Whelan, Wendy
Wendy Whelan Photos
Wendy Whelan Biography
Notable: New York City Ballet
Wendy Whelan was born and raised in Louisville, Kentucky, where at the age of three she began taking dance classes with Virginia Wooton, a local teacher. At age eight she performed as a mouse with the Louisville Ballet in its annual production of The Nutcracker. Joining the Louisville Ballet Academy that year, she began intense professional ballet training. In 1981 she received a scholarship to the summer course at the School of American Ballet, the official school of New York City Ballet, and a year later, became a full-time student there. In 1984 she danced as an apprentice with New York City Ballet and became a member of the corps de ballet in January 1986. She was promoted to the rank of Soloist during the 1989 spring season and to the rank of Principal in the 1991 spring season.
Repertoire includes:
Principal roles in ballets such as George Balanchine’s Agon, Allegro Brillante, Apollo, Brahms-Schoenberg Quartet (4th Movement), Chaconne, Concerto Barocco, “Rubies” and “Diamonds” from Jewels, Divertimento no. 15, Episodes, The Four Temperaments, Liebeslieder Walzer, A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Titania & Divertissement), The Nutcracker (Sugarplum Fairy and Dewdrop), Orpheus, La Sonnambula, Stars and Stripes, Swan Lake, Stravinsky Violin Concerto, Symphony in C, Symphony in Three Movements, Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto no. 2, Tchaikovsky Suite no. 3 (Theme and Variations), Union Jack and Walpurgisnacht Ballet. Principal roles in Jerome Robbins’ The Cage, Dances at a Gathering, The Four Seasons, The Goldberg Variations, In G Major and In Memory Of…. Also principal roles in Peter Martins’ Barber Violin Concerto, Fearful Symmetries, The Sleeping Beauty, Swan Lake and in William Forsythe’s Behind the China Dogs and Herman Scherman.
