Devin Sweet
THE BASICS
Name: Devin Sweet
Age: 25
Astrological Sign: Aries
Hometown: Plymouth, New York. It’s a small village in the middle of upstate NY, surrounded by farms and State Forests.
Role in C’ville Ballet: Company Artist and all-around handyman.
FAVORITES…
Food: Any well-made soup
Color: Turquoise, but I like most blues.
Book: The Tao te-Ching by Lao Tzu
Movie: Star Wars: the original trilogy, Monty Python, Firefly, Serenity, V for Vendetta
Quotation: “Try not, do or do not, there is no try”-Yoda
Musician/Band: Rise Against, Bob Dylan, Frank Sinatra.
Spot in C’ville: Any of the forested trails.
NERDY DANCE QUESTIONS
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A young Devin auditioning for The Nutcracker
- Tell us about your dance background and training:
I started training when I was 4 years old at the Decker School of Ballet (later renamed the Fokine Ballet Company). I was trained very strictly in ballet while I was a student there. At 18, I attended college at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts (NCSA) where I received training in ballet, modern, partnering and choreography. I left NCSA and spent a year dancing for a small company in South Carolina but returned to finish my degree. After NCSA, I started teaching to stay in the dance world while looking for professional work. Eventually I found the Charlottesville Ballet and moved to Charlottesville in 2011.
What genres of dance do you enjoy?
Ballet mostly, I love the classical lines. I also enjoy most ballroom dancing.
Favorite dancers or role models?
Rudolf Nureyev and Damian Woetzel as dancers and Bruce Lee as a role model.
Do you have a favorite ballet:
Balanchine’s Serenade is wonderful when done well. I also enjoy Jerome Robbins’ choreography.
I like petite allegro.
Tell us, why do you dance?
Because it’s hard, because it’s something beautiful, and because when you’re on the stage nothing in the world matters.
OTHER
What other jobs/activities/pursuits are you involved in?
I help the Charlottesville Ballet with various handy-man projects, but dance is truly my career– I do a lot of freelance work, teaching, and guesting for other area studios in Central Virginia and North Carolina.
I love to cook just about anything and everything!
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Devin as a guest performer at his childhood studio.
I’m really looking forward to the Mainstage Two Performance that will close the company’s season on April 20. I’m performing in a ballet called L’après-midi d’un faune (or The Afternoon of a Faun), a pas de deux by Associate Director Keith Lee that’s inspired by the original version by Vaslav Nijinsky.
Nijinsky took inspiration from a series of Greek vases he saw at the Louvre and created the original version for the Ballet Russes back in 1912. Check out this video clip of Nijinsky…from 100 years ago!
Keith Lee’s version of the ballet is a more modern, impressionistic dance (with less abstract choreography and more challenging partnering skills), but I’m pretty excited to play a “faun” animal on stage and bring the story to life over 100 years later. Come see me perform L’après-midi d’un faune with Sara Jansen Clayborne in the Mainstage Two Performance: Tribute – April 20th at PVCC!
Thanks for enjoying our “Meet the Artist” segment– and look for a new Charlottesville Ballet artist profile next month!
© Charlottesville Ballet 2013