Sarah Hay [1],[2] of STARZ Flesh and Bone: A Star Is Born [1],[2],[3]
Sarah Hay rises in both Dresden & Hollywood.
By Candice Thompson
But as a premium cable series, “Flesh and Bone” deals explicitly with adult themes and is clearly geared towards a mature audience. Nudity and sex scenes were also part of the deal. However, filming them was not as scary as Sarah anticipated, and her attitude seems to reflect maturity gained over her very personal battles with her own physique. “For me a body is a body, and we all have bodies,” she says. “I didn’t have to do anything I was uncomfortable with. The set was closed and everyone there was respectful.”
On the Starz television series “Flesh and Bone,” Sarah Hay plays Claire, a troubled young dancer getting her first big break in a New York City ballet company. With faraway eyes, she listens to music on a dreary train, escaping some unknown horror at home to attend an audition in the big city. Her hands move expertly through a variation as if in prayer. But when her phone rings during her first company class, she finds herself the focus of ridicule. Forced to perform the adagio by herself in front of the company, she sails through it with sharp technique and emotional intensity, making it clear to the show’s characters that Claire is a dance genius.
Though “Flesh and Bone” is obviously fictional, Hay’s natural acting ability comes across as finely crafted as her dancing. It’s hard not to imagine that Hay had plenty of source material from her own life to draw on for the role. After a slow career start and battles with intense anxiety and body issues, Hay is now thriving at Dresden Semperoper Ballett as a second soloist. Her extreme vulnerability and emotional honesty, developed after years spent struggling at the bottom of companies, punctuate her highly technical dancing and make her performances on stage and screen so compelling. Now, Hay is coming into her own in front of an audience numbering into the millions, and her future is looking bright.
A native of New Jersey, Hay’s ballet training began at the School of American Ballet. But she eventually left in her early teens when it was inexplicably suggested that while she was talented, she should try modern. “I was depressed and wanted to quit after that,” remembers Hay. “It had long been a dream of mine to join New York City Ballet.”
She began taking open classes, eventually finding Susan Jaffe at the Princeton Dance and Theater Studio. Jaffe encouraged her to audition for American Ballet Theatre’s Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis School, where Hay spent three years developing her technique. “I learned nuance and musicality at SAB, but my technical aspects developed later at JKO,” she says. Hay had high hopes for joining ABT’s Studio Company, but says the artistic staff found her too unfocused. Though she had always contended with attention problems, Hay felt they had improved during her last year of school. But it was too late. Girls younger than her were promoted instead.
Back to taking open classes, she was spotted by Charlotte Ballet artistic director Jean-Pierre Bonnefoux at Steps on Broadway and was immediately offered a second company contract. While Hay enjoyed her first taste of contemporary ballet and loved working with resident choreographer Dwight Rhoden, after two years she did not feel she was being pushed and went back to auditioning.
An open call brought her to Pennsylvania Ballet, but her experience still failed her expectations. “I spent two years in their second company and two years as an apprentice,” she says. “My dancing plateaued. I gained weight and lost confidence.” Frustrated, she resigned.
To get to her sweet spot, Hay had to go back to the beginning. While still at PAB, she was coached by Jodie Gates in William Forsythe’s In the middle, somewhat elevated. “Sarah was an instant standout when I staged Bill’s work,” says Gates. “She has strong technique, keen musicality and the willingness to take risks, such key elements for a contemporary ballerina.” Gates recommended that Hay try a Forsythe workshop to learn more about his choreographic style, so she attended one held in Dresden. Though Dresden Semperoper Ballett artistic director Aaron S. Watkin spoke with her about hiring her when a contract opened up, Hay returned to New York and resumed a discouraging cycle of auditions for Broadway shows. But a month later, Watkin called. At 23, Hay moved to Germany to finally accept her first corps contract.
