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In order to be in the perfect condition for 'The Nutcracker,' NYC Ballet's principal dancer Megan Fairchild has multiple appointments leading up to the show to build strength, flexibility and control. Megan takes us through every step in her rehearsal routine catered to each purpose and trust us–she's a beast! Take a look.
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00:00Hi, I'm Megan Fairchild, Principal Dancer with the New York City Ballet.
00:21Come with me as I prepare for my final season of George Balanchine's The Nutcracker.
00:30So we start our day off coming into company class, even if we don't see each other in
00:45the day normally, the whole company is actually together for company class and it's a nice
00:49time to have a little social moment.
00:52I personally feel I spend a lot of my days in a studio alone or just with one other person.
00:57You come in a little early and you find the range of motion in your body again and try
01:01to get out a little bit of the soreness from whatever you rehearsed the day before.
01:05And then class starts, we have a live pianist every day.
01:08The teacher comes in and gives whatever combinations they want.
01:12I can sometimes tell if they've thought about the repertory that we're doing at New York City
01:15Ballet, but sometimes it's nice to really do different things.
01:18Each combination, there's a structure of what steps we should do, but they make up new combinations
01:24every day so that we don't get bored.
01:26And eventually we step away from the bar, move into center, we do pirouettes, jumps, and
01:31then we're all ready for our first rehearsal of the day.
01:35Sometimes I put heels on now and I'm like, ooh, I want a little rosin, you know?
01:51I don't want to be slip-sliding in any shoes.
01:56Rubbing alcohol, just when they're brand new, because it's glue.
02:01And this is great that that's hard, but we also have to do this demi point, so there's
02:07just a little bit of it you need to be flexible.
02:09Nice pants, by the way.
02:11Jazz pants.
02:12Yeah.
02:13This is my partner, Joseph Gordon.
02:15Hi, everybody.
02:16I call him Joe.
02:17Is this second year doing opening night of Sugar Point?
02:20Third, right?
02:21Okay, third.
02:22Third.
02:23Maybe third.
02:24It's been many years, many partners.
02:26She's the veteran, I'm the newbie.
02:29It's very easy with Joe, so I don't really have to work very hard.
02:32We like dancing together, so that's nice.
02:37We both know this role really well, there's no steps to learn.
02:40It's basically just running the pas de deux, and if there's any sticky moments that we want
02:46to stop because your body feels like it's not ready to move on to the next step, or something
02:51went really wrong, we can stop and problem solve.
02:53But usually we try to run through the whole thing, and then talk about it afterwards.
02:57Maybe there's some things that our rehearsal director at the front of the room saw that,
03:00you know, we couldn't feel in our body.
03:02It's a very different experience what you're trying to do and translate to the audience,
03:08and what is actually, you know, happening.
03:12It's better.
03:13It's better.
03:14Could be that Danny's...
03:28Really?
03:29It's better there.
03:30That was pretty good actually.
03:44That was pretty good.
03:46Just a little too far away I was for the...
03:50I need to get going.
03:52Second shoulder set.
03:54What do you mean you need to get going on that torture set?
03:56Yeah.
03:57The double cabriol looks fine.
03:58Looks good, yeah.
04:01And now I dance alone.
04:28So it's really important to have those eyes at the front of the room because you can only control so much with what it feels like but you need outside view of...
04:43Okay your shoulder's popping up or that arm's too high here or do this better or you do it better when you do this.
04:48This way it starts to become second nature.
04:51If I didn't have that your muscles would go into spasm after the show or in the show because it would be trying to micromanage too much at once.
04:59We get to a place where you go on stage and you can literally just get lost in the music and your body just is moving and you're not even telling it what to do.
05:06It's just muscle memory.
05:08That's what a good, focused, zoned performance is.
05:12You didn't micromanage anything in the moment.
05:15It just happened because you gave yourself enough preparation.
05:19It's so funny.
05:47I just need 16 seconds.
05:51And also I don't like mapping in bad habits because I'm tired.
05:55Because you know what it'll be?
05:56It'll be my shoulders.
