The return of Jennifer Ringer: principal dancer at New York City Ballet takes back center stage - Cover Story - Critical Essay

Dance Magazine, Nov, 2001 by Astrida Woods

JENIFER RINGER HAD JUST FINISHED A DRESS rehearsal of Fancy Free and was heading back to her dressing room in stocking feet and robe when she heard the loudspeaker in the New York State Theater blare, "Jenifer Ringer, please come to the stage." "Okaayee," she said to herself, and headed back. There, standing in the wings, was Peter Martins, ballet master in chief of the New York City Ballet, with his right-hand man, Sean Lavery. Ringer remembers Martins saying, "So, I would like to promote you." "And I said, `Really?' Peter looked over at Sean and they both laughed and said, `Yes, really.'" When the dancers rehearsing onstage heard the commotion in the wings, they figured out what had happened and burst into applause.

"It was all very unglamorous and unexpected," says Ringer about her promotion to principal dancer in May 2000, but no surprise to anyone who has seen Ringer perform from her earliest days in the company. Espen Giljane, a former NYCB member who frequently teaches company class, remembers partnering Ringer as a newly minted corps member in Balanchine's Vienna Waltzes. "I thought, `Well, here comes another 16-year-old out of the School of American Ballet who probably can't waltz and is terrified about the dress--a sweeping ball gown.' But instead, she said, `Oh, this is so romantic.' Then she stepped on the stage and danced. She was so open, and she swooped and she moved. Jenny could have done the lead that day, and everybody would have said, `Wow!'"

These days Ringer consistently "wows" audiences in some of the more challenging ballets in the NYCB repertoire. She triumphed as Aurora in the full-length Sleeping Beauty and shimmered in Jerome Robbins's Dances at a Gathering. And about Balanchine's blockbuster pas de deux, La Source, Clive Barnes proclaimed her debut "exultant" in Dance Magazine (May, page 72).

Last spring, Martins cast her in his new work, Morgen, a deeply moving ballet with dramatic and innovative partnering. Ringer says, "It was a darker part for me, which was fun to do. I hadn't worked with Peter in a long time--not since I was in the corps--so it was fun to work with him again."

In the sylvan setting of Saratoga Springs in upstate New York, where NYCB performs each July, Ringer and Nilas Martins were rehearsing an intricate partnering maneuver from Morgen. With Richard Strauss's soaring music filling the airy studio, late afternoon rays of sun filtered through the pine trees and, as if on cue, illuminated Ringer's serenely beautiful face and shoulders as she melted into a deep arch over her partner's arm.

Born in New Bern, North Carolina, and raised in Summerville, South Carolina, Ringer grew up in a close-knit family. She thought of herself as a timid tomboy shadowing her older sister, Rebecca, a musical prodigy who also excelled in sports. "I did everything she did; I just wasn't as good as Becky," says Ringer. At 10, she accompanied her best friend to ballet school and decided "it looked like fun." The Ringer family then moved to Washington, D.C., where she studied at the Washington School of Ballet and, at age 12, danced her first Balanchine ballet, Serenade. At 14, Ringer did a summer course at the School of American Ballet and at age 15, she won a full scholarship there. Appointed apprentice in October of 1989, she became a NYCB corps member in January 1990 at the age of 16.

Onstage and in person, Ringer, with her roses-and-cream complexion, black hair, and luminous brown eyes, emanates a special glow, even in the windowless conference room at the New York State Theater. Dressed in a denim mini and a T-shirt emblazoned with "Supergirl," she strides towards me on those tapering long legs and greets me with a cheery "Hi." Then, taking a deep breath, Ringer launches into the odyssey that's been her life and career. "Looking back on everything that has happened, I wouldn't change it for the world--even at its worst, it was a blessing. It's changed me as a person and enriched my dancing."

RINGER'S EARLY CAREER STARTED PROMISINGLY WHEN Jerome Robbins cast her in several of his ballets, including Interplay and The Concert. He also chose her for 2 & 3 Part Inventions, a work Robbins originally choreographed on SAB graduating students, then reset on the company. "It's the closest I've come to being choreographed on by Jerry," says Ringer, "He was in the room with us every day, and he would change things for us--tweak it. That was a great experience."

For the 1992 Diamond Project, Ringer originated principal roles in Robert La Fosse's hit I Have My Own Room and David Allan's Reunions. Later she created parts in Miriam Mahdaviani's Correlazione, Damian Woetzel's jazzy Ebony Concerto, and Peter Martins's Mozart Piano Concerto, and she continued to add new roles from the Balanchine repertoire.

But even as her career was taking off, her self-esteem was plummeting. If weight gain and injuries are the twin demons of a dancer's career, Ringer was about to deal with both. As a coltish 16-year-old who was unprepared to deal with her still-maturing body, she began to struggle with weight control and self-doubt. Ringer set unrealistically high standards for herself, and, beset by low self-esteem, she did not allow anyone into her crumbling world. Basing all her self-worth on her accomplishments as a dancer, she thought, "If I get promoted, everything will be great, and I will be happy." In January 1995, Ringer did in fact get promoted to soloist, but she continued her downward spiral while pretending to be "happy and thrilled." Ringer, who tends to be fiercely independent and self-reliant, says, "I felt that that was the image I needed to present."