Louisville Magazine is Louisville's city magazine, covering Louisville people, lifestyles, politics, sports, restaurants, entertainment and homes. Includes a monthly calendar of events.
Issue link: https://loumag.epubxp.com/i/421959
22 LOUISVILLE MAGAZINE 12.14 Abit CLOSER Photo by Paul Kolnik "There's a steely, resolute integrity to everything she does. When I frst partnered her, I was shocked at how easy it was — how much in control she is." — NYCB dancer Jared Angle "I think she's the epitome of the contemporary ballerina, taking ballet into the future." — Dance Magazine editor at large Wendy Perron "She's the best. There's a complexity, a sense of internal life, a woman onstage. You're always trying to decode this person as she moves." — dancer/actor Mikhail Baryshnikov "She has brought the sensibility of the modern American woman to ballet and combined it with the traditional European image." — choreographer Karole Armitage "Wendy's able to make meaning out of the simplest unfolding of her leg or the curve of her back or the extension of her arm." — choreographer Christopher Wheeldon "Wendy is the most modern dancer who ever lived." — former NYCB dance partner Philip Neal Whelan's Oct. 18 farewell performance as principal dancer with the New York City Ballet (top); as a young student (middle in above photo) of the Louisville Ballet Academy; eight-year-old Wendy as a mouse in a mid-'70s production of The Nutcracker. She is without a doubt one of Louisville's most noteworthy natives, having danced as a principal ballerina with the New York City Ballet for 23 years before retiring in October to pursue her artistic expression as an independent performer. We thought that the best tribute to Wendy Whelan, 47, would be to describe her in the words of the professionals who have worked with her. From Mouse to Majesty