I'm Tiler Peck, I'm a principle dancer with the New York City Ballet
and this is Playbill's From Ballet to Broadway
Tiler Peck is a principle dancer at New York City Ballet
she joined the company in 2005 and was promoted to principle dancer in 2009
she made her Broadway debut in the 2000 revival of The Music Man, directed and choreographed by Susan Stroman
so I grew up in Bakersfield, California and I was always doing commercials and TV and
you know singing, auditioning, and I auditioned for The Music Man on Broadway
and I remember getting the audition and my mom was kind of like no, you know
that's in New York, seems a little too far, I was only 11 so we flew to New York
I auditioned for The Music Man and I got it which I did not expect
so I moved here for a year with my grandmother and I was in the show for a year
I always thought I would be more, you know, like in musical theater or on television so for
me that's when I found the School of American Ballet which is the school that
leads into the New York City Ballet and it was the first time I thought okay
like I really think ballet is very interesting, not boring like I thought
and I just fell in love with it, so that was when during the days
I would train at the School of American Ballet and then I would go do
The Music Man at night
after spending time away from the Broadway stage, Tiler Peck was tapped for the staging of
Little Dancer, and shortly after that she took over the role of Ivy Smith in On the Town in 2015
Getting back to Broadway was not without it's challenges for Tyler
I think the biggest challenge from going from
Broadway to ballet is just using your voice, you know we're constantly telling
a story with our body and acting, it's always felt very comfortable to me
because I just grew up doing that so that wasn't such a shocker which I feel like it is
to a lot of ballerinas or some of the ballet people that have crossed over
it wasn't as new to me, but you do, you know, after being
silent for a set number of years, it is something you have to get
used to again is just using your voice in a different way you know we're
constantly holding ourselves while we're dancing and you definitely can't do that
when you're trying to sing and project
yeah I think for me it was mostly just
always taking voice lessons even when I wasn't in a show
I constantly make sure that I'm taking them so that I would be ready and
you know, getting ready for this show that's mostly what I have to do
I know how to do my dance warmup, you know it's very easy
I don't really have to worry about that but before the show I would spend a lot
of time like vocalizing and warming up
I think it's that was the hardest thing
for me to get past, was doing the same show eight times a week
when I did Little Dancer, On the Town you're doing the same steps every single night
you know you're landing on that foot every single time, or you're kicking
the left leg every single time, and so I felt like that was the hardest for me to get past
was just physically it was very demanding to do the same show
every single night
I definitely think Broadway changed the way I've approached roles now
especially the story ballets
I definitely always try to find the arc, you know of the character more
so whenever I get to do things like Swan Lake
or Romeo and Juliet, or the Sleeping Beauty, I always love them and I think that
Broadway and telling a story every single night definitely influenced and
helped the way I relay my stories in the ballet world
Jerome Robbins and Leonard Bernstein created On the Town after their collaboration on Robbins ballet
Fancy-Free, a ballet that she's no stranger to having danced it at New York City Ballet
I am very much, they call them like Jerry dancers in the in the ballet world
and the only one that I really do that tells a story is Fancy-Free
which was very easy when I did On the Town because they
basically play off one another, it's just incredible to look at somebody who had
that range that could do something like Dances at a Gathering or then The Cage
which is something so different, and then do West Side Story and then all these amazing Broadway shows
I definitely think that even in his abstract work I
always feel like there is this sort of story even though there isn't and maybe
that is because of his Broadway world and how he kind of intermixed that into the Broadway world
but I definitely feel that like in Dances at a Gathering
there's not a story but I do feel like all my pa de deux in the back of my mind
I think maybe I make one up but the choreography and the music that he uses
I feel like always lends itself to some sort of story or or he always used to
say I guess or what I've been told by repertoires is that it was like
easy baby, easy and just being very intimate and in in it with your partner which
I guess is very much the same as responding and listening to your acting partner in a scene
Little Dancer, the musical from Tony Award winners
Susan Stroman, Lynn Ahrens, and Stephen Flaherty, that is inspired by Edgar Dega
iconic sculpture of a young ballerina, has been retitled Marie
ahead of its West Coast debut at the 5th Avenue Theatre in Seattle this spring
it's amazing to be involved in a show from the very beginning
it feels written for me that I've never had before I've had it in the dance world because you
know I've had a lot of ballets that are originated for me, but I've never had a musical originated for me
definitely that feels very special, I'm really happy with where we have it right now
and I'm happy to put that production like onstage
The Little Dancer at Kennedy Center was such an amazing experience
and I just can't wait to to see the next step
it's literally not only like the most talented team but they are the nicest people to work with
and coming from a ballet background, so to speak, and crossing over to Broadway
I couldn't have had a more encouraging team behind me, they were with me every single step
of the way, you know they never doubted me, they always made me feel like I could do it
I just I love them all so much
I can't say enough like great things about them and Susan I've known since I was 11
because I did music man with her, I feel like family a little bit with her
she's actually the one when I got the music man who said
'look, you're super young, your technique is so amazing you should really find somewhere during the day to train because it is easy to lose your technique'
she said when you're on Broadway and doing the same show, and so that's why I found School of American Ballet
so I kind of have her in a way to thank for sending me on this route to
then being in the New York City Ballet, so I think it's kind of come full circle