Professional Development

Get Yourself in the Right Room

_{Photo Credit: Katie Ging / (All other photos are off my iPhone)}

I’ve been doing Stanford alumni interviews with prospective students since 2013, and I always give one piece of advice. It’s a word of wisdom I first heard from my Stanford adviser, Seth Lerer, back when I was choosing college courses, but I have to say I was pretty pleased with myself when I heard it because I’d been practicing what he preached since I was young. He told me to do everything I could to get in the room with people I admired and wanted to emulate.

So, when for the first time in about 16 years, I had almost two full weeks alone, I took that advice. All four kids went to sleep away camp and my husband went as the camp doctor, and I…packed in an insane amount of professional ballet development.

Here’s the grocery list of what I fit in, just so I can believe it myself:

—Spent 5 days on faculty at the LABL Active Adult Ballet Retreat alongside superstars Elizabeth Murphy and Riley Thomas Weber. (Thank you organizer extraordinaire Maria Montanez and her right arm Carrie Hill.) I am still overwhelmed from this incredible experience and counting down to next year. If they don’t hire me back I’m signing up as a participant. All adult dancers NEED to do this.

—Attended the NYC Emerging Artists Project Season III Performance at the Ailey Studios. Congratulations to Anabel Alpert and the amazing team. The world needs more opportunities like this for young artists. Their work is important and profound and deserves ALL the support.

—Visited my alma mater, School of American Ballet. It was so fun to surprise run into a few of my Pacific Northwest Ballet School students, who were there for the first day of summer course, and catch up with trailblazer and my friend from our dorm days, Aesha Ash, and get a peek at all she’s spearheaded and accomplished with the school’s new wellness center.

—Caught up with one of my favorite people, who also happens to be the teacher who most influenced my own teaching style and approach to ballet and beyond, Suzy Pilarre.

—Taught two days of the upper levels at the Steps Academy Summer Intensive. Thank you Jen Kreichman (and Lexi Showalter) for making it possible! I was so impressed with the students and what an honor it was to teach in those iconic studios with the world class accompaniment.

—Observed rehearsals at the ABT Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis School’s Summer Intensive, and had the opportunity to watch icons Stella Abrera, Yan Chen, and Leslie Browne at work coaching students in excerpts from La Bayadere and more. Thank you Stella and Sascha Radetsky for opening the door to me. I was in AWE. Literally, no words. As someone who spent most of her career studying the Balanchine repertoire so intimately, watching such a detailed deep dive into the classics was like having a whole other universe crack open. My early years at Ballet West were only a sample. The level of expertise, watching Stella and Yan push students to get exactly the right tension in an arm or the character development needed in a simple gesture was extraordinary. If only the wider world KNEW. Gotta write more, gotta write more, gotta write more….who will tell more? I will spend my life begging Sascha to write his book….

—Took in American Ballet Theatre’s Don Quixote at the Metropolitan Opera House, with Skylar Brandt and Herman Cornejo in the leads. Bravo bravo!

There was a lot of other amazing stuff in the mix, including Ragtime (incredible!) and a trip to The Frick Collection, not to mention the other beloved friends and family I was able to catch up with and hug during my whirlwind NYC time. But since this post is about the ballet adventure, I’ll stick to that.

A confession: as someone who has spent a good portion of her life associating with big organizations and brands, I’ve been going through a big shift where all I really want is to be near people who I admire and love. We are so influenced by labels, but what I’ve learned is that what matters most is who you get in the room with, and understanding the kind of work you as an individual want to do and who is doing it the way you aspire to. And to be clear, the only reason I had the opportunity to get in the rooms I was in these last few weeks is because I’ve spent my life following Seth Lerer’s sage advice, and why I pass it on to others. It can take years to circle back and work out, but only effort to carve your own path can lead to the result.

I’d like to write more about each experience, particularly my visit to ABT and the LABL retreat, but it might take me awhile. I’m back to busy family life now, and summer, and tackling my new role at Creation Dance Studio to help nurture and grow the kind of ballet program I want to see in world, the kind that builds a better future off of all I know from the past.

On a separate note, I’m still working on my new novel. I’ve been working on it going on 5 years, but funny things keep happening that crack it open further and further, and now I’m caught up in a new rush of energy that means I have to write another full draft. After 9 months of querying agents without success, I can see there’s still work to do and the thing isn’t fully baked yet. Another wonderful lesson ballet has taught me: always a student. There is always more to improve. Craft is a journey, not a destination, and things evolve in their own time.

Wishing all of you a wonderful summer and thanks for reading and thinking along with me. And write me back! I read everything.

—Miriam