There, she found a company full of individual dancers with varying physiques. Having struggled with her curvy body during her school and early professional years, Hay found herself losing weight simply due to being used in more repertoire. Watkin tested her with soloist roles right away. “He gave me chances,” says Hay, “and molded me into who I am.” Two years later, she landed the role of Swanilda. Hay is now featured in both classical and contemporary pieces and feels lucky to have worked intimately with Forsythe on his full-length ballet Impressing the Czar. “I have had to work on loving myself,” says Hay. “When you feel at a loss all of the time you start to wonder if it’s you, but for me it was the place. I felt thrown away by some people who had treated me horribly, but now I just try to see my imperfections as what make me who I am.”
Frequent partner István Simon finds Hay easy to connect with on both creative and personal levels. “Sarah is an intelligent woman with a great sense of humor,” says Simon. “When we are dancing together I feel inspired and can bring out more of myself artistically. With her, I feel free onstage.”
Having found such a welcoming dance home, Hay wasn’t really interested when she was contacted to audition for “Flesh and Bone.” But when she looked closer at the email, she was impressed by the show’s executive producers, including Emmy-winning “Breaking Bad” writer and producer Moira Walley-Beckett and Oscar-nominee Lawrence Bender. She sent in a video, but it was taken from too far away. And yet, there was something fragile and intriguing, so she was asked to do it over. Hay had “an innate understanding of the complexities of the role,” says Walley-Beckett, “and she was fearless.” After a three-day final callback in New York, Hay received a call from the production team. “I was so excited I couldn’t even tell my mom on the phone,” she says. “Then I thought, What am I going to do about my boss?” But Watkin was supportive and gave Hay a six-month leave of absence to shoot the show.
Hay entered a new world of 15-hour days on set, often wearing her pointe shoes for 12 hours when shooting dance scenes. Sometimes she would spend the entire weekend in bed out of pure exhaustion. “Her work ethic was impressive,” says Walley-Beckett. “It surprised me that she was more nervous on big dance days than on big acting scene days. I think it’s because ballet dancers are such perfectionists, and she wanted so badly to be flawless in her technique and performance.”
After working with an acting coach the first week, Hay chose to simply channel the real dance world.
But as a premium cable series, “Flesh and Bone” deals explicitly with adult themes and is clearly geared towards a mature audience. The stress of playing such a troubled character was real, and a romantic relationship ended up a casualty to her schedule and the intensity of the work. While her personal experience was easy fodder for emotional scenes, nudity and sex scenes were also part of the deal. However, filming them was not as scary as she anticipated, and her attitude seems to reflect maturity gained over her very personal battles with her own physique. “For me a body is a body, and we all have bodies,” she says. “I didn’t have to do anything I was uncomfortable with. The set was closed and everyone there was respectful.”
Now, Hay patiently awaits the reaction to the show while looking towards her future in both ballet and television. “I feel like I have come to my peak as a dancer,” she says, “and now it’s time to push my limits and try to become a first soloist. But as far as acting, I have no idea. I am at a crossroads waiting for things to happen, and for the first time ever, there is no bad, it is all good.”
sarahellenhay (May 28 2014): It's intense today on the set of #fleshandbone missing my curls! #ianwhalenphotography #fleshandbonestz
On the Set of "Flesh and Bone"
Starz’s gritty new drama depicts life inside a ballet company.
By Amy Brandt
"Cut!" Ethan Stiefel’s voice booms from behind a monitor. The cast of “Flesh and Bone,” the Starz network’s new television series set in a New York City ballet company, is filming the final episode’s climactic performance scene. Onstage, the dancers regroup while Stiefel, the show’s choreographer and dance consultant, huddles with the director and film crew before heading onstage to give notes.
Five minutes turn to 20 as the cast stands by, dropping down into push-ups or stretches (one even donning a parka) to keep their bodies warm while the crew fiddles with lighting and camera angles. Makeup artists emerge to powder noses. After what feels like an eternity, the cameras finally roll and everyone once again bursts into dance.
For the 22 professional dancers that make up the bulk of the show’s cast, this is the grueling reality of film production, and a major adjustment from live theater. “The days are very long,” says former American Ballet Theatre principal Irina Dvorovenko, who plays Kiira. “You have to do many, many takes from this angle and that angle.” But Dvorovenko relished the experience, and plans to pursue more acting opportunities. “Time flies on set. I loved every minute of it!”
