Jessica Ribera
Appearances
The Moth
The Moth Podcast: Putting on our Dancing Shoes
I had, I strap on these black pointe shoes that they're like black fishnets, this little like saloon-y looking outfit for this classical ballet and neoclassical, but still. So I'm standing in the wings and my friends like scrolling lipstick on me and the director of the ballet herself comes to me and she's like, Jessica, do you feel like you can do this?
The Moth
The Moth Podcast: Putting on our Dancing Shoes
And you know, I was like, totally, I can totally do this. And so I went on and, you know, Later on, three years later, I was badly injured in an accident on stage and it was career ending and totally a sad end to the long story. But that moment, doing Western Symphony, doing these steps, it was like one of the most wonderful moments of my life.
The Moth
The Moth Podcast: Putting on our Dancing Shoes
It was Balanchine, it was Texas, it was all my dreams coming true. Thank you.
The Moth
The Moth Podcast: Putting on our Dancing Shoes
When I was a little girl, I wanted to be a ballerina when I grew up. And I think a lot of kids want to do that, but I was like really serious about it. And luckily for me, even though I'm from a kind of small town in Texas, there was a good set of teachers there who had sent three daughters, these like legendary daughters, off to the New York City Ballet. And so I stayed really serious about it.
The Moth
The Moth Podcast: Putting on our Dancing Shoes
And as time went on, it mostly became that I just wanted to get out of my small town in Texas and wind up in a city, and preferably New York City, because I had become obsessed with the New York City Ballet because of these daughters. And their portraits were on the studio wall.
The Moth
The Moth Podcast: Putting on our Dancing Shoes
And my teacher would tell us these like, they were almost like, you weren't really sure if they were true stories or if he was just trying to like Aesop's fable us somehow, you know, like these, and that's why you should never be late for a rehearsal or, you know.
The Moth
The Moth Podcast: Putting on our Dancing Shoes
But one of them that he told was about Alexia, who you could tell they were the most proud of, and I don't think you're supposed to do that, but that's what they did.
The Moth
The Moth Podcast: Putting on our Dancing Shoes
And he said, you know, Alexia, she wanted to learn so much, she would stay in the back of the rehearsal, and she would learn all the parts in the ballet, not just the one that was hers, and she would practice, and one day, the ballerina was injured. And the rehearsal director said, does anyone know this part? And Alexia was like, I do. And then it became her part.
The Moth
The Moth Podcast: Putting on our Dancing Shoes
And then she was like this big moment of jump up in her career. So I always tucked that in my mind. It's like, that's like the dream, right? That's like, I want that to happen to me. As I was obsessing about New York City and getting out of town, I read every book I could get from the tri-state library system about New York City Ballet. And George Balanchine started New York City Ballet.
The Moth
The Moth Podcast: Putting on our Dancing Shoes
He's credited with bringing ballet to the United States. And I was obsessed with him. I really loved reading about him, just artistically. And I found out it seemed like maybe he was a little bit obsessed with Western Texas culture. He choreographed a few ballets that are set in these saloon-y town, wild west, this man who grew up in Russia. And I thought that was so cool.
The Moth
The Moth Podcast: Putting on our Dancing Shoes
I felt like it legitimized me, that I was this girl from Texas, but if he liked it, then that was still okay, and I could still be a dancer. He's died the year I was born. But I went to his school, the School of American Ballet in New York City, and it was fantastic. And I learned about this ballet, learned more about it, called Western Symphony. It's the Saloon Ballet.
The Moth
The Moth Podcast: Putting on our Dancing Shoes
Fast forward, I came here to dance as a student with Pacific Northwest Ballet, and my first year in the program, I got cast to understudy in Western Symphony. And I was thrilled. I stood in the back of the studio doing my best to learn. And the policy at the time was that understudies had to come to the theater and check in backstage.
The Moth
The Moth Podcast: Putting on our Dancing Shoes
And when the curtain went up and everyone was on stage, then you could go home. Well, I didn't go home because I was new to town and didn't have a lot of friends and I was obsessed. And so I would just get a ticket and go sit in the audience. And I was watching Western Symphony, and I saw a girl go down on stage. She was clearly badly hurt.
The Moth
The Moth Podcast: Putting on our Dancing Shoes
Her partner, who was actually her real-life boyfriend too, picked her up and had to run her off the stage. And I was just like, oh, man, that sucks. And it wasn't my position. I had learned a different spot in the ballet. And within, I swear, it was like 30 seconds, I feel this tap on my shoulder. And they're like, come backstage. We need you right now. And I was like, oh my gosh, it's happening.
The Moth
The Moth Podcast: Putting on our Dancing Shoes
So... So I go running with him backstage and they're like, we're like putting my hair up into a bun. And, you know, I like, no one ever would have thought that like a peon like me was actually going to go on. And so I didn't have, you wear black pointe shoes for that ballet. I had to borrow someone else's pointe shoes, which if you know anything about ballet, that's just like crazy.