Abi Stafford Living Ballet Dream
from
Howard Richman
Abi Stafford, a
homeschooled senior in the PHAA diploma
program, is living a ballet dream this year.
Though she is only a high school senior, she has already danced two
principal roles with the New York City Ballet and has even received rave
reviews in the New York Times.
Abi is the
youngest of three in a long-term homeschooling family from Carlisle PA. She and her siblings grew up dancing more than 15 hours per week at the Central
Pennsylvania Youth Ballet. Some of you
might remember her oldest sister Melissa (who just finished up her junior year
in the honors college at Houghton.)
performing ballet at PHAA’s 1997 graduation ceremony. Her brother Jonathan, who graduated with PHAA
in ‘98, preceded Abi at the New York City Ballet where he also dances.
During the
summer after her sophomore year, Abi attended the 5-week summer ballet program
of the School of American Ballet and was invited to stay on as a scholarship
student. She danced four hours each day getting stronger in partnering and
stamina, and setting aside four different time periods each day to do her book
work for her homeschool courses.
Beginning in
November, 1999, she was accepted into New York City Ballet as an apprentice and
she danced minor parts in several ballets. On January 6, she moved up the
ladder from apprentice to member of the Corps de Ballet. On January 14, she
received a huge break when the female principal in Balanchine’s Valse
Fantastique got the flu and she was chosen to fill
in. (She had learned the part the
previous year at the School of American Ballet.) Here is her description (from a report she wrote) of that
performance:
As soon as
I got on the stage, all the nerves vanished and I danced out of the sheer joy
to have such an opportunity. I was
dancing with a soloist...We received three curtain calls and I got my first
chance to bow in front of the curtain as I have seen all the principal dancers
do.
On January 17, a flattering review by Jennifer Dunning was
published in The New York Times:
Anticipation
ran high on Friday night when the lead female role in George Balanchine's
"Valse-Fantasie" was performed by Abi Stafford, a 17-year-old corps
dancer who joined the company a mere two weeks ago and was not even listed on
the roster. Ms. Stafford was
astonishingly authoritative, particularly given her meager performing
experience and rehearsal time.
Her phrasing was impressively exact but never
careful or self-conscious looking, a trademark quality of Marcia Dale Weary,
the noted teacher who trained her. It
was not until Ms. Stafford's slightly uncertain curtain bows that one realized
fully how young she is.
Later on she stepped-in, with only an hour's notice, for a
dancer who had injured an ankle, and danced the principal role in Ballo Della
Regina partnering with renown dancer Peter
Boal. She went on to dance the same
dance twice more. In a review in the
February 26 New York Times, Jack Anderson wrote:
Ms.
Stafford, a slender dancer whose legs rose high and remained secure in
arabesque, was partnered by Peter Boal, a noble cavalier. Although some young technicians might dance
the entire ballet in an extroverted fashion,
Ms. Stafford wisely brought touches of delicacy to her first pas de deux
with Mr. Boal. She let her
interpretation gain in intensity and her lucid allegro steps became
increasingly bouncy....
Her year has been a dream come
true. In a report about her experience she wrote, “I get to dance for a living,
which I love, and now I get paid for it.”