Interview with HBC’s Wonderful Kate Guerin
Today we had the opportunity to talk with Kate Guerin, a wonderful new member of the HBC community and first-year at Harvard! She shared about her dance background, what she’s learned from dancing under the limitations of the pandemic, her reflections on challenges the dance industry faces, and her reflections on HBC since joining in the fall. We really loved Kate’s insights and hope you enjoy her responses to these 15 questions as much as we did!
❤️Audrey and Amy
1. What is your name?
Kate: My name is Kate Guerin.
2. Where do you currently study?
Kate: I’m studying on campus at Harvard in the dorm, Canaday.
3. What year are you in college?
Kate: I’m a first-year in the class of 2024.
4. What academic area do you think you might like to concentrate in?
Kate: I'm thinking of concentrating in chemical and physical biology with a secondary concentration in mathematical sciences.
5. How has the remote platform affected your school experience?
Kate: For online classes, professors encourage a lot of interaction and breakout rooms, which is great. Harvard is really trying to mimic the sense of community and what it would be like in an in-person class.
For ballet, I would say it's a little more difficult, obviously because of the physical spacing, and the flooring is different. There's a lot of adjustments needed for that. For me personally, the biggest challenge of moving dance into an online platform is recreating the energy of taking a class and dancing with others and really feeling the movement with other people and the emotions behind it relative to one another. I do feel like Harvard Ballet Company is great at recreating that through interviews like this where I get to meet you guys, coffee chats, and stuff like that. So I at least know who is behind the camera and really feel like a part of the community because the community feeling is a huge part of what makes ballet so special. And I think quarantine and this whole Zoom experience has made it so that we can use that as a source of inspiration for choreography in creative ways, and I'm excited to see how we can channel this collective experience into our end-of-semester production. [note: this information was as of October 25]
6. How many years have you danced ballet and what inspired you to start ballet?
Kate: I've been dancing ballet for 11 or 12 years now, but I really started focusing on classical ballet in the Vaganova style 7 or 8 years ago. I started ballet originally when my parents put me in ballet because I had hip dysplasia. It was a great way to move around, and they recommended that stretching would be good. But my parents definitely didn't expect it to become a passion that I would carry throughout my life. I've always loved the storytelling behind ballet and dance in general, and I've always been drawn particularly to ballet because it's almost a history of different storytellings that you can get through different period pieces and variations, and I really enjoy that.
7. Where did you train and could you tell us about your experience dancing there?
Kate: I danced with the International Ballet Academy of Norwell. I danced with them for the last eight years and it was amazing. I loved all of the classes. They're very challenging, but the teachers tailor the classes to each student to make sure that you're really improving to your fullest potential. I also really enjoyed all the performance opportunities that they gave. The school recognized how important it is to allow students to dance on the stage, especially alongside professionals, so they can really get a feel for what company life is like, regardless of whether or not students want to go on a professional or pre-professional track. It was really great to get that kind of performance experience and have different role models to look up to.
8. What do you think are some of the primary challenges that today's dancers, or perhaps the dance industry as a whole, face?
Kate: I mean, currently right now, everything's through Zoom. So that's a huge challenge—making sure that everybody has access to training because you might not have your studio open for a long time or have access to a ballet studio flooring that’s safe to practice ballet on.
As an industry, work needs to be done, especially with eating disorders. They’re just too prevalent, and you lose too many ballet dancers to eating disorders. And yes, you have to be physically fit enough to be able to perform the pieces, but there's so much of a pressure that’s created through differences in power dynamics in a lot of companies and even ballet schools that really affects young dancers and professional dancers. That can lead to mental health issues, which are sometimes shrugged away or ignored, and that really affects dancers in a negative way.
9. How have you continued to dance on campus? And has that been hard?
Kate: It's been a little bit challenging. I have a nice suite, which is amazing. There’s a lot more space than I was expecting, although it is a carpet floor, so I'm still adjusting to that. I’m using makeshift chairs and windows as my own personal barre.
But I feel like I've also become more aware of details in my dancing. Because I'm not focused so much on grande allegro or pirouettes or center work, I’m paying more and more attention to smaller details I can do within a contained space. So I feel like as a dancer, I’m maybe improving more artistically because I'm more aware of, what's my head doing, what are my arms doing...stuff that's a little bit easier to control in a smaller space. And I feel like if you can dance in a smaller space, you're more self aware when you're in a performance and doing blocking, where it is so essential for every dancer to have good spatial awareness.
