We spoke to retiring Principal Dancer Gonzalo Garcia about his upcoming retirement, performing featured roles in George Balanchine’s The Nutcracker® and other NYCB repertory staples, and what he will miss the most after leaving the Company.
Congratulations on your upcoming retirement. How are you feeling now after the last year and a half and with all that is going on?
I feel good. It has been a crazy, challenging year and a half for all of us. The beginning was tough and I luckily went away to Connecticut where my husband’s family has a place. There was a studio I could rent to teach through Zoom and get back in shape. Then Joaquin De Luz (former NYCB principal, current Artistic Director of Compañia Nacional De Danza) invited me to come dance in Spain, which I never thought would happen because of COVID.
Europe started to do a little better, so I went there for several months, which saved my life. Even before COVID, I had already started talking to Jonathan Stafford and Wendy Whelan about retiring, but because of the pandemic, I postponed it by a whole year.
When did you decide to retire and why?
I had always thought that I would retire by age 40, and I started to mentally prepare myself by teaching at other places, emotionally training myself to let go. At 38, I had major surgery on my foot, which took me off the stage until the fall of 2018. I hadn’t had any major injuries prior to that, which I think made my career steady and successful, but at 38, I didn’t know what would happen. It was a risky surgery, but I was lucky with my surgeon, Dr. James O’Malley, who convinced me to have the operation. Even though he said it would extend my career by 10 years, I just wanted a couple of years more.
Around that time, there was a big transition at the Company, and I was working on getting back to performing from my injury. I had been asked to start teaching Company class and Kay Mazzo (Chairman of Faculty at the School of American Ballet) later asked me to become a faculty member at SAB the following year. I was already a guest teacher at Juilliard and taught at Ballet Academy East for many years.
During the two years I was injured, I had a conversation with Jonathan about how they wanted to schedule me at SAB since I come from a different background and have taught at places outside our School. I mentioned that I was not going to dance for much longer and planned to retire in one and a half to two years. I also wanted to shadow Jean-Pierre Frohlich (Repertory Director) and learn about the Robbins Foundation. When Jonathan heard I was thinking of retiring, he was very interested in me continuing with the Company as a teacher, and possibly a Repertory Director. After that meeting we scheduled the date on my retirement, but then COVID happened.
Since my surgery I have been able to dance works that I had not danced in a while, such as Theme and Variations. I found a sweet spot with my experience and physicality, and felt this was the time to move on. My repertory is tough and I wanted the audience to not see my final performances as a nightmare and see me dancing past my prime. This is why I always had a timeline on when to retire.
I’m still figuring out what I am going to dance at my farewell performance, but I know I want to celebrate the women I’ve performed with at NYCB. I came to the Company already an established dancer after performing many years at San Francisco Ballet (SFB). Dancing with so many of the NYCB women such as Tiler Peck, Megan Fairchild, Sterling Hyltin, Sara Mearns, Ashley Bouder, Lauren Lovette, and some newer dancers like Indiana Woodward, and of course with Wendy, was amazing—they really shaped my career. At the end, it isn’t really a celebration about me. I want to be with my colleagues celebrating our last time on stage together.
What are some special pieces you have danced at NYCB?
Jerome Robbins’ Opus 19 is a very special work for me personally and I always felt it was very much part of me. Susie Hendl (former Repertory Director) taught it to me. She is one of the best coaches and I was lucky to have someone like her coaching me. I met Susie when I was a boy at SFB and she came there with Victor Castelli to stage Robbins’ Dances at a Gathering and I danced the roles of the Brick Boy and Brown Boy. Helgi Tomasson (Artistic Director of SFB) put me in the group to learn the work, but Susie and Victor cast me. It was clearly a turning point for me—I became an adult on stage, and the role fits so well with my personality, which looking back had to do with Susie and Victor’s influence.
When I joined NYCB, Opus 19 was the first Robbins ballet in the repertory that I learned that I hadn’t danced at SFB . It was for the Robbins Festival in 2008 and Wendy was looking for a new partner. I was so fortunate that Wendy and Susie thought of me for this role, and I felt I had to match Wendy’s experience.