Like many depictions of ballet on film, “Flesh and Bone” contains some familiar clichés: the naïve ingénue on the brink of stardom, the tyrannical director, dancers seething with jealousy. But unlike an hour-and-a-half movie, Starz’s eight-part series, which premieres November 8 and contains mature content, allows more time to dig deeper into the motivations of each character. “There is a lot of dancing in ‘Flesh and Bone,’ and Ethan created an awesome, cinematic ballet that should translate well to the screen,” says former ABT soloist Sascha Radetsky, who plays Ross. “But the show is less about the dance world and more about a set of fascinatingly drawn fictional characters.”
“There are no doubles on the show. Creator Moira Walley-Beckett hired an acting coach, and we were all allowed acting classes to prepare for each episode.” —Irina Dvorovenko
“This series goes much deeper into the reality of what dancers face. It’s a good balance between acting and ballet.” —Irina Dvorovenko
Here: Ballet master Matthew Powell gives the cast notes. Long hours on set helped the dancers develop a sense of camaraderie much like that in a real ballet company. “When you’re working together that closely, you get to know each other fast,” says Sascha Radetsky.
Producers spent 15 weeks auditioning professional dancers to make up the show’s American Ballet Company. Sarah Hay stars as Claire, a talented new dancer with a troubled past.
After hair and makeup sessions, the cast started their work day with class, sometimes as early as 6 am. When not required on set, they’d rehearse dance scenes with Ethan Stiefel and Powell at a nearby studio.
Raychel Diane Weiner [1],[2]: The former BAZ company member on playing someone like herself in “Flesh and Bone”
By Mary Ellen Hunt (Published in the June/July 2014 issue.)
Life has always taken Raychel Diane Weiner in unusual directions. “I tend to go wherever the wind blows,” she says. “I like to let things happen.”
A lot is happening these days for Weiner, who has left the corps of Ballet Arizona to join the cast of “Flesh and Bone,” a new original series about the ballet world that will run next year on the Starz Network. Weiner trained in Southern California with Charles Maple and Diane Lauridsen, at South Bay Ballet in Torrance. Her brother was a child actor and she often went on casting calls with him.
His agent began representing her as well, and she ended up with several ads and children’s book covers. While she always loved dance, she didn’t focus on ballet until she was 15. “I don’t know if I was ready before that to not be a normal teenager,” Weiner says.
Once she decided to make ballet her priority, she amped up her studies and went on to perform with ABT Studio Company, St. Louis Ballet, Oregon Ballet Theatre, Aspen Santa Fe Ballet and, most recently, Ballet Arizona and San Francisco’s Post:Ballet. While still dancing with Ballet Arizona, Weiner heard about an open casting call for “Flesh and Bone,” and though she wasn’t interested in leaving the company, she sent in a resumé and head shot. “The next thing I knew, I was in New York auditioning in front of the executive producers and Ethan Stiefel.” Weiner knew Stiefel, who will choreograph the show, from Ballet Pacifica and from Stiefel and Stars, his summer program on Martha’s Vineyard.
She was excited to be cast as the show’s unconventional demi-soloist Daphne, and even more excited at the prospect of portraying the lives of professional dancers in a drama.
“As a dancer, it’s been hard for me to watch certain shows or movies about the ballet world, because they’re so extreme,” says Weiner. “This show will be interesting because it’s scripted, not a reality show. There may be dramatic moments that aren’t necessarily realistic, but as far as the dancing, that will be 100 percent real.”
Weiner says she is unlike her character in some ways—Daphne grew up in a wealthy family in New York—but very much like her in others. “She’s no-nonsense,” Weiner says. “She has a tough exterior, but she’s actually one of the sweeter girls, kind of a cool chick. I have a lot of tattoos, and I was never interested in growing my hair out—I always said I can make a fake bun if I need to. Daphne has a bit of rebelliousness about her, too. I think we have similar personalities—I’m really excited to play a kind of exaggerated version of myself.”
