Unlike most ballerinas whose feet are pocked with corns and bunions, Aidan Gibson’s slender feet reveal only a few calluses.
A soloist with Dresden Semperoper Ballett, Gibson, 27, has beautifully arched supple feet but some days they’re killing her.
Gibson shares this struggle with her peers, whose feet take persistent abuse in satin pointe shoes or at times none at all.
Ballet dancers are some of the hardest working people in show business, and Gibson gladly pushes her limber body to achieve a choreographer’s desired results.
Although very youthful in appearance, the 1.74 metre (five-foot seven-inch) dancer estimates she only has two or three years left before retiring.
“I have a lot of aches and pains. My back aches. My feet have calluses. When you’re young, you have so much energy and you’re so excited. You see in your younger colleagues they have more energy, bounce back faster and have less summer maintenance,” said Gibson.
The former St. Albert resident is in town to visit her parents and has become a familiar face at Servus Place where she spends several hours daily maintaining strength, stamina and flexibility.
As a young ballerina, Gibson left the city at age 12 to join the Royal Winnipeg Ballet School’s intensive full year program. Many dancers attempt the program, but after a bout of homesickness return home. Not Gibson.
“I love my parents. But I just loved dancing so much. I was very determined at a young age and knew what I wanted to do – which you have to in order to be successful.”
But in her second last year at RWB school, she left to train in Europe. She was 16.
“I wanted something different and I did my research. Germany has a big population and in most cities they have a ballet company. If I started training in Europe, I could build a base and it would be easier to start dancing,” Gibson reasoned.
In addition, schooling is state-funded and apprentice dancers with a one-year contract are paid for a full year. North American companies generally offer a salary only for months danced.
Carrying a suitcase filled with leotards and dance shoes, she was accepted at the John Cranko Ballet Academy in Stuttgart under Reid Anderson.
“I was expected to do classical ballet, but I was also expected to put on a pair of socks and roll around the floor,” laughs Gibson.
She spent two years at the school and in that time toured Hong Kong and Seville, Spain with the company.
“It was an incredible time. There was so much information to learn and I was really excited about everything.”
While she did apprentice for one year, her contract was not renewed. Companies traditionally hire many apprentices for a first year, but only bring a few into the fold.
In a world where your directors daily scrutinize your body and technique, a rejection can be a difficult blow to overcome.
“I felt terrible. But sometimes you’re not the right fit. I started auditioning but it was so hard. Fortunately they appreciated my work ethic and professionalism. I had a great recommendation from Reid.”
Gibson’s next stop was a three-season hitch with Royal Ballet Flanders, a company that focused on very physical, neoclassical ballets.
At the Flanders dance troupe, she had the opportunity to work on William Forsythe’s choreographies. The American-born, Frankfurt-based choreographer is a luminary who stages audacious groundbreaking contemporary dance.
His work is both abstract and theatrical incorporating spoken work, experimental music and elaborate art installations.
“He was a large personality. You could definitely feel when he was in the room. But what you really notice is how intelligent he is and how many different aspects of life he understands. He’s such a mecca of knowledge.”
In the corps de ballet, Gibson worked her feet off with back-to-back rehearsals, costume fittings, physical therapy and hair-makeup-costume routines for performances.
But the payoff was the adrenalin rush of performing.
“It’s such a gift. And I get paid to do what I love to do.”
Eager to work with neoclassical ballet choreographer Bridget Breiner at Ballett im Revier in Gelsenkirchen, a small troupe with about a dozen dancers, Gibson left Flanders.
However, she missed the ambience of larger companies and auditioned for Dresden Semperoper Ballett where she was accepted into the corps de ballet.
Now entering her fourth season, she is a half soloist, an ascending rung that means more unaccompanied work.
This past season Gibson danced 12 gruelling programs giving new meaning to on-your-feet-all-day exhaustion.
In the coming season she looks forward to performing at New York’s Joyce Theatre and Ottawa’s National Arts Centre in Swan Lake. Welcome home.
