As told to Gavin Larsen by Whitney Jensen My first time dancing Petite Mort—or any ballet by Jiří Kylián—I was 17 and in the corps of Boston Ballet. I didn’t know it then, but the stager, Roslyn Anderson, was nervous about me doing it because I was so young. I was super-naïve and had never […]
Whitney Jensen likes to pack light. “I take the bare minimum,” says the Norwegian National Ballet dancer, who was a Boston Ballet principal until 2015. She often stores things in her dressing room, and it’s a good thing, too—her blue Freitag backpack, made from recycled truck tarpaulin, is admittedly heavy. “But I like how the […]
Whitney Jensen made a surprising move in 2015 when she left her principal contract at Boston Ballet without plans to join a new company. Some feared she would quit dancing. Instead, Jensen, now 24, took time to reflect on her next move. In February, she signed on as a dancer with Norwegian National Ballet, where […]
When she was a student prodigy scooping up medals at top competitions, Whitney Jensen didn’t have to do much to keep her body in shape. Now, the 21-year-old hits the gym most days—sometimes even after six hours of rehearsal—to build stamina and keep her metabolism in balance. Typical routine: 45 minutes on the elliptical or […]
Eighteen-year-old Utah native Whitney Jensen has already begun making her mark at Boston Ballet. She joined the company just two years ago with several competitions and awards already under her belt, including a Special Distinction at Varna in 2008. She had studied under Valentina Kozlova, a former principal with both the Bolshoi and New York […]
Whitney Jensen had her eye on the prize last July at the Varna International Ballet Competition. A student at Valentina Kozlova’s Conservatory of Dance in New York City, she became the first female and first American in the competition’s history to win the junior division’s Special Distinction Grand Prix award. She also took home the […]
One of the most inspiring things to witness over the past couple of months has been the incredible displays of solidarity among dancers and dance companies. None have been left untouched by this crisis, and so many have banned together to help each other out. American Ballet Theatre’s Misty Copeland and her former colleague Joseph […]
One of the first things you notice about Ingrid Lorentzen is her laugh—the Norwegian National Ballet director exudes warmth. It’s obvious why, in 2012, she was appointed for the job, despite the fact that she was a leading dancer at NNB with little management experience. But Lorentzen knew it wouldn’t all be smooth sailing. “I […]