Jordan Veit of Ballet West performs. He was in Aspen earlier this summer as a part of an Aspen Santa Fe Ballet gala event. He will be joined by 17 other dancers on Tuesday at the Aspen District Theatre.
Ballet West has been the gift that keeps on giving in 2024. The revered ballet company from Salt Lake City participated in The Aspen Santa Fe Ballet’s gala event that kicked off their summer season on July 10-11along with dancers from Joffrey Ballet, Houston Ballet, Boston Ballet and the Royal Ballet. The company will take the stage Tuesday evening at the Aspen District Theatre at 8 p.
m. Ballet West has a long history with ASFB. “Ballet West ignited Aspen’s love affair with dance with their summer residencies in the 70s,” said Tom Mossbrucker, artistic director of ASFB.
“We are thrilled to honor this legacy by closing our summer season with a performance by this world class company of extraordinary artists. “The program features 18 dancers performing works both classical and contemporary — Christopher Wheeldon's evocative ‘Within the Golden Hour’ and a full version of Gerald Arpino's high-octane ‘Light Rain’ will be included,” he added. The four dancers from Ballet West who performed at the gala in June — Emily Adams, Hadriel Diniz, Rylee Rogers, and Jordan Veit — not only held their own with some of the best dancers in the world, their two performances were seen by many as some of the finest of the night.
“It is such a fun experience to do these guestings and galas with other dancers,” Veit said in an interview from his home in Salt Lake City. “Us ballet dancers all speak the same language and we don’t always get to come together. It's fun to meet people from new companies.
There are a lot of similarities and a lot of differences as well.” Veit grew up in the Seattle where the Pacific Northwest Ballet had outreach programs into elementary schools. Veit joined the program when he was 10.
His teachers told his parents he showed potential and Veit has lived up to and exceeded that potential ever since. After a few years in the afterschool program, Veit got his first role in “The Nutcracker” but more importantly he had found his tribe. “It is very nice to find your people,” Veit said.
“And I found them in dance. I felt I belonged. I always enjoyed the physicality of ballet and the artistry as well.
I stuck with it because I loved it so much.” Jordan Veit: ‘If I'm not suited for a role, I do something else.’ In the ballet world, at around 12-years-old, the young dancers who are serious about the discipline begin taking summer intensives every year at ballet schools all over the country.
“I did my first intensive when I was 13,” Veit said. “One of the things that happens at the intensives is you see the 18-year-old dancers, many of whom are dancing pre-professionally.” Veit said.
“And you see their commitment and how hard they are working and you realize what it takes to make it and you either say, ‘I’m not sure I’ve got that in me,’ or ‘I am going to work as hard as I can to get to where those dancers are going.’ I chose the latter. I worked hard and danced all day.
” Over the next several years, Veit did summer intensives in Boston, New York, San Francisco and Houston. During the school year, he participated in the Pacific Northwest Ballet’s pre-professional program where he was involved with their professional productions, danced with the company, served as a background dancer all the while taking classes. Veit’s career has been one success after another.
The biggest challenge he faced was when we injured his leg when he was 18. He was in a boot for two months and away from the dance studio. “When I came back I had this super-weird feeling — ‘why am I doing this? I’m smart.
Why am I standing here in a leotard and tights?’ That mindset had never crossed my mind before. But as I recovered from the injury, I rediscovered what it felt like to dance and it made me realize how much I love the art form and how I get so much out of working hard in it.” The next milestone for dancers is to try and get placed in a professional company in open auditions.
A dancer will travel all over the country and spend time with a company, take classes, audition and rehearse in hopes of being put under contract by a company. “Ballet West was my last audition,” Veit recalled.”I was offered a second company position.
” (This was in 2012. Over the last 12 years, he has gone from demi-soloist (2016), to soloist (2018) to principal (2020).) There are currently nine principal dancers in Ballet West (there have been as few as four during his time as a principal).
“At Ballet West we divvy up the workload,” Veit said. “If I'm not suited for a role, I do something else. You’re expected to be very versatile in what you're performing.
I’m in my third year as a principal so I think I’m just beginning to scratch the surface of the roles I want to perform and what I can do as an artist.” Veit loves living in Salt Lake City and dancing with Ballet West. “I am very comfortable here and I think being relaxed and confident in your environment is important in allowing you to let go and I think that will help me reach my next level of performance.
” He said that he hopes that when watching him dance, the audience can lose themselves in the beauty of ballet. “We all have so much going on in our lives, I hope I can connect with people enough so that they can forget their problems and experience what I am feeling on stage,” he said. “That’s what drew me to dance and that’s what I hope I can for other people.
”.