06:17Okay.
06:19At the beginning you do have a lot of space.
06:36Go up.
06:37I see what you're saying.
06:38Here.
06:39And here.
06:40And I'm just there.
06:42Is that what you're saying?
06:43Yeah.
06:44profile though right should I cheat it oh and then run profile but I don't know
06:55if I can even make that look good none of them are good so I just get very
06:59literal this is a double twist on the spine you have a don't make it yes
07:06initially I was brand new to all of the steps and my partner we did six straight
07:13weeks of rehearsal an hour of rehearsal every day and we would get to the first
07:17difficult step and we wouldn't have to run that seven to eight times we will
07:22get to the next difficult step and we would run that ten times and then we
07:25would get to another difficult step it was like 20 times that one like it was
07:28almost really demoralizing at the beginning I think something that really
07:32helps in Nutcracker is you kind of take it on the road and and do it with a on a
07:36gig at a smaller school away from the spotlight of the big stage and you have
07:41a little more freedom to explore and get comfortable and so at this point I
07:47could literally perform it at any given minute it's just in there but it's nice
07:52to have the preparation so that when you get to the stage you don't have to think
07:56about anything but like the beauty of the live orchestra
08:05hi now I'm at physical therapy this is our physical therapist Marika Molnar who we
08:10are so blessed to have at New York City Ballet she takes care of all of us she's
08:14like our mama and she's gonna do some shockwave on me and help get rid of some
08:19scar tissue at the bottom of my soleus muscle this is really a pressure wave
08:23brings better blood supply it actually helps the cells regenerate just
08:28recently on the market in the last couple of years and we were fortunate
08:32enough to have it here in the New York City Ballet this is the kind of
08:36treatment where you have to rely on the patient to tell you when it hurts and
08:40when it stops hurting ready mm-hmm it's like a jackhammer of sound waves yes it
08:48is really gets in there and reduces the pain is it about a five out of ten okay
08:55now we'll do the focus okay and again the same idea I'm going to put you on just a
09:25little stretch you tell there I feel all the way into my left ankle good it's a
09:35little bit long usually we do two or three thousand shots per area so interesting
09:44now on this side I feel it on the my right side of my foot it goes right
09:48through yeah well this is the skinny part of your ankle good job okay I noticed
10:03that I think that because this is the toe that has not much motion I can't
10:10properly push on to it and I think that's part of where this comes from yeah it's
10:15it's hardly moving compared to this one which has quite an ex a nice range of
10:21motion so it goes from zero to about 90 and this one goes from about zero to
10:28about 45 50 and I have to really push it to even get midway what we should do
10:35really is work on mobilizing the joint and making sure that everything under
10:40here's a little bit less tight okay we have PT spots open every day it's kind
10:47of a competitive thing to sign up for and we have about she has a bunch of
10:51therapists that work for her we got a pop that was good but you know there's
10:55like a hundred and six Wow that's great yeah a hundred and six or hundred nine
11:01people in the company and all competing to feel we never know our schedule from
11:06yeah we don't know our schedule really know the rehearsal schedule till two
11:09days yeah so it's really hard to make a plan for something so then once those
11:14spots get open it's a mad dash and some seasons I have an alarm on my phone that
11:19goes off at 4 p.m. when the schedule opens up we don't look at this is popping a
11:23lot okay all right great I'll see you next time sounds good thank you
11:28so I started doing gyro 11 years ago as a gift from my brother it was something
11:42that he was doing for I think back pain a lot of guys do it for back pain and I
11:47had kind of on my radar Swan Lake and I'm pretty small and I was like how can I
11:54be big and so this helps you really like stretching out from your core but then
11:59you're still connected to your core and it it helps my arabesque and so now if I'm
12:04ever just kind of like stuck in any part of my spine I like to get on the gyro
12:09machine and it's kind of my favorite workout or let's say exercises before a
12:17show it doesn't feel like I have maxed out my muscles but I have accessed my
12:24whole range of motion so I get on stage and I try to go and do a full thing I'm
