The pas de deux from Christopher Wheeldon’s After the Rain© is famous for wringing the heart. Rose Mulready asked three dancers for their memories of performing it.
STEVEN HEATHCOTE, FORMER PRINCIPAL ARTIST
You danced this pas de deux as your final performance – was it a good piece to go out on?
I couldn’t have had a more perfect final performance. Arvo Pärt creates music that is quite extraordinary; I’ve always been a fan. I don’t know what it is but there’s something about the kind of cadences that he uses in his music and the structure, it always captivates you.
Chris Wheeldon created this pas de deux for [New York City Ballet’s] Jock Soto’s final performance, so it was kind of fitting. I think, for me, what it encapsulates is the relationship that’s developed between a man and a woman who are dancing, moving, thinking, breathing together. There’s something very special about that connection in ballet and it’s something that I’ve enjoyed so much throughout my career, that special chemistry that’s created with each and every partner. I think the After the Rain© pas de deux, for me, captured all of that beautifully. It doesn’t just capture the essence of dance partnerships, it captures the essence of partnership in ordinary life too, the relationship between two people. It’s so sensitively and beautifully handled in the way that the pas de deux is structured; I think that Chris has just created this little piece of gold. (more…)
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