Julie Kent: A New Stage, A Different Role

The first time I “met” Julie Kent was by way of a voice on the

phone. She was rushing to fly back to New York after the Washington Ballet’s announcement that the famed American Ballet Theatre principal dancer would become its artistic director. Earlier, Septime Webre, the Washington company’s artistic director for 17 years, had announced his plans to step down.

It’s hard to know how to react to a voice. Kent has always been known for her elegant beauty, her expressiveness. Examples of that in images and videos are all over the internet, but they offer few hints of what she might say and how she might say it. On the phone, she sounded thoughtful and deliberate, at once accessible and a little measured and guarded. She spoke movingly about her retirement as a dancer and shared some of her thoughts on the Washington Ballet.

The second time she appeared here was when she presided over the ballet’s 2016-17 season announcement. Coming up first: a 40th-anniversary celebration at the Kennedy Center Sept. 30.

We saw her again recently on a Thursday afternoon as she sat for an interview during her first week in her new office and, later, at a rehearsal for the anniversary event, in which she was partnered by one of the male dancers in a Black Swan segment of “Swan Lake.”

Kent said that she was settling in, that it had been a hectic week of moving into her new personal and professional digs. “We live just around the corner, down the street, but we’ve been moving in, getting the children settled. It’s about school and just getting used to things,” she said.

“We” refers to her family: husband Victor Barbee, who will serve as associate assistant director; son William, 12; and daughter Josephine, 7. She allowed that they had tried out Café Deluxe and Cactus Cantina on Wisconsin Avenue.

When the news of her appointment came, some observers felt it would mark a change, a return to or move toward major productions of classical ballet, the kind in which Kent herself often starred, to long-lasting glory. She’s aware of that, but when she talks about her view of repertoire, choices and decisions, ambitions and goals, it’s not as simple as branding through familiar ballets. When all is said and done, she is a builder, someone to whom the process is as important as anything. She thinks in the long term; in developing a season, a company, adding is not so much about wholesale change as about building blocks.

“You have to think in terms of choreographers, of artists, and what they’ve meant to ballet and dance,” she said. “If you think about doing something by Tudor or Balanchine, you have to think about what’s important about them, where they fit in the history of ballet, what inspired them and whom they inspire. I know some people aren’t easily convinced. They think that dance is formal. really know about ballet, and what they bring to the performance when they come to watch.”

She had given this some thought, even as she gets a little caught up in the moment — not of the interview, but of her life at a moment of change. She has been married for 20 years and lived in New York for 20 years. In her time at ABT, because she was known for her beauty and her ability to memorably embody roles, she was scrutinized and photographed endlessly, almost like a model. She became a principal dancer in the short time of eight years. But now she was coming back to create a different role for herself and her family.

She had initially rejected the idea when approached by Washington Ballet officials, but then changed her mind as she watched other dancers take on similar tasks. She had already engaged in an educational aspect of ABT, running its summer intensive program. In taking on the artistic directorship of Washington Ballet, however, she is moving firmly into the future, while returning to her roots at the same time.

That’s not always an easy task for dancers, who in their prime seem to have little time to think about what comes after they can’t or decide not to dance any more. Kent seems to have a pragmatic side, a self-awareness that takes in what she’s doing at different stages.

“It’s never easy,” she said. “I had so many roles [more than 100]. You grow into them, you love them and you absolutely embrace what you do on that stage. It’s a wonderful place. And when you realize that you can’t, that’s difficult, very difficult. But, again, I think becoming a mother informed how I danced, what kind of dancer I became, physically and emotionally. It added a layer.” When we talked on the phone, she had said: “Change rarely goes as choreographed, but the forward-moving process of life is a comfort as well as a challenge.”

She acknowledged then that “the most difficult thing is to come to that point where it is time to stop, to think about not performing. Ballet is about forever young, and when that time comes it’s a heartbreak. It’s about love, but it’s a heartbreak.” Sitting in an office chair, surrounded by a swirling, hand-knit, full-length shawl, she looks comfortable. “It’s a challenge, but we see now where we’re going. It’s good to be back here. We lived in Potomac, I took classes in Bethesda when I was a kid. I grew up here. My mother and sister are still here. And all of that is a comfort, but it’s certainly different from New York.

“What I want to do is build this company. I want this to become one of the crown jewels among Washington cultural and performance institutions. There is no reason it can’t. That means increasing educational opportunities, increasing the physical presence of the company. It should be the city’s company and institution and source of pride.”

You can learn a lot looking at the 40th-anniversary event, which opens the season. It will be a look back, through dance and performance and film, at the celebrated 72-year history of the Washington Ballet, founded by dance pioneer Mary Day. In the spotlight are works by Webre, Choo San Goh and others, with Kent herself narrating a dance journey. Goh was the resident choreographer under Day, and his “Fives” will kick off the celebration.

Webre’s “Juanita y Alicia,” an homage to the choreographer’s Cuban origins and to his mother, will serve as an introduction to the Webre years. Also to be presented that evening will be selections from “Swan Lake,” “The Nutcracker,” “Don Quixote” and Balanchine’s “Theme and Variations.”

The season itself (which includes, it goes without saying, “The Nutcracker”) offers some clues to Kent’s approach — classical and classic and choreographer-centered — beginning with “Giselle,” which will be restaged by Kent and Barbee at the Kennedy Center March 1 to 5. From March 29 to April 2, the Harman Center will host a program of works by a trio of choreographers: Jiří Kylián’s “Petite Mort,” Justin Peck’s “In Creases” and William Forsythe’s “In the Middle, Somewhat Elevated.” Another triptych, April 26 to 30 at the Warner Theatre, will feature the works of Balanchine, Ratmansky and Tharp. Then, from May 25 to 27, a program of works by Tudor and Ashton and a commissioned world premiere will be presented at the Kennedy Center.

Kent, of course, brings to Washington her dazzling history and hugely respected and influential persona from ABT-land in New York, a city in which she was a much beloved figure. How beloved? Check out any YouTube video of her final performance as Juliet, a signature role, in which the evening was full of roses, flowers, ovations and tears. Incidentally, Kent will host an Icons series featuring Kevin McKenzie (Sept. 18), Judith Jamison (Feb. 5) and Patricia McBride (April 9) talking about Mary Day, Alvin Ailey and Balanchine, respectively.

In the rehearsal room, she had discarded the knit shawl for something light and green and black dancing tights as she partnered with and offered suggestions and demonstrations to a group of gathered company members, under the watchful eye of her husband.

It no doubt was a special occasion for the dancers. From a seat along the wall, it was pretty special, too. You get almost immediately why Kent is a star, although at one point she shook her head. “I can’t dance,” she offered. But in the next breath, as the tempo picked up, the long hair in a braid flew out, the hands fluttered upward in classic form and the dazzling smile appeared. In a bright room, with light barging in by invitation, Julie Kent in motion made an ordinary Thursday afternoon suddenly and entirely special.