Princeton Ballet School Teacher Profile: Mary Barton, Director's Cut

by Alexis Branagan, Director of PR and Communications, American Repertory Ballet

A few weeks ago, I sat down with Mary Barton to interview her for a teacher profile, which appeared in U.S. 1's June 19, 2013 issue.  What started out as a brief interview for this one-page article turned into about a hour-long glimpse into Mary’s amazing journey in the world of ballet.   She shed light on her successes, struggles, luck, misfortunes, fantastic performance experiences, tireless work ethic, and unique relationship with music and movement.  Since the “final cut” of her profile had to be one page, it was much shorter than I would have liked.  Chopping her words was painful!!  So, here’s my “director’s cut”, the version I would have loved to submit to the paper, featuring everything Mary had to say about her extremely impressive career and love for the art form.

Who: Mary Barton, ballet instructor at Princeton Ballet School, the official school of American Repertory Ballet, since 1993, and Resident Choreographer for American Repertory Ballet

From childhood through teenagehood: Daughter of a Navy Captain, Mary took her first ballet class when her family was living in Thailand.  Her family moved back to Virginia not long after that, where she began to take classes at a daycare.

“My mother could see that I was serious,” Mary explains, “so she found the best school in our area – Washington Ballet School.”  Here Mary received her intensive ballet training, and at age 16 was invited by then Artistic Director Mary Day to take class with the school’s affiliate professional company, Washington Ballet.  “I took from a lot of great artists, including then Artistic Director Mary Day, Chu San Goh, Bob Steele, and Wilhelm Burmann.

“Ms. Day always told me I was too short for Washington Ballet Company,” she continues.  “At the time American companies seemed to like taller ballet dancers.  So, I was never actually in Washington Ballet, but I still was asked to dance featured roles with the company as a guest artist.

“Also, I was fortunate to be dancing at Washington Ballet when big companies such as New York City Ballet, American Ballet Theatre, and Joffrey Ballet came to perform at the beautiful outdoor theatre Wolftrap in Vienna, Virginia.  They would use young dancers in some of those shows, so I had some really great performance opportunities.”

While performing with Washington Ballet on a government sponsored tour in Mexico, Mary got a suggestion to try getting into a European company.  European companies were, at the time, less fixated on height than American ones.  At age 18, when one of the company’s principals went on maternity leave, Mary landed a 6 month principal dancer contract with the Oldenburg Staatsballet in Germany.  She danced the role of Madame Renal in The Red and the Black, a ballet based on the Stendhal novel.

Although she had a great experience, Mary chose not to stay with Oldenburg Staatsballet when she was presented the opportunity at the end of her contract.  “I thought everyone seemed so...settled.  In Europe, being a dancer was a much more cushy job than in the US.  People were starting families, taking paid vacations...  I had this idea that I had to go back and prove I could make it in the American dance world.  I was young, so I thought I needed to struggle - to do it the real way!”

Upon her return, Mary recognized that she was perhaps becoming a bit too hard on herself.  Maybe she didn’t have to struggle as much as she thought she wanted to...

A new beginning:  ...”I needed to take some time off - to take a step back.  I was always such a perfectionist that I was really hard on myself, to the point that I thought maybe I didn't want to dance anymore.  After a summer off, I realized I really wanted to dance.  I knew that I had to start to be more optimistic about dancing - to recognize what I did well, and to treat working on what could use improvement as an exciting challenge.”

By the time Mary rekindled her love of dance, it was August, and most companies had already held their auditions in the spring.  “I just kept taking class, trying to stay in shape.  One day I happened to be taking the same class as a friend, Laura Frock, who I knew from Washington Ballet and was then dancing for Dayton Ballet.  After class she told me I should come to Dayton.  She wanted a friend in the company, she loved the Director Stewart Sebastian, and she told me they were holding late summer auditions in New York."

Mary danced principal and featured roles at Dayton Ballet for three seasons.  “I was feeling confident and decided I was going to go for something bigger...

A fresh start:  "...So, I bravely left for New York…without any prospects!”  Mary began taking classes all over New York.

“In class at the Joffrey School in New York, I was spotted by Francesca Korkle.  She told me, 'Mr. Joffrey has to see you.'  But at the time The Joffrey was on a long tour.  So, she told me I could go visit home for a while if I wanted and she would let me know when the company and Mr. Joffrey were back in town.  One day when I was home, and had a big accident: I cut my knee open on a glass table.  Literally the next day Francesca called and said 'He's back!  Come back to New York!'  I had to tell her I was injured.  It actually took me a long time to come back from that injury, since all the skin had to heal, and then my knee was stiff for a while.”  Eventually, finally, Mary got the chance to audition for The Joffrey Ballet.

“I remember after the audition Mr. Joffrey said to me, ‘I really like you, but we have all the short dancers we need.  But I'll keep you in my special file.’  At the time, Tina LeBlanc and Dominique Angel were their star short dancers."  Mary didn’t lose hope, and, luckily, didn’t have to hold onto mere hope for very long.

