Judith Jamison

It was a wonderful experience.

There I met Judith Jamison, the illustrious.

I remember she's in the hall and I went up to her, Ms. Jamison, and I had this whole like, you know, ready speech.

I remember she came in and looked at us in the class after I said it and I was like, oh my God, please don't mess up.

Um, and I can remember distinctly being eight years old, and I was dancing with the 14, 15-year-olds.

My teacher was Madame Sougey, uh, Sougey, who was also, uh, Judith Jamison's, um, teacher as well, and Dolores Browne.

She told my father, "Take her to Pennsylvania Ballet because she could be a ballet- she can be a ballet dancer." And so I remember being in her class and just, like, being at the barre and, like, eight years old going like, "I need to get this because it's gonna be what I'm, I'm gonna do." So yes, I absolutely knew that that's what I wanted.

Yeah.

It's, it's, it's more about, about inspiration and the ability to collaborate with so many great people.

I mean, if you think about the people I work with, Judith Jamison and, and Bernard Haitink in London, and now Leonard Slatkin and Placido and Valery Gergiev.

Like, I've worked with all these people.

Who gets that chance?