Toronto choreographer steps up
At 24 years old, Robert Binet is the first Canadian to debut work with the New York City Ballet in 23 years
On the morning Robert Binet debuted his first creation with the New York City Ballet, he woke up at 6:15 a.m., full of adrenalin, and screamed into his pillow. It was the last time he would betray his youth. The 24-year-old Toronto choreographer spent the rest of the day writing thank-you notes to his crew, mingling near NYC Ballet chair Sarah Jessica Parker (“she looked amazing”) and strutting the red carpet with his whole family in tow, his mother snapping photos while professional photographers jockeyed behind her.
Then Binet sat in the balcony at the grand David H. Koch Theater, gulped his nerves and watched.
“It’s one of those things that you don’t ever quite imagine happening,” said Binet. “It’s never fun watching your work, but it was such a cool moment of, ‘Wow, I’m here and I did it!’
“You’re so relieved afterwards, because you feel like your whole life is building to this one moment.”
Of course, “whole life” is relative — and in Binet’s case, he certainly doesn’t have the same temporal mileage one might expect from someone working on one of ballet’s grandest stages. It’s the first time a Canadian has premiered work with the New York City Ballet since John Alleyne in 1992.
Certainly, Binet’s path featured some unorthodox steps.
He first discovered ballet at 9 years old, when his grandmother took him to see
The Nutcracker and, indeed, split the young boy’s mind open.
He immediately stomped home and an- nounced his intention to become a ballet dancer. Told that he’d have to wait months to audition for the National Ballet of Canada’s after-school program, he insisted on going immediately. He auditioned in his underwear and nailed it.
Soon, he was cast as the Changeling in a National Ballet of Canada production of
A Midsummer Night’s Dream, a role that demanded he sleep onstage. A mesmerized Binet couldn’t keep his eyes closed.
“I just wanted to watch the dancers so badly.”
That feeling never left. He created his first ballet at 11 and gradually seemed to enjoy conceiving productions more than executing them.
Eventually, he wouldn’t have a choice: Binet’s rapid adolescent growth had led to a serious back injury. For 18 months, he strived to overcome it. Then he realized he didn’t need to.
“I loved dancing,” said Binet, who studied under Wayne McGregor as the Royal Ballet’s first choreographic apprentice.
“But the moment I was in front of an audience, I hated it. I had such bad stage fright.
“What I wanted to say was bigger than what I could do with my body. I thought I had to have a career as a dancer first because that’s what everyone does, but I didn’t.”
As he whisked two dancers through a recent rehearsal in Toronto, he often stretched into demonstrative positions, but he spent more time discussing the emotion of the piece. Instead of telling the dancers how to move, he tells them how to feel.
“A lot of choreographers come up with the movement and try to find a feeling to go with it,” agreed Spencer Hack, a corps de ballet member of the National Ballet of Canada, where Binet is choreographic associate. “With Rob, it always comes from the emotions first.” Added second soloist Emma Hawes: “I find that pretty rare.”
As he collapsed into his temporary Lincoln Square apartment after a long premiere night, Binet might have wondered how to proceed after scaling such a lofty career peak.
“If I did it when I was 50, I would have been thrilled and that would have been enough,” said Binet, whose The Blue of Distance will be performed by the New York City Ballet this month and in February.
“It was very strange for so long and then it felt freeing, because I’ve been to what I thought the peak was and . . . there’s so many things I want to do.
“I just really want some time to think. I need some time to daydream. But I’ll get that.”