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Last week, at the height of New York City Ballet’s fall season, Tiler Peck was pulling double-duty: by day, rehearsing for her title role in Little Dancer, a Degas-inspired musical opening later this month; by night, taking the stage at Lincoln Center to rapturous applause.
Grace under pressure is a quality that the willowy brunette has honed over the past decade, having joined the company as a precocious fifteen-year-old. Now age twenty-five, she has just wrapped up performances of several Balanchine classics and two highly anticipated premieres. One was Pictures at an Exhibition, a ballet for ten dancers by the celebrated choreographer Alexei Ratmansky. The other was Funérailles, a sweeping pas de deux by the young British talent Liam Scarlett, featuring Peck and fellow principal Robert Fairchild, whom she married in June. (Robbie, as she calls him, is also about to add a musical to his own resume: This December, he plays Jerry Mulligan—a role made famous by Gene Kelly—in a new production of An American in Paris; after an initial run in Paris, it arrives on Broadway next March.)
To get through it all with a sound, injury-free body and flawless onstage makeup is yet another feat Peck has mastered. Here, she talks with Vogue.com about the benefits of one-on-one Pilates, the ultimate trick to a swanlike ponytail, and why a pedicure always matters—even in pointe shoes.
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She didn’t, but she sent us flowers on the opening night, which I thought was very sweet. The dress is just stunning. Onstage, it definitely has a mind of its own. The music gets very intense, and the dress is flying around—there’s this sort of wildness to it that I really love.
How was the experience with Alexei Ratmansky?
I was really excited to finally get the chance to work with him. He just knows how to push his dancers. He gave me a lot of little, quick jumps; I’m a fast mover, but jumping is not something that I really love. I feel like he took my weakness and somehow turned it into a strength, and he used the musicality and the spontaneity of the steps to bring that out.
Any pro tips on how to execute the perfect ponytail?
I always try to put the elastic around almost to the point where you think it’s going to snap. A dancer can always get it one more time [laughs]. I never slick my hair back—I like a little natural softness in the front, just because it makes me feel more feminine—but I use hairspray for the flyaways. Once I get my ponytail up, we do this thing that we call the Zipper. You tilt your chin up so the hair in the back [at the nape of the neck] is not so tight, and we kind of twist the pins upward into the base of the ponytail, like a zipper. You want a clean neck, so it looks as long as possible.
Your stage makeup needs to have serious staying power. What are some of your go-to products?
First, I put on Laura Mercier’s primer. It takes care of my skin. I use the foundation they give us: panstick, then pancake, which you put on using a wet sponge, and then loose powder over that. That’s the base. I like Dior [waterproof] mascara. There’s even a blue one that I wear sometimes, to open my eyes. I put mascara on my own eyelashes, curl them, and then I put false eyelashes on; we wear double sets, so very big lashes! I normally go for a MAC lip—Viva Glam I. I’ve been wearing the same color forever. To get my makeup off, I use a Neutrogena makeup wipe. Then I clean my face again when I get home with my Cetaphil face wash.
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That’s when I eat dinner: After a show. I don’t like being full when I’m dancing, so if there’s a 7:30 performance, I probably won’t eat past 3 o’clock. Normally we’ll do a whole-wheat pasta with grilled chicken, with sage and just a simple cheese. I like to have pasta the night before a big show because I feel like it gets me ready. And I love taking baths with Epsom salts. It’s supposed to relax your muscles and make them regroup faster.
Given the strain you put on your feet, do you make a point of getting reflexology or pedicures?
I get a manicure and pedicure every two weeks! I’m serious about it. I’m from California, and I do not want my feet to look like a ballerina’s; it also just feels better in a pointe shoe. I usually go to Simply Nails in the Sixties on Amsterdam across the street from my apartment. I always have light pink on my hands because we can’t have dark colors on stage, and a really bright red or pink on my toes.”
Outside of rehearsal and performances, what do you do for fitness?
I always have rehearsal at 12 and want to be warm, so I take company class every single day. It just starts me off in the right way. Sometimes I’ll go to Steps [on Broadway] to take a [ballet] class, or I’ll take a Pilates class if I feel like I need to stretch my body. The woman I take with, Marimba Gold-Watts, used to be a dancer, so she really understands and tailors the session to each individual. I don’t really need core strength; I always want lengthening. My upper back can get stiff, which then puts some pressure on my lower back, so we keep the upper back moving and rotating. But there’s nothing that you can do outside of doing ballet that can get you into ballet shape. It’s the aesthetic of standing turned out; the way your arms are shaped because you hold them up and out for so long. You can just tell a dancer, even when they walk on the street.
You’re heading down to D.C. to rehearse for the Kennedy Center musical. When does Robbie head to Paris for his show?
He leaves November 4. Paris is where he proposed to me, so it’s a special place for us.
Where did he pop the question?
The top of the Sacré-Cœur. He faked a New York City Ballet photo shoot, but when we got there, it was a proposal scam!
The post New York City Ballet’s Tiler Peck on the Ballerina Body, the Perfect Onstage Red Lipstick, and More appeared first on Vogue.