ANEXORIC, EMACIATED, SKELETON = PATHETIC & TRAGIC