As an enterprising 11-year old living in Visalia, California, New York City Ballet Principal Dancer Andrew Veyette watched a broadcast of George Balanchine’s Stars and Stripes on PBS and decided to teach himself the ballet’s spirited variation. “I can only imagine what I looked like trying to do Stars and Stripes with no guidance, but I just wanted to do it so badly,” he recalls.
His wish came true seven years later when, as a student at the School of American Ballet, he performed Stars and Stripes at the annual SAB Workshop Performance. Stars and Stripes became one of his first leading roles as a corps de ballet member of New York City Ballet. And on May 25, Veyette will close his dazzling, 25-year NYCB career with a final performance of Stars and Stripes. “From the first time I saw it, I thought, this is the type of ballet I like,” he says. “Stars and Stripes helped me build the career that I’ve had."
It’s been quite a career. Known for his bravura artistry, charismatic presence, and breathtaking versatility, Veyette has danced leading roles in more than 90 ballets, including 33 ballets by Balanchine and 15 by Jerome Robbins, as well as works by Justin Peck, Alexei Ratmansky, and Christopher Wheeldon, among many others. He moved seamlessly from the Broadway theatrics of Balanchine’s Slaughter on Tenth Avenue, to the classical purity of Balanchine’s Theme and Variations from Tschaikovsky Suite No. 3, to the contemporary pyrotechnics of Peck’s Everywhere We Go. He even sang onstage as Riff in Robbins' West Side Story Suite.
Like Stars and Stripes, the two other ballets Veyette selected for his farewell performance showcase meaningful aspects of his multifaceted career. The program opens with the third movement of Robbins’ Glass Pieces, which he will dance with the corps de ballet. “The experience of being in the corps is unique,” he explains, referring to its sense of community and camaraderie. “There’s never been a time when I didn’t miss being in the group."
He chose Chiaroscuro, the late Lynne Taylor-Corbett’s drama-packed interplay of shadow and light, because it’s a favorite among the many ballets where he was “thrown in,” as dancers call roles they need to learn in a blink. “When people got hurt, I was usually there and fast enough to step into things I probably wouldn’t have ever done otherwise. I love Chiaroscuro, which has a different personality from other ballets I did, but it also represents something that was part of my path,” he says.
That path began in a creative household in Denver, Colorado, where Veyette spent his early years doing gymnastics and “watching Gene Kelly stuff, like Singing in the Rain and Brigadoon” on videos with his older brothers, Michael and Francis, the latter of whom became a Principal Dancer with Pennsylvania Ballet. He discovered ballet at age nine, studying with Betty Downs at Dance Arts in Visalia, where his family had moved. “From the second day I took class, I felt like my body just understood it. When something feels natural and you’re good at it, it’s fun,” he says.
With three dancing sons, the Veyette family moved to Palmdale, California, to be closer to the Westside Ballet School in Santa Monica, where the home-schooled boys commuted 75 minutes each way to study with co-founders Yvonne Mounsey and Rosemary Valaire, and teachers Nader Hamed and Caprice Walker. At 15, Veyette followed Francis to Philadelphia to study at the Rock School for Dance Education, and at 16, he was accepted to SAB. Upon graduation he joined NYCB, his dream company.
Summing up his two-and-a-half decades of dancing a dizzying range of Balanchine roles, Veyette says, “His ballets feel so organic. They’re like a song that just makes sense and is as much fun to sing as it is to hear.” A highlight was performing the soulful Square Dance solo, in part because he never expected to do it. “I don’t think there are many things that I’m worse at than adagio,” he says, laughing, “so I’m very grateful to have had that emotional moment in a variation."
He also relished learning multiple roles within a single ballet. He danced in all four movements of Balanchine’s sweeping Brahms-Schoenberg Quartet, another favorite, from the first movement corps to principal roles in the rest. “Learning different roles lets you really experience all the different temperaments and moods you have in even just one 45-minute ballet,” he says.
Veyette, who is married to NYCB Soloist Ashley Hod, chose this moment to retire because 25 years felt like “a good round number.” And, he adds, “My body is very clearly ready to be done.” He discovered that he loves teaching, which he plans to continue as a member of the pre-professional division faculty at Ballet Academy East. An avid cyclist, as much as he’s looking forward to a summer of long morning rides, he’s also filled with gratitude as he looks back on his storied career. “From the time I saw Stars, I was all in for New York City Ballet. I was very, very fortunate,” he says.