How do you feel about dancing your last performances of The Nutcracker?
I love performing The Nutcracker. I fell in love with the ballet the first year I was at SFB’s School and since then have performed numerous roles. I first saw Lew Christensen’s Nutcracker production, (the oldest one in U.S.), which is beautiful. I performed the Prince/Cavalier role when Helgi created a new production for SFB.
Balanchine was inspired by Christensen’s production and followed his structure. While I still love Christensen’s version, I think Balanchine’s choreography is superior and there is a comfort with his production. I never get tired of the ballet.
I was incredibly flattered when they asked me to perform opening night of The Nutcracker this year with Megan Fairchild and I feel like there’s no better way to say goodbye to this beloved annual holiday tradition. My mother and friends came to New York just to see me on opening night.
Why did you decide to come to NYCB?
I was 27 years old, and I had been with SFB since I was 15. I moved quickly through the ranks and I had performed all the full-length productions (Giselle, Swan Lake, Sleeping Beauty, Don Quixote, etc.). I was very lucky and had an amazing partner, Tina LeBlanc. She mentored me, and she was retiring soon. I was at a point in my career where I was asking myself, “Now what?” Though I still had many years left, I wanted to be strategic about making a move because there is a small window when a dancer is still desirable. All of these things started coming into my brain because NYCB invited me to come and dance Ballo Della Regina for Balanchine’s Centennial in 2004. I danced with the Company for two weeks and while I was happy at SFB, I felt what it was like to be a dancer living in New York.
I knew if I wanted to continue to grow artistically, I had to come to NYCB. It is so different from any other company in the world. It would be challenging with the different energy, style, ballets, and schedule, but ultimately, I was looking to go out of my comfort zone. I think once you are comfortable, you are dead artistically. It was hard to leave SFB and say good-bye to Helgi, but I knew it was necessary for me to go. I wanted to look back on my career and say, “I did it: I learned as much as I could, challenged myself, I didn’t make it easy for myself.”
The first year was tough. I started out strong and danced a lot with different partners. The history of the Theater and Company is so unique and rich that it takes a while to digest all of it and understand the “flavor of the wine” that is the Company.
What will you miss the most at City Ballet?
I will miss the unspoken relationship I have with the dancers—that special connection with someone on stage and creating a new ballet together. And those first few ballets on Opening Nights; when you put yourself in the most vulnerable place next to your colleagues and find comfort in each other.
I have become friends with my fellow Company members and on stage we are family. Even if I haven’t spoken to a corps member, I might watch them during a certain part of the ballet and I become connected to that person.
At NYCB there is such a deep level of trust and dependency with your fellow dancers because the schedule is so demanding. Sometimes you go on stage well prepared and other times you are thrown into a role. So, you really learn how to trust yourself onstage surrounded by your Company.
But I am not leaving totally, just in the performing aspect. Soon I will watch the dancers from a different perspective, and I look forward to keep dancing through the dancers I coach and teach. Once I started teaching, I realized how special it is and I felt even more rewarded.
Born in Zaragoza, Spain, Mr. Garcia began studying ballet at the age of eight at Maria Avila's school. In 1995, he attended the summer session at San Francisco Ballet School. Following this session, Mr. Garcia participated in the Prix de Lausanne, becoming the youngest dancer to receive a gold medal.
He then returned to the SFB School to resume his studies and was selected by Helgi Tomasson, Artistic Director of San Francisco Ballet, to perform in a world premiere ballet created especially for the 1996 Spring Student Showcase.
Mr. Garcia joined San Francisco Ballet as a member of the corps de ballet in March 1998. In 2000, he was promoted to soloist, and in 2002 to principal dancer.
Mr. Garcia was invited to perform Balanchine Ballo della Regina with New York City Ballet as part of the Company's Balanchine Centennial Celebration in 2004.
Mr. Garcia joined New York City Ballet in October 2007 as a principal dancer. He will retire on February 27, 2022.