10. What is your favorite ballet and why?
Kate: It's hard to pick just one. I'd have to go with Swan Lake. The music is just magical, and the music really embodies the choreography, or I guess the choreography embodies the music. But I like watching multiple renditions of Swan Lake because you can see how different ballerinas take different approaches to the classic Odette/Odile character based on artistic differences or preferences and athletic differences as well. That's what makes ballet so interesting to watch—it's live, and you get a different feeling from each performer. And the story is so compelling. It's beautiful, because the audience is aware of the difference between Odette and Odile. But they can’t do anything and they just have to watch it play out. It's an interesting dynamic between the ballet’s story and the audience.
11. So what is your favorite ballet and part of class?
Kate: My favorite step would have to be fondues, because I feel like if you have a good fondu, you’re set up and you have the leg strength to do jumps, to hold balances, to do turns, and it's just...challenging. I find fondus one of the most challenging parts of class, which makes it the most rewarding. Just stamina-wise, it is challenging, and really getting kind of the melting motion behind it expresses a lot of emotion in such a simple movement. So I’d have to say fondus are my favorite move.
But I do love pirouettes. Practicing pirouettes is fun, and there are so many different ways and approaches to doing a pirouette. And they're always tricky—it depends on if it's a good turn day or a bad turn day, and trying to get that consistency is a great goal to strive towards. I feel like getting consistency is even more challenging than quantity because it's kind of worthless if you can do six pirouettes in one rehearsal if you can't then translate that onto stage. Or even one really slow, controlled beautiful pirouette can tell so much about the character. You don't want Kitri doing a slow, controlled pirouette; you want her doing several and making it energetic, but different roles would require a different approach to it.
12. What is your favorite role that you've danced and why?
Kate: My favorite role was Mertha from Giselle. I've danced that twice, but I've also danced in the corps de ballet, as well, for Giselle. It's just such an amazing role and I grew so much from it, both artistically and technically, just because it's so demanding. I had to do a lot of stamina training before to be able to do the entire second act because it's such a long piece, and you really have to carry the character throughout the scene. But I also got to work alongside professional dancers who were performing the main characters of the ballet, and to see their rehearsal and performance process was amazing. Also, to get their wisdom and see how they approach their roles...they really helped me embody the character and understand the nuances of the ballet.
13. Who do you regard as a role model in the ballet world and why?
Kate: There's so many; it's hard to pick just one! My favorite ballet dancer of all time is Sylvie Guillem. Something about her control and her approach to every role...I'm stunned every time I watch her. I've watched so many interviews of her, and she's really funny, which I love. She also has extremely hypermobile feet, which is something that when I was a younger dancer I had to work on to make sure I wasn't going over my box and develop the proper strength for pointe work. Seeing another dancer with really hypermobile ankles was really nice. Same with hyperextension. It's a double-edged sword. Some people might prefer it aesthetically, but it can be really difficult to work on your alignment. I'm still struggling, especially with hyperextension, getting proper alignment and not sinking into hyperextension. And so seeing a dancer who is able to control it is a role model because that's what I want to be able to do. I want to be able to use it as a huge advantage. I’m still working on that.
14. Given how busy your schedule is, why do you still make space for ballet?
Kate: I feel like regardless of what I do in my life, I'm always going to make space for ballet because it centers me. Exercise of any kind centers a lot of people, but for me it's specifically ballet. I feel like there's a certain routine to it that just really aligns my focus in everything I do. And I find that when I'm doing ballet, I'm just a happier person overall, which translates so well into academics, social life, and it just improves a person as a whole. So I think anyone regardless of whether or not they've tried ballet before should just give it a shot because it could be something that improves all aspects of your life. And you get to meet amazing people through it. So you are getting the social part of it. Harvard Ballet Company isn't just that you do ballet alone in your room for an hour and a half. You want to meet people through it who have a shared passion.
15. How would you describe your HBC experience so far?
Kate: Incredible so far! The community is just so creative. And I love seeing right now the different pieces of choreography all coming together in preparation for the show and all the rehearsals for the pieces. I love that process. It's also very welcoming. If you have an idea, you're encouraged to share, or if you want to improv to something because the music really makes you feel a certain way, you're welcome to do that. The choreographers are willing to give you that creative liberty. The classes are fun t0o. It’s the same thing where it's do what you need to do because you know your own limitations and how you can exceed them. There are also so many fun social events and I'm excited for all of those.