Ballet Lessons Part Two

Before the evening performance of the NYCB last Thursday night, Grace and I went to a pre-performance interview with Tyler Angle.  He is a Principal Dancer for the NYCB and is a wonderful dancer, but known to be especially good in partnering.  The woman who was interviewing him seemed a bit smitten with him and after cooing about how all the best ballerinas in the world were hoping he would be their partner, she asked him what he thought was the most important quality to have to be good in partnering.  "So is it strength or flexibility?" she said fairly coyly.  I found his answer incredibly refreshing and insightful.  "Actually," he responded, "It's neither of those.  I would say it is humility." 
"Really?" she said, visibly impressed.  "How so?"
He explained that when you are doing a series of steps/ lifts/ jumps etc., that you may land and find your position and be really happy with it, but the female partner may be a bit behind or ahead or over to the side, not exactly in sync with you.  So it's really an art to learn to move to her movement so that it is always seamless.  The male role in partnering is largely presenting the female.  In order to be willing to do that, you have to embrace the idea of humility.
She asked him then what he thought made a really good partnership.
Tyler was so insightful again.  He said the most important thing is for the dancer to trust him completely.  So that his female partner can move past performing the steps into complete abandon. That is the only way they can really dance together.
He went on to explain how he actually took a partnering class before he ever took a ballet class.  He was young and most of the girls were bigger than him, so he ended up having to learn to use his body correctly to perform most of the lifts, and how that was much more important than just plain muscle mass.  And he talked about empathy being incredibly important between the dancers.  Whether it's that you are sensitive because she's on point or she is understanding because you are the one lifting her, there has to be an empathy between you for what the other is dealing with. 
I was truly impressed by him, and thought that the things he had to say were so true about any kind of partnership.
The clip below features Tyler Angle in a partnering role.  It's a bit dim and is slow to start, but stick with it because the dance evolves into something really beautiful.