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How Gloria Desmond is Leaping Through the Ranks at the New York City Ballet Written by Skylar Hill
Coming onstage this week for the very first performance of the this year's spring season is thirty-two year-old Gloria Desmond, an up-and-coming principal dancer at the New York City Ballet. Desmond will be dancing as Titania in A Midsummer Night's Dream for a sold-out audience all season, and will be juggling two other roles along with that until early May—no easy feat, especially for someone so newly promoted.
Gloria started dancing at the unusually old age of eleven, but swiftly moved up to an advanced level by the age of fifteen, going on to study at the School of American Ballet for all four years of high school, as well as college after that. Gloria's dedication is nothing if not admirable, but one has to wonder how she got her big break as the top principal at NYCB.
I sat down with Gloria for an interview while she was getting ready for her cover shoot, and her personality was nothing like what I expected. The moment she walked into the studio and saw the hair and makeup team, she broke into an ecstatic smile at the sight of the clothing rack, which was full of exquisite dresses by New York based designer Naeem Khan. "No way," Gloria gushed. "These are all for me to wear? Are you sure I can be trusted not to ruin them?"
Not only did Gloria leave the dresses in perfect shape afterwards, she made it look like she was floating even without the high-tech cameras in front of her graceful form. As one of the stylists zipped up the back of an exquisitely embroidered floral gown, Gloria thoughtfully pondered my first question.
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SH: How would you say starting ballet at an older age differed your experience in the ballet world? What was it like for you?
GD: Starting so late was kind of like catching up on a bunch of missing homework assignments. I had to practice at home a lot and moved classes almost every other week, and it took years until I was finally with my age group. Even then, I felt inferior to the girls in my class, who'd been doing ballet for pretty much their entire lives. It was really daunting, to say the least.
SH: And what about high school? The School of American Ballet in NYC isn't somewhere the average teenager goes—how was it moving away from home?
GD: It was really scary at first. I grew up in Sacramento, and of course high school starts in ninth grade, so traveling across the country at fourteen was terrifying. I realized later it was kind of like going to Hogwarts, except it was a boarding school for dancing, not magic.
SH: What about the school itself? Did you ever get homesick, or did you enjoy it too much?
GD: The teachers have a no-nonsense way of doing things, so I was really homesick in the beginning, but it turned out to be one of the best experiences of my life. I'm still in touch with most of the friends I made there, and the instructors and choreographers helped get me to where I am today. I went to college there, too, which made a huge difference in my career.
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SH: Why did you move all the way across the country for ballet school? Why not go somewhere more close to home?
GD: Funnily enough, my first choice was actually the Los Angeles Ballet, but I didn't get in, so I went for my second choice [laughs]. Which, incidentally, turned out to be the best decision I've ever made.
SH: I can only imagine you're glad you chose to come to New York.
GD: Oh, definitely. I'll always love Sacramento, but New York is my home now, and I can't imagine living and working anywhere else.
SH: Speaking of working—how did you get a job at NYCB?
GD: I was in the corps de ballet when I found out that the company was looking for someone to replace a principal dancer who'd gotten in a car accident, and they were looking for someone to replace her for the winter season. I was already an apprentice under one of the other principal dancers, so when they asked me to take on the role, I accepted. . . and the rest is history [laughs].
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