{"id":47708,"date":"2022-11-04T11:10:42","date_gmt":"2022-11-04T15:10:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.balletx.org\/interview-with-darrell-grand-moultrie-copy\/"},"modified":"2023-05-11T12:31:35","modified_gmt":"2023-05-11T16:31:35","slug":"interview-with-jeanette-delgado","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.balletx.org\/interview-with-jeanette-delgado\/","title":{"rendered":"Interview with Jeanette Delgado"},"content":{"rendered":"

BalletX interviews Jeanette Delgado, stager for Justin Peck\u2019s \u2018Become A Mountain\u2019. She shares about entering the world of film through Steven Spielberg’s ‘West Side Story’ and her experience with Justin creating the work at Juilliard.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Since leaving Miami City Ballet in 2019, what’s been an exciting part of the dance world that you’ve gotten to experience?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Justin was choreographing the West Side Story<\/em> film with Steven Spielberg, and it was the summer right after I left Miami City Ballet that we started shooting. Basically, I left the company and went into this amazing world of film.<\/p>\n

I had grown up watching West Side Story<\/em> with my sister. It was the first time I had seen Latina women dancing like that in a movie. So, to be a part of a new iteration, I feel like there will never be anything like that experience. It was so different from everything I\u2019d done before.<\/p>\n

How was your experience performing in Steven Spielberg’s\u00a0West Side Story<\/em>?<\/strong><\/p>\n

This was the first time that I had been in a room with only Latine dancers. My sister was actually an associate choreographer on set, and she just took care of all of us and really helped us feel like our voices were heard. We were all coming from so many different worlds and so many different backgrounds in dance. There was something really powerful to experience thirty people in a room that have all come from similar cultural roots. There was this element of having something that unifies us, and we\u2019re telling the story in a new way that feels so important. It just opened up my eyes and made me feel at home in the most incredible way. I learned so much.<\/p>\n

There was also getting to see Steven Spielberg at work and his leadership. For Dance At The Gym<\/em>, there were sixty dancers because it was thirty Jets and thirty Sharks. So, that was a huge<\/em> room of people, and he made every single one of us feel like we were important to the story. It was so beautiful to watch him know<\/em> everyone\u2019s name, interact with everyone, get to know<\/em> everyone, come<\/em> to those rehearsals with his iPhone and film things. He was up in it. That to me was just like\u2026that\u2019s a leader<\/em>. You\u2019re going to get the best out of people when they all feel like they matter and that they\u2019re part of this.<\/p>\n

Can you tell us about your staging process with Justin?<\/strong><\/p>\n

With Justin, the experience is very interesting because he uses so much imagery that really helps you understand the visual<\/em> of what he wants. Then you can bring what that image feels like to you, so every person might do it a little different. But, it\u2019s still what he\u2019s asking for!<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve learned that when he gives an image, I will go and write it down. You think you\u2019ll remember, but then you do it until you just have the feel of it…and then you go back and you\u2019re like, \u201cWait, what was it that he said?\u201d It\u2019s interesting because he can be very detailed about how he sees a movement, but he\u2019s not so specific sometimes. Two dancers might be doing it kind of different and he still<\/em> feels like they\u2019re both getting it.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m just blown away by Graham [Feeny] and what he\u2019s done here as his first time staging. To do such a huge piece of work is incredible. I\u2019m amazed by him and just in awe of what he\u2019s done. When you\u2019re staging, you\u2019re taking care of someone\u2019s creative work. That\u2019s their art, and it\u2019s a beautiful and also challenging responsibility. You want to take care of it and you want to share it in a way that feels inspiring, so that the dancers can almost feel like that person\u2019s in the room.<\/p>\n

As a stager, it\u2019s that fine line of sharing the right kind of information and not being so specific that you stifle someone. It\u2019s such a gift to work with professionals and watch these dancers and what they have to offer.<\/p>\n

It sounds like there\u2019s an incredible amount of trust\u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n

Yes. Huge, huge. Justin has a group of people that he is really building. There are more and more people that have danced his works, and he\u2019s trusting people with his art. It\u2019s a testament to how generous he is with his work. He trusts and respects the dancers he works with to know that they have the capacity to do that.<\/p>\n

Can you speak about Justin\u2019s inspiration behind the work?<\/strong><\/p>\n

He was so inspired by the Juilliard dancers. We both were. It\u2019s hard to put words to it. I was just blown away by their capacity because they do everything there. It felt like a different world from the ballet world we were coming from. When he saw what the dancers were doing with his work, he was like, \u201cOh cool, this is going in a direction that I didn\u2019t even know it could.\u201d It became something that I think he didn\u2019t even expect it to be.<\/p>\n

Coming into Juilliard, they\u2019re very aware of wanting to have support for all gender expressions, and we were learning through that process in a beautiful way. By not using any partnering work and fluidity with the costumes, he was looking to support the dancers and give the space for them to be who they are.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s a last moment in the piece when they\u2019re all walking\u2026just<\/em> walking. I think he wanted to give them a moment to reflect on their time in four years. The pandemic. A lot of them were also seniors and writing grants and it was a stressful time for all of them. They had all gone through so much. He wanted to make it about their community and have it be very collaborative. There\u2019s always so many unknowns in life. An artist can bring whatever moment they\u2019re in, whatever transition they\u2019re going through, or whatever future they\u2019re walking into.<\/p>\n

This work was largely informed by the dancers and it always really is. The music also informs so much of how Justin works. He really loves working with Dan Deacon, and what was created feels very much in sync with the journey the music takes you on.<\/p>\n

Do you have a favorite\u00a0moment\u00a0in Become A Mountain?<\/strong><\/p>\n

When you stage a work, it\u2019s wild how you start to notice these very subtle, simple moments because you learn the work inside and out and you have to know everything.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s one moment in the first song where it starts with one dancer coming forward, and then more start running on and off and tumbling forward and tumbling off and meeting each other. It\u2019s a phrase that sort of shifts. Then there\u2019s one dancer that just comes flying through the back repeating the same step. I think that\u2019s my favorite moment.<\/p>\n

In the audience, you\u2019re starting to understand what\u2019s being expressed because you\u2019re seeing it over and over. But, your eyes are also ping ponging because people are just falling in and twirling and spinning off. You start to feel exhilarated by what\u2019s happening and also calmed by knowing that they\u2019re continuing to repeat a similar step. It\u2019s this beautiful juxtaposition of being in this with them and vibing, but also being taken in so many different directions. I just love, love, love that section.<\/p>\n

Any last thoughts?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I\u2019ve only been here for two days and I feel like the dancers at BalletX are such incredible movers and deep artists. It feels like Justin\u2019s work is such a beautiful fit, and I can\u2019t wait to see how much more they explore and discover. It\u2019ll be their own Become A Mountain<\/em>.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

See BalletX perform the Philadelphia premiere of ‘Become a Mountain’ at Fall Series 2022, Nov 30 – Dec 4<\/a> at The Wilma Theater.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

BalletX interviews Jeanette Delgado, stager for Justin Peck\u2019s \u2018Become A Mountain\u2019. 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