To The Pointe Meets Shale Wagman

If you’ve never heard of the name Shale Wagman, don’t worry, it won’t be long until you’re so used to it that to hear it mentioned in most ballet related conversations will just be the norm. Actually, the future looks so bright for this young artist that the name might even transcend strictly ballet topics of conversation. It was recently announced that Wagman has left English National Ballet, where he has been dancing in the corps de ballet for the past year. I first had the pleasure of interviewing him a couple of months ago as he prepared to take part in English National Ballet’s Emerging Dancer award. He was wonderful that night but didn’t win the award. No matter, his ultimate dream was just around the corner. A couple of weeks ago, YouTube, ballet forums, Twitter etc. all exploded with videos and wondrous reviews following a performance of ‘La Sylphide’ at the Mariinsky. The name being flown around and sandwiched in between heart emojis? Shale Wagman. At just 19 years old, the promising star had been invited to dance his first Principal role at the prestigious Mariinsky company. This is a dream for most established ballet stars, many of whom will never receive such an invite. For a pretty unknown 19 year-old corps de ballet member, it’s unheard of. So what is it about Shale Wagman that will have you shouting his name from every amphitheatre bar in the world? Starters, he’s been gifted with bucket loads of talent. It helps that he’s also very striking, tall and looks like the perfect prince. To be honest though, Wagman’s just a nice guy whose passion for dance is completely at the forefront of everything he does and that, as far as I’m concerned, is why he deserves all the attention he’s going to get.

Photo copyright Svetlana Avvakum

Wagman was born in Canada, and grew up in a house with his parents and two brothers. “I come from a sporty family. My dad was a hockey coach, my two brothers played hockey and my parents tried to put me in hockey and soccer. I think most parents want to introduce their kids to an after school activity that would best fit them and give them a chance to express themselves. I remember the first time they put me on the ice and I just sat there and pouted!” So I’m guessing a hockey career was pretty quickly shot down by the six year-old. Whilst the rest of the men were having it large on the ice, where did this leave Wagman? “I took swimming lessons and the swimming instructor’s son was a dancer who danced at a competition studio in Canada. He kept encouraging me to go and after three years, I eventually went to audition at the studio. It really was my calling and in a way it was fate because if I hadn’t gone to those swimming lessons I wouldn’t have been pushed to go there.” Wagman looks back on the first time he stepped into the studio with fond memories. “I remember going into my first day at that studio and I loved it from the very first class I took. I was in love with the music, I was in love with the movement. I was really intrigued with movement in general, the movement of water and I would love to go to the amusement park and look at the rollercoasters and just try to figure out how they moved.

Shale Wagman during Prix de Lausanne auditions, photo copyright Gregory Batardon

He comes alive when he describes the dance teacher who worked at the studio. “He was this big Russian man. I was six so naturally I found him very scary. He looked at me and said ‘show me what you can do.’” It’s here that Wagman puts on his best Russian accent, affectionately mocking this first encounter with the man who went on to train him for six years and whom Wagman tells me is like his second father. “I started doing cartwheels and splits and he grabbed my feet and starting pointing them and started stretching my legs up in the air. My mum wanted me there a few times a week but he told her I had to start in competitive immediately. So I started dancing very seriously from the moment I had my first class.” Wagman tells me that they didn’t do much ballet, but instead covered all types of dancing. It wasn’t until he turned 13 that he decided to focus on ballet and make it his career. Surrounded by dancers at the studio who were going into careers in the commercial dance world, Wagman knew he wanted to focus on ballet. “It was very serious to me and I was sure from when I was six that I wanted to be a dancer. Dancing is my whole entire being and it’s been that way since I was a kid.” Going from the Canadian studio to a full time career in ballet couldn’t have been an easy step to take and Wagman sat with his mum to watch the documentary ‘First Position’ which focuses on a few young dancers who are gearing up for the Youth America Grand Prix dance competition. Wagman tells me that watching the documentary inspired him to follow a similar route. Little did he know at the time just how important competitive ballet was going to be in shaping his career. Before he entered YAGP for himself, there was a stint on Canada’s Got Talent – where Wagman was crowned ‘judges’ favourite’ and ‘fan favourite’ and ended up as one of the finalists. Following this, the opportunities for TV and film started to flood in. “I enjoyed it but it wasn’t what I wanted to do. I was about to start going into the acting world but I realised I just wanted to dance. My parents and I decided that it would be best that I train privately and we had met a ballet teacher on set and that’s how the career started.” I ask him whether he would consider revisiting the acting and he tells me maybe one day but not for right now. After the private lessons started, he entered the YAGP competition six months later, where he won the Youth Grand Prix award which offered scholarships from the Bolshoi, Houston, Academy of Monte Carlo and many others. He chose Monte Carlo, feeling it would be the best place for him, and trained there for four years. Although he had a wonderful experience in Monte Carlo, it was just a matter of time until Wagman would decide to enter the crème de la crème of ballet competitions. At 17, the Prix de Lausanne came calling and Wagman was crowned as the first prize winner. “I don’t even have words to explain”, he tells me. “It was a surreal experience and an incredible time. It was amazing to meet so many directors from different companies and future colleagues in the ballet world. That stage has so much history and I had such a wonderful time performing there. So many stars have performed there and won it and so for me to win it was an indescribable feeling and an incredible opportunity.” Well it’s thanks to the Prix that we have been lucky enough to have Wagman in the UK for the past year. “After having the luxury to choose any company I wanted to go to thanks to the Prix, I was able to weigh my options and see which company would best fit me and have the best repertoire. I just found that English National Ballet would give me the opportunity to grow artistically.”

