Yesterday I watched a documentary called Restless Creature: Wendy Whelan.
She was the principle dancer with the New York City Ballet and had been with the company for thirty years prior to her retirement in 2014. Her farewell performance which included a new work by Wheeldon and Ratmansky titled, ‘By 2 With & From’, was sold out within minutes. What a magnificent dancer, interpreting the choreography and music with every inch of her body.
Wendy Whelan’s Restless Creature
The video. Christopher Wheeldon’s “This Bitter Earth” at Dance Against Cancer in 2015, and the dancer is Tiler Peck. In the documentary you can see Wendy Whelan dancing to this hauntingly beautiful piece of music.
The music is by Dinah Washington and Max Richter, Bitter Earth, a perfect marriage of dance, music and choreography. Dinah Washington was one of the most popular black female recording artist of the ’50’s.
I dedicate these few minutes of beauty to my daughter Laura, and to my husband Rod, who died from cancer twenty-nine days after Laura’s death.