Fun Facts
Favorite tattoo: “Three plumeria flowers in a cluster, one each for my mother, grandmother and best friend”
Secret guilty pleasure: “Anything chocolate. I have to eat dessert with every meal—it’s not a meal if there’s not dessert.”
Dream role: Juliet
Favorite hobby: Loves to sew and makes many of her own clothes
Unusual places to see her: The covers of two Nancy Drew books: Werewolf in a Winter Wonderland and A Taste of Danger
irinamaxemma: Repost from @fleshandbone_starz Me as Kiira Koval,territorial Prima who knows no boundaries,in a new TV drama Flesh&Bone,premieres on STARZ on the November 8th @8pm. #irinadvorovenko #FleshAndBone #starz #actress #ballerina #balletpost #balletworld #insideballet #ballerinaproject @irinaandmaxsummerintensive @irinamaximpty #drama
http://emilytyra.com
In ‘Flesh and Bone,’ Moira Walley-Beckett Leaps Darkly Into Ballet
The focus of “Flesh and Bone” is Claire Robbins, an emotionally ravaged ballet dancer portrayed by the American dancer Sarah Hay, a soloist at Dresden Semperoper Ballett in Germany. Despite her vulnerability, Claire is ambitious. Upon her arrival in New York, she auditions at the fictional American Ballet Company, impressing its bipolar, bisexual artistic director, Paul Grayson (Ben Daniels), enough to nail the job. Then, as the talented newcomer, she is quickly despised by her fellow dancers, as predicted by her roommate, Mia (Emily Tyra): “Let’s start with the fact that everyone’s going to hate you.”
Making new friends is the least of Claire’s problems as the series progresses. Early on, we learn that she has been sexually scarred and that self-inflicted pain is a survival mechanism. (Of course, this being a ballet drama, it involves toenails.) At night, she covers her body with books, including “The Velveteen Rabbit” and “Charlotte’s Web.” It’s a haunting sight.
“I wanted her to have a special connection with books and with one book in particular,” Ms. Walley-Beckett said in a recent telephone interview, “and then I thought, what perfect armor and what a wonderful and alarming and tragic ritual.”
“The Velveteen Rabbit” mirrors Claire’s journey of finding out how to become real. But one integral part of “Flesh and Bone” has already achieved that: The cast members who play dancers are actually dancers. Ms. Walley-Beckett regards the show, a psychological drama about obsession and worship, as the anti-“Black Swan,” the Natalie Portman thriller that was the last ballet drama to achieve mass success; it relies on neither the fantastic nor body doubles. (Interestingly, Ms. Hay was part of the company in “Black Swan.”)
“It was really important that we show the dancers doing what they do and put the camera anywhere,” she said. “So that we would have the ability to breathe and sweat and bleed and soar with them.”
The cast includes the former American Ballet Theater members Irina Dvorovenko as Kiira, a drug-addicted star, and Sascha Radetsky as Ross, Kiira’s former lover. Ethan Stiefel, another Ballet Theater alumnus, is the show’s choreographer. For the final episode, he created “Dakini,” a four-movement ballet set to a score by Adam Crystal that explores the journey of a young woman from childhood to autonomy.
The show, whose executive producers include — in addition to Ms. Walley-Beckett — Lawrence Bender, John Melfi and Kevin Kelly Brown, was initially conceived as a continuing series. But the network decided to change it to a limited series given its steep cost. (Starz would not disclose the production budget.) “It was a massively expensive show,” Ms. Walley-Beckett said, adding that she was “proud of it because we had to do everything right.” From the construction of a shock-absorbing sprung floor — necessary for reducing injuries — to fees for physical therapists, keeping dancers safe isn’t cheap.
When she learned of the decision to make “Flesh and Bone” a limited run, she was disappointed. “But only for about 45 minutes,” she said, laughing.
She realized that she’d have more time for editing. “And for better or worse, it was a very complete eight episodes,” she said. “I do want it to feel like a movie, and I think it does. It had the potential to become — I don’t know — weekly? This way, it has its engine and these serious and dire consequences to everything, and hopefully it’s just going to motor along at this intense hurtling speed and then explode. And be a brief shining star of a moment.”