Hello my name is Craig Salstein and I'm a former member of the great ballet company
American Ballet Theatre and this is Playbill's From Ballet to Broadway
October 11th 2018 marks the centennial of the birth of Jerome Robbins whose
work has dominated both the Broadway and ballet stages
leaving his mark on the dance world as a choreographer for American Ballet Theatre and New York City Ballet
his ballets are still performed by every major ballet company in the world
his work on Broadway as a choreographer, director, and producer is prolific
a legacy that changed musical theatre, Robbins was able to exist successfully in both worlds
in this series, Playbill talks with dancers who
have recently crossed over and asked them how they navigated the differences between ballet and Broadway
Craig Salstein was a principle dancer at the
American Ballet Theatre who recently made his Broadway debut in the 2017 revival
of Rodgers & Hammerstein's Carousel
so I got a phone call from a casting agency, asking whether or not I would like to participate in a
three-week workshop working with the choreographer Justin Peck
and I needed not no more information because I have such great
respect for his work and his take on dance
the challenges that a dancer and a Broadway ensemble member are very different, yet they have similarities
the similarities I guess are we rehearse and perform
but in the Broadway world there's more of a quantity of it as opposed to preparing
for a role that you'll only do maybe once or twice
in the ballet world you sort of take a step back and you watch other people dance the prince and the swan queen
and in this case you're participating throughout the whole show
making my Broadway debut I was a little concerned about the singing part because of course ballet is a silent art form
at around age 10 I actually tried out for Broadway shows and I didn't do so well because of the singing
and now to come back and be in the show that has a tremendous amount of singing
it makes me feel good
ballet is the foundation for dancers and their training
but the day-to-day realities of performing in a ballet company and a
Broadway musical can be vastly different
the main difference is the quantity of performing
I have performed carousel over a hundred and sixty times
I don't know about a role in the ballet world that I've done maybe more than 40 or 50 times
so I have already surpassed my Swan Lakes
I've done a tremendous amount of Swan Lakes but nothing like Carousel
Costume changes, oh my god! Within one show I have nine costume changes, that's a lot.
Velcro is very popular in the Broadway world
being on Broadway and doing so many shows makes you feel comfortable going on stage
in the ballet world or in anything that I'll do after because you get accustomed to performing
and that's a real important thing to have when your profession is performing
the more you do a role, the more you get out there, and the more you conquer your nerves/stage fright
the more you're well equipped to going out there again, and so I feel ballet needs more stage time
more performing, more shows
the ballet world really gave me the discipline that
precedes performing which of course is class and warming up
how you warm up how you prepare your body really does dictate how the show goes
Robbin's choreography from both his musicals and his ballets continued to be performed
his work has touched the lives of so many dancers in both realms
my connection with Jerome Robbins is Fancy-Free, which of course is the ballet
he created while he was a member of American Ballet Theatre
part of the repertoire of the New York City Ballet is Jerome Robbins
Dances at a Gathering, Fancy, The Cage, Glass Pieces, there are so many because he made such a career at
the New York City Ballet as a choreographer, that I felt so comfortable
with Justin Peck because he is seeped in in Jerome Robbins
Justin has done Bernardo in West Side Story for 11 years now and it's in his body to have
that Robbins masculinity and that sort of common vernacular of dance
that sort of what we all go 'oh that's recognizable' these steps are sort of
maybe they don't have names but it's it's dance
that's the beauty of Robbins and Peck is that it's like being
taxicab without any traffic, it's flowing, it's freeing
Robbins and Peck very are similar
Craig, who also served as a dance captain for Carousel, continues to teach and mentor
at American Ballet Theatre
well, I continue to teach company class at ABT and help dancers recover from injury or help dancers be better at dance
I think that's something that I feel passionate about because dance is very difficult
ballet's hard, dance is hard, jazz is hard, tap is hard, modern is hard
you can develop a skill in which you can then
help others to get better at their craft