#27: Wendy Whelan, Prima Ballerina

No Limits with Rebecca Jarvis

ABC News

Business, Careers

4.7 • 703 Ratings

🗓️ 2 June 2017

⏱️ 30 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Prima ballerina Wendy Whelan, is one of the most acclaimed dancers of our time. She had spent 30 years at the New York City Ballet, 23 of those as principal dancer, before her final performance in 2014. She started taking ballet lessons when she was only 3 years old, began intensive training at the Louisville Ballet Academy at age 9 and then continued to spend most of her life dedicated to the craft. Since leaving the New York City Ballet, Whelan has joined the faculty of New York City's Ballet Academy East and was appointed Artistic Associate at New York City Center. She also premiered her inaugural independent project "Restless Creature" followed by two more independent projects, Whelan/Watson Other Stories, at London's Royal Opera House and Hagoromo at BAM's Next Wave Festival. On May 24, 2017 Abramorama released the film, "Restless Creature: Wendy Whelan" in New York at Elinor Bunin Theater and Film Forum, a documentary giving an intimate look at Whelan as she prepares to leave NYCB. In this episode, Whelan discusses the dedication and difficulties associated with being a ballerina and also the rewarding experience of fully committing to her passion and the lessons she learned by letting it go. Like what we're doing? Leave a review! ----> http://bit.ly/2ks4f90 Follow Sara Haines Twitter & Instagram: @SaraHaines Follow Jedidiah Bila on Twitter & Instagram: @jedediahbila Follow ‘The View’ on Twitter: @TheView Follow ‘The View’ on Instagram: @theviewabc Learn more about your ad choices. Visit

Transcript

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0:00.0	Being able to do what I've done, bar none, is the most sublime experience, human experience I could imagine.
0:06.7	Welcome to No Limits.
0:09.4	I'm Rebecca Jarvis.
0:11.4	Each week, we're talking to women playing at the top of their game.
0:16.5	So how are they doing it?
0:19.0	Whether you're looking for answers or you just want to hear a good story, you're in the right place.
0:26.5	Wendy, welcome to No Limits.
0:28.9	My pleasure to be here.
0:30.0	First ballerina in the house today.
0:32.3	I'm really fascinated by your story because you started so young.
0:35.9	As so many athletes do, you have to kind of start really young to be incredibly good. Yeah, you have to sculpt your DNA. You really do. As you grow, you have to shape your bones and dancing shapes your muscles and your bones and your veins actually. They alter to what you're doing and make it possible to do it.
0:56.7	Your first dance class was three. You were three years old.
1:00.4	I got into it because I had a restless energy. And my mom was like, get this kid, the middle kid out of the house.
1:09.4	Because I was wreaking havoc on the baby.
1:12.2	I was jumping on my little baby sister.
1:13.8	And so they just needed me to put my energy somewhere outside of the house.
1:18.4	And it ended up being in a ballet studio.
1:21.5	And I never went back.
1:23.3	I mean, I never came home.
1:25.3	I started at three.
1:27.0	I moved to New York when I was 15, and I still live in New York.
1:29.8	My whole family is still in Louisville.
	...

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