Julie Lincoln, repetiteur
Lincoln's path to her current role as a repetiteur also provides a window into the contemporary structure of ballet companies. In part, this has to do with questions of career transition-of what happens to dancers when performing is no longer paramount. Similar to the high-stakes professional sports industry, Lincoln says, "dancers begin to be cast aside by the time they're thirty-five-and that's the time when an artist is reaching maturity. This obsession with someone new and younger does not help mature the artistic side of our profession. Even if you are naturally artistic, you're not going to have the same maturity at twenty-five that you possess at thirty-five or forty. Maintaining technique is essential, but how are dancers able to matriculate? How does management support the continuity of a career, no matter the age of the dancer? Not having greater perspective on this is very cruel and doesn't serve the development of our profession. I realize that this is a sign of the times. This is a problem in every profession-the demand for everything to be 'hot' and the lack of respect or appreciation for experience."
Julie Lincoln felt "very nervous as a dancer," and believes that this anxiety hindered the advancement of her career as a performer. Yet even in Lincoln's candid self-assessment of her performing years, one can find the early signs of an interest in the process of bringing a dance to the stage. "My career wasn't very glamorous by any means, although I was lucky to dance some good roles; but towards the end it was declining-for which I only have myself to blame. I spent a lot of time in the last years at the Royal Ballet sitting around at rehearsals. I wasn't really aware of it, but I must have taken in an awful lot by watching the Royal Ballet teachers, coaches, and visiting staff. I always felt it would be very nice to be out there trying to create something on the stage, not ever thinking that I would. If anybody had told me that I was going to end up being a repetiteur, I would have thought they were absolutely mad."
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Julie Lincoln (on right in central trio) in Arpege, choreographed by Peter Wright; Royal Ballet Touring Company, 1975; with dancers Alain Dubriel (center) and Sherrilyn Kennedy (left); photograph by Nigel Lockhurst.
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Julie Lincoln in dressing room as a Cygnet in Swan Lake, at the Metropolitan Opera House in New York City on tour with the Royal Ballet, 1971; photographer unidentified.
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Julie Lincoln as the Betrayed Girl in The Rake's Progress, with Anthony Molyneux, choreographed by Ninette de Valois. This photograph was taken at Lincoln's graduation performance from the Royal Ballet School, held at the Royal Opera House, 1968; photograph by Donald Sothern.
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Lincoln feels fortunate that she was surrounded by artists who, while unknown to her at the time, were preparing her for eventual work as a repetiteur. She credits the coaching she received at the Royal Ballet, as well as lessons absorbed from the company's ballet mistress, with enriching her store of knowledge as a repetiteur. "I remembered an awful lot all through my career about the different ballets that I learned when being coached-be it by Michael Somes, Jill Gregory, Sir Peter Wright or whoever. Jill was an early influence on me when I was younger: when I was a dancer she was ballet mistress of the company. She had a very good eye." In Lincoln's career, as in that of most repetiteurs, the components of being a dancer-the training, the performing, the professional collaboration with many colleagues in the theater-became the foundation of her future work.
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Julie Lincoln (far right) in the Graduate Class at the Royal Ballet School, 1967-1968, Renee Bonn, instructor.
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