Shale Wagman, winning the Prix de Lausanne, photo copyright Gregory Batardon

It’s here that we take a break from going through the motions and just talk about our shared love of dance. I want to know more about Wagman’s drive and his passion for this art form. Why dance? Why ballet? He’s dreamy when he talks about it all, and the passion in his voice as he speaks is so infectious it makes even me, a 28 year-old carb loving 9-5 City worker, contemplate a life on stage in pointe shoes. “I was born to dance. It’s my life, it’s everything I breathe.” Before I run to a print shop and get this printed in large format and framed for my bedroom, Wagman continues. “I just feel like I’m able to express myself and have that outlet to be able to communicate what I can’t in words. It’s everything I want, I dedicate every minute to dance, and it’s something that I will forever love. I don’t think I will lose my love for it. It’s the only thing that’s always there that’s constant. I will always have dance to lean on. In life, you’ll meet incredible people, you’ll have unbelievable relationships but nothing is ever secure. Dance is always there, music is always there, I can always watch it.” When I listen to Wagman talk about this great love for dance, I realise that he is actually much more than a dancer. He is whole heartedly a performer, who wants to spend as much time as possible on stage, connecting with audiences and performing to crowds. It’s this side to the passion that I think will take him to the super stardom that I think he craves. “All I’ve ever wanted is to be on stage , it’s sort of like my drug. Some people need drugs to escape reality but the stage is my escape, it’s where I feel like a totally different person whilst remaining the same person if you know what I mean. It’s like my alter ego comes out when I’m on stage!” I joke that it’s his ‘sasha fierce’ – Beyonce’s infamous alter ego and he laughs. What he doesn’t realise is that I’m comparing him to the queen B herself, as that drive to perform puts him more in line with the stars of today. I wonder which ballet stars have influenced Wagman though, and he tells me that Rudolph Nureyev has always been a huge inspiration to him. “I think he’s such a complete artist who really is so versatile and had that it factor, the star quality. You can do a pirouette, you can do ten or jump high but you can’t teach someone how to have that extra oomph and artistic quality on stage. Nothing really matters if you can’t express yourself on stage and move an audience.” Nureyev famously had to defect to America during his career and sacrificed so much to be able to continue to dance. I ask Wagman if he feels like he has had to sacrifice a lot by following this path and whether being so far from home has been difficult. “Of course I didn’t go out with friends a lot or go to prom or a school dance but I’d much rather be in the studio working or be on stage. In my mind I don’t think I’ve sacrificed anything, because this is everything I want. This is what I want to be and what I’m working for. I don’t think that there’s any time to waste in this career. I’ve had to sacrifice time but this is serving me and my soul to the maximum that it can and I think I should give the maximum time back.” Wagman tells me that he makes sure he goes back to Canada at least once a year and that it’s great to go back and be with his family who he tells me are all very supportive of his career. “My mum and I are best friends, she’s a very artistic personality so she understands me completely and my mum actually has a great eye when it comes to the ballet, she can see when someone has the ‘it’ factor. My dad is a business man so very straight in his way of thinking, but extremely supportive and loves to watch me as well. So do my brothers who don’t know too much about ballet, but they all love watching me on stage.”

