Ballet prodigy moves to the English beat
Vaughan’s Shale Wagman taking his talents to English National Ballet
After winning the prestigious Prix de Lausanne, Shale Wagman had offers from around the world.
Sorry, Canada — the ballet prodigy, who recently turned18, is dancing off to England.
“I chose the English National Ballet, because they have a very versatile repertoire so they do many different types of ballet. They have neo-classical works, they have contemporary works and above all, they do classical ballets. So they have a very, very vast repertoire, which I love, and they have many performances,” the Vaughan resident said.
Another big reason? Wagman will join the company as a corps de ballet member, not as an apprentice, meaning a shot at the good parts instead of being part of the background ensemble.
Wagman explored forms of dance since the age of 6 1⁄2, winning virtually every competition he entered. At 11, he competed in Canada’s Got Talent, where he was voted the judges’ favourite and won high praise from actor Martin Short. At 13, Wagman won the Youth America Grand Prix and earned several scholarship offers. He chose the Princess Grace Academy in Monaco where he spent four years perfecting his craft — and his French.
But the coup de grace was the Prix de Lausanne, which since 1973 has been the most coveted prize from dancers between 15 and 18.
Wagman is the first Canadian to take the top prize, meaning he got to choose from about 50 companies.
Directors from London’s Royal Ballet, the Royal Swedish Ballet, the Stuttgart Ballet, the American Ballet Theatre and the San Francisco Ballet were lining up to recruit him.
Just a year earlier, a spinal fracture threw Wagman’s future into doubt, leaving him confined to a bed and in a brace for three months.
“It was really hard and I was in a lot of pain,” Wagman recalled.
“But you know, through that I became a lot stronger mentally and physically. I found a new way of working and using my muscles.”
Wagman credits Vlad Novitski, who operates a dance school in Richmond Hill, with spotting his talent early.
“He moves like cat,” Wagman intones with a Russian accent, mimicking the words Novitski first said to mother Heather Wagman. Tatiana Stepanova, who runs her own ballet school, also played a key role when he started serious training in ballet at 13. Wagman, the youngest of three boys, said he was shy as a child but his parents encouraged him to pursue dance.
“Every time I’m sad and I want to express myself, I always turn to dance,” he said.