12:29not like suddenly surprised kind of gets out all the ickiness in the spine I think
12:38they call this arch and curl so you're like arching every little vertebrae not
12:44just from one section and then you're curling through the spine as you bring
12:47the thing back in when we're in the theater I'm doing it almost every day
12:54Pilates feels more like a muscular workout and this feels like a body
13:00connectivity exercise where you just feel longer and more flexible and this is my
13:08favorite one down the center and I also have very tight shoulders and so it
13:13helps me you know have that diva ballerina posture so effortlessly that
13:23does not come effortlessly to me we also have someone that once injured
13:32themselves dropping these weights on their foot so I think about her every time
13:36so I try to really root down in my hips and make sure I'm not letting this pull
13:45me up making the hamstrings long I kind of mobilize the sacrum and I twist a
13:52little bit I used to do a ton more cross training I used to swim I used to be
14:00doing the elliptical or the bike but now I'm a mom and so my cardio is running
14:06around after my kids and cleaning up at the latter part of my career it's more
14:10about staying strong to avoid injury the stamina seems to really be there through
14:16the rehearsals if we have a layoff I take time off I like to rest my body and I
14:22know exactly kind of when to get it going again I'm not a prisoner to the gym like I
14:28feel I used to be as a younger dancer that's why I keep talking about like
14:33range of motion that's kind of all that really matters at this point okay that
14:38was my summarized gyro workout I could probably spend half an hour on there
14:45so this is a new feature of our Wellness Center in New York City Ballet we have
14:57the Arctic Circle it is the cold plunge room so normally actually I'd be in a
15:03full just leotard or swimsuit and go fully in but we're doing a quickie
15:08session today and right now the most important thing is my lower legs so just
15:12getting into here is going to be really beneficial we are lucky to have this a
15:17lot of dancers used to use big garbage pails feel and we they would fill them
15:21with from the ice machine and cold water and ice their legs after a show or after
15:27a long day of rehearsals and now we just have this so we don't have to do as much
15:31work honestly I'm not that into ice but this really helps
15:42it's really cold I usually try to watch a show on Netflix yeah it's just like you
15:54gotta like you can't recognize it I mean so I'm at 30 seconds my feet are
15:59starting to burn it doesn't feel great but it allows the whole body to have like
16:05new blood in the legs I'll have fresh calves tomorrow okay yeah I'm hurting the
16:13hard part is getting out please you can't really stand on your legs anymore
16:18when we're in the theater we just leave this open all day people come in and out
16:25the whole day and honestly like 10 30 at night is a big party after the show
16:37so now we're at my chiropractors this is dr. Roy Siegel I've been a patient for
16:43many years over a decade it just helps me maintain my body I don't feel like I
16:48have as much pressure on my back every time I lift my leg
16:52arm up in the air fight hard fight hard fight
17:00thorax is not happy we'll get this
17:07it's an impact instrument five pounds per square inch in a hundredth of a second
17:12moves the joints back in place when you find things are slightly out of place
17:16deep breath in I'm told the vagus nerve starts at the hippocampus goes to
17:25every organ and tissue in the body and when we do this correlates function with
17:31everything else that should be growing right okay now face down it's testing
17:38well yeah I'm getting a lot of work done on my soleus muscle
17:46so my it's just been my back otherwise thanks right yeah I think I think we're set we're good
17:51so something that's not interesting to pick up on camera is the time that we're just relaxing
18:02when we're in the theater I have a mattress and I try to take a nap once a day I am a mom of three
18:08so I don't always get as much sleep as I want and I have to wake up early and get them to school
18:12so I'm really priming myself to peak at like nine o'clock at night oftentimes the first show of a
18:19season I feel like my nerves are just like like I had five coffees and I can't like calm myself down
18:26I'll take 20 minutes and sit and meditate I like transcendental meditation I have a mantra
18:31that I keep tying my focus back to but the whole goal is to like let it pass
18:36thanks so much for rehearsing with me bye self
18:46you
18:53you
18:55you
18:57you
18:59you
19:01you
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