Photo copyright Laurent Liotardo

It’s wonderful to learn how supportive the family is about his career, but I doubt nothing could have prepared them for the news that their son, their 19 year-old teenager, had been invited to dance at the Mariinsky ballet and make history as the youngest dancer to ever be invited to dance there in a principal role. “My mother, my teacher and my mentor came and it was really special. When everyone left the theatre and it was just the four of us there, I started to cry and couldn’t believe what had just happened. It was very emotional!” So just how did this dream come in to place? “I was in St Petersburg for Dance Open and the following day, the Director of the company invited me to take class at the Mariinsky. A few weeks later he asked me to dance the lead role of James in ‘La Sylphide’ alongside Olesya Novikova. I didn’t have much preparation and started to learn it by watching the video.” I later learn that Wagman had been asked to take on the Bournonville classic in May, began rehearsing with the video in June and performed it in July. “I started to rehearse by myself and I had some people at English National Ballet giving me a helping hand. Then I went to St Petersburg and started rehearsing there – thirteen days before my performance.” It’s clear how much the Mariinsky had a positive effect on him and he praises everyone who helped him on the journey. He tells me how amazing the coaches were and what a fabulous experience it was to experience the passion and fire in their teaching methods. With such a short time to rehearse, he was grateful to have such a supportive company surrounding him. “I was still trying to learn the ballet ten minutes before I went on stage! The company members were so kind to me and even before my variations they were like “good luck man.” I hadn’t rehearsed it with the corps de ballet before I went on stage so I didn’t know where to go in terms of lines and crossing so on stage all of the dancers were helping me and nodding their heads to go right or to go left. It was just so nice!” I talk about how I often find debuts so enchanting and magical and I imagine that Wagman feels the same. “I think that the fact the performance was so fresh made the whole experience on stage so organic and real. The emotions were really true because it wasn’t over rehearsed and drilled. I was able to totally live through the character.” Oh to have been there! I have seen various videos across social media of the performance and it looks like it was such a special moment in ballet. It’s clear Wagman took the opportunity and gave it his all. “I’ve never felt like that on stage before. I don’t know if it was because of the circumstance of performing in that magical theatre or if it was the fact it was my first principal role or if it was the audience that I connected with on stage but the whole thing was so special because I felt like I was living through my character on stage, I really realised aspects of my own personality through that character and I learnt a lot about myself through James. Vice versa - I really gave myself to the role and added a bit of Shale to James! The experience was unlike anything I’ve ever done before and the connection with my partner Olesya was so deep and really gave me a sense of calmness on stage.” For someone so young and so early on in his career, to dance a principal role on one of the most historic stages in the world must have been amazing but also terrifying. “Quite frankly I wasn’t nervous at all before I went on stage because I knew that this was the best thing that has ever really happened to me and I knew that if I was nervous I would just make it worse so I thought you know what let’s just go for it!”

Photo copyright Emma Kauldhar

Something that I really like about Wagman is that even though he’s still so young, he already feels a responsibility to be an ambassador for classical ballet. “People sometimes criticise the classics for being too outdated and not relatable to today’s society but actually I don’t agree. ‘La Sylphide’ it’s all about an unattainable love, that you can never touch or get your hands on and I think people can really relate to that. Love is the best feeling in the world but it’s also the worst because if you can’t get it or it’s not reciprocated then it doesn’t work and you feel heartbroken. So the audience can really invest in the story because of those themes. Those works were created centuries ago and they are still being performed today because they’re timeless thanks to the music and the story and I feel it’s up to the dancers to make it relatable to today.” I applaud Wagman for feeling so passionate about bringing the history to the audience and wanting to ensure that audiences understand the key themes of the classics.

Photo copyright Alice Blangero

Wagman is wise beyond his years and has already achieved so much in his career. What could be next for the special one? “We have yet to see” he coyly tells me. I don’t push and ask him what he wants the future to hold. “I just want to share myself with the audience. You go through hard times in this career, it’s very difficult and strenuous mentally and physically but of course it’s all worth it.” He’s currently experiencing some of this physical strain following his performance in Russia. “Right now I’m just resting my body and keeping my feet on the ground – although they’ve never been off as I’ve been on cloud nine following Russia!” Wagman is proof that dreams can come true and I think he’s a great role model for dancers just starting their career. He tells me that he wants to start the next season with “panache” and for a dancer who has so much talent and drive, I don’t think this is going to be a problem. Perhaps you hadn’t heard of the name Shale Wagman – well you have now.

*Thanks to Shale Wagman

*Thanks to Laura Nixon at English National Ballet