"A few days later, I got a call for a role in La Fille Mal Gardée, which required accomplished shorter dancers.  The role was one of the chickens who dance en pointe in the first act.  Mr. Joffrey actually had this whole sales pitch that he gave me to convince me to do it, because you are dressed as a chicken and nobody can see your face at all...  But of course I accepted."

After working with Mary for this performance, Mr. Joffrey put her in Joffrey II.  Joffrey II had rehearsals with the company and got to go on tour with them, which Mary recalls as enriching experiences.  Her time with Joffrey II also led to her big break into the company.

"One year, Mr. Joffrey was choreographing a new Nutcracker for the company.  Dominique Angel was leaving, and he wanted Tina LeBlanc to do Sugar Plum, so he hired me to do the role of Clara.  All of a sudden I had a wig fitting with someone from the Royal Ballet, a photoshoot with Mr. Joffrey, an interview with Gerry Arpino on the Charlie Rose Show.  It was kinda a whirlwind thing.  And then I was in Joffrey!"

After a fulfilling career with Joffrey Ballet, Mary had a brief stint with Cleveland Ballet.  She then joined American Repertory Ballet in 1993, and also began teaching at Princeton Ballet School.

Career Path: Mary was always a thoughtful dancer, making her an equally thoughtful teacher of dance.

"When I was a dancer, if I wasn't rehearsing, I was always making up step combinations and exercises for myself to figure out what worked best for my body.  For example, if I engage back and my arm in the way that some teachers will ask you, my shoulders round.  So I needed to figure out for myself how what they were saying would work for my body.

"I also loved watching people rehearse, and seeing how different feedback would work on their bodies.  Instead of taking my break gossiping on the couch in the hall, I would take it watching the rehearsal that was join on.

"Also, I loved taking class.  I still do.  Of course I loved performing, but I never felt like 'Oh, I just want to get class over with to work on the fun performance stuff.'

"When I came to ARB and teaching opportunities were available, it was a pretty natural transition for me."

Pedagogy: "I use my core training from Washington Ballet School, where I got a really strong technical foundation, and I mix that with some experimental things that I found for myself, plus a little influence from my classes with the great NY teacher Maggie Black.

"A lot of times, when I was dancing, I would have to translate ideas or musicality as it was given to me for it to make sense to me.  So I try to reach each individual in a different way in order to achieve the same technical result.  I like to see how people think differently, and I try to cater to that individuality."

Gratifying Moments: “I treasure notes from students that thank me for things I opened their eyes to or helped them accomplish.  When you're in the throes of teaching, teaching, teaching, you can get burnt out, but then these little gems are so gratifying.”

“I was trained by great artists, and I think it’s wonderful to pass on that knowledge to young dancers.   My mom always says to me, 'You have such a great lineage.'  I was trained by great artists, and it's nice to pass on that knowledge to young dancers.  It's an incredible gift to be able to dance.  My mom also says, 'I take my hat off to anyone who takes ballet.  Even a dancer who is just fine, or just good, is really accomplished.'

"If a person never becomes a performer, teaching them dance is opening their eye to the arts.  They become lovers of dance.  They develop poise and discipline.  You can really see the difference in even just everyday life."

Choreographic Voice: As her students know (and as this year's Summer Intensive students will soon realize!), Mary’s class exercises not only thoughtfully approach technique, but also musicality, presentation, feeling, flow, and movement sequence.  Mary has choreographed many pieces for Princeton Ballet School students and creates a piece for the School’s Summer Intensive culminating performance annually.  Since 2010, she has been American Repertory Ballet’s Resident Choreographer, and her work has received enthusiastic response and critical acclaim.

"When I choreograph, I hear what the music is telling me.  It's usually levels and emotion and texture, not exact steps.  So I will take some feedback from the dancers I'm working with by watching what they do with the steps I give, making slight changes to suit their dancing.  Like, if I’m choreographing a soloist and I want an en dedans turn, if they are more comfortable turning to the left I’m not going to make them turn to the right.  Once I set the choreography, though, I want it to be consistent.

"I was choreographing since day one.  I put on extravaganzas in the basement with my mom's clothes and the neighborhood kids, and with very dramatic music.  It was all always very dramatic.

"When I was a dancer, I would actually get nervous listening to the classical music station on the radio.  Now, looking back on that, I think I felt a need to be doing something with that music.  I wasn't actually nervous, but I was anxious to be creating movement.

"I'm not a counter of music.  I never really used counts when I was dancing, either.  I just listen to music over and over.  I tend to hear the under part of the music, parts that other people sometimes don't hear.  I'll say to Douglas [ARB Artistic Director, and Mary’s husband], 'You know that part where it does this?' and I'll hum a little, and he won’t know, and then I’ll play it for him, and he'll say, 'Wow, I actually couldn't even hear that before.'"

Excited about: "I'm excited that ARB is going to be performing my work Straight Up With a Twist this August at Jacob's Pillow!"

I’ve been excited about posting this!  Mary’s earnest, genuine love of ballet - dancing, teaching, and choreographing - seemed to just pour out of her when I sat down with her.  It was really refreshing.  I’m glad I don’t have to limit my word-count for a blog post!!