Meeting Darcey Bussell and performing with New English Ballet Theatre

This summer started with an incredible opportunity to work with New English Ballet Theatre, performing Daniella Cardim's Vertex and premiering Jenna Lee's The Four Seasons. Getting back into full time rehearsals was challenging, but working with such a talented team of dancers and choreographers is what every dancer hopes for.

I was especially fortunate to be able to work with Jenna Lee as she choreographed The Four Seasons to the recomposed score by Max Richter. It was particularly interesting, as I was in the original cast for Wade Schaaf's The Seasons at Chicago Repertory Ballet in 2014, and am very familiar with the score. Watching another choreographer interpret the music in a new way enabled me to hear things I missed before, though, and gave me a new appreciation for the entire piece.

The NEBT company was small this year, and as there were only 5 women, each of us took on the role of a soloist. The highlight of the entire experience for me was creating the Autumn 2 solo with Jenna. It's always an honor and a challenge to have work created specifically for you, and Jenna's innate musicality and ability to connect steps in a logical way made this solo particularly personal for me and especially enjoyable to dance.

Near the end of the contract the company got the honor of meeting and being coached by ballet legend Darcey Bussell. She is an inspirational dancer, fountain of dance knowledge, and generally nice person, and I will always treasure getting to work so closely with her.