Teresa Reichlen, a New York Metropolis Ballet principal dancer for the previous 13 years, introduced on Wednesday that she would retire from the corporate and provides her farewell efficiency in George Balanchine’s “Swan Lake.”
“I like my job, however I’ve been doing it for over 20 years,” Reichlen, 37, stated in an interview. “So I’m excited to strive one thing new.”
That one thing new, she added, will probably be a transfer from Metropolis Ballet’s Lincoln Heart campus to the Decrease East Aspect, the place she plans to work because the gallery manager at Shrine, which was based in 2016 by her husband, Scott Ogden.
“He by no means put strain on me to cease, however it had at all times been the long-term aim for me to return work for the gallery,” Reichlen stated. “And his gallery manager truly simply left, so this got here at time for us.”
She had anticipated her farewell efficiency to be in Peter Martins’s full-length “Swan Lake,” however its run was canceled, and the corporate’s repertory modified, as disruptions attributable to the Omicron variant delayed the beginning of Metropolis Ballet’s winter season. As an alternative, she’s going to dance Odette in Balanchine’s one-act model on Feb. 19.
It is perhaps a much less grand goodbye, however Reichlen wasn’t bothered. She stated that she had lately examined constructive for the coronavirus and quarantined, retaining her out of the rehearsal room and fearful about taking up all the ballet so quickly after recovering. “Once I noticed that the one-act was there,” she stated, “it was type of good.”
Reichlen turned an apprentice with Metropolis Ballet in fall 2000 and joined its corps a 12 months later. She was promoted to soloist in 2005, then principal in October 2009. She has carried out within the core repertory — akin to works by Balanchine and Robbins — and originated roles in premieres by Justin Peck, Benjamin Millepied and extra.
“I’ve gotten to bounce Balanchine choreography within the theater that he constructed, with a dwell orchestra,” Reichlen stated. “The gravy on prime has been touring the world, to St. Petersburg, London, Paris; we’ve been to so many spectacular theaters.”
Reichlen turned a face of Metropolis Ballet’s response to turmoil in 2018, after Martins retired from the corporate amid abuse accusations (which he denied) and fellow dancers have been fired over sexual misconduct. Surrounded by colleagues onstage on the David H. Koch Theater, she started that 12 months’s Fall Trend Gala with a speech during which she stated: “We is not going to put artwork earlier than widespread decency or permit expertise to sway our ethical compass. With the world altering — and our beloved establishment within the highlight — we proceed to carry ourselves to the excessive ethical requirements that have been instilled in us after we determined to turn into skilled dancers.”
Like many performing artists, Reichlen reconsidered a lot in her life through the pandemic. She took the longest break of her profession, and shortly thereafter discovered that she was pregnant. Her day off, she stated, performed a task in her resolution to retire.
“I had by no means been in a position to image my life with out dance in it,” she stated. “It was terrifying, however then I used to be truly shocked by how OK I used to be with it.”
A number of different Metropolis Ballet principals have lately retired or introduced their plans to take action, together with Abi Stafford, Ask la Cour, Lauren Lovette and Maria Kowroski in fall; Gonzalo Garcia later in February; and Amar Ramasar in Might.
