Edgar Nikolyan brings power and passion to Media City Ballet’s production.
When dancers are rehearsing, one critical eye is always trained on their reflection in the mirror, constantly correcting themselves. This dispassionate objectivity becomes second nature to a dancer and is only a problem if it can’t be shed onstage, when it’s time to connect with the audience. At a recent rehearsal for the Burbank-based Media City Ballet’s (MCB) upcoming production of the The Nutcracker, it was clear that dancer Edgar Nikolyan from Granada Hills would have no trouble. His pristine technique had moved beyond criticism, and the only time his gaze left his partner was to see who else in the room might be watching.
Nikolyan, 22, will portray the Nutcracker prince Dec. 6 and 7 at the Alex Theatre in Glendale. Not a new role for this accomplished dancer, but one he relishes: “It’s not boring because every time I dance The Nutcracker,” he says, “I live with what I do. I sleep with the ballet, I wake up with the ballet …When I am free and not practicing, I’m searching (the computer) for everything ballet, ballet.” Or he is teaching ballet to others: “I can show them how to dance, I feel them,” he says, touching his heart. “I just love to teach.”
Such passion is compulsory in such a physically demanding vocation and lends Nikolyan a spare and aesthetic beauty. His grey shorts and white T-shirt do little to hide a thin but powerful physique. When he points his cashew-shaped feet, all the muscles of his legs tense in perfect alignment, the result of years of hard training. With his slicked-back dark hair, goatee and sad, expressive eyes, he appears almost Pietà-like as he lies on the floor, waiting for the music to begin.
This is a sweet love story between the Prince and ingénue Clara (played by Mira Nastasja Allmeyer, 22, of Hollywood). Media City Ballet’s artistic director Natasha Middleton coaches her dancers by offering a running commentary of the character’s subtext. “Happily ever after is right here,” shouts Middleton as the dancers frolic in an imaginary snowfall. “This is her DREAM! Everything in it has to POP! Look him in the eyes, he’s taken you to all these wonderful places.” As Tchaikovsky’s music swells, Nikolyan lifts Clara effortlessly over his head with one hand.
Nikolyan was born in Yerevan, Armenia. He began studying ballet at 8 under the tutelage of his father, Rouben Nikolyan, a principal dancer with the Armenian National Ballet. When his family migrated to America in 2008, 17-year-old Nikolyan decided to try dancing in Europe. He went first to Munich, Germany to study at the Heinz-Bosl-Stiftung Academy. “In Germany it was hard, because I was alone and I was 17. I was a kid. I didn’t know how to wash my stuff, how to make food for me. But I’m glad for that [experience] because I learned so many things when I was alone — how to handle myself.”
It was also in Munich that Nikolyan learned his limitations: “I had a problem with my knees because I was practicing too much. Like 10 or 11 hours a day. From that pressure I had water in my knee.” After recovering, he traveled to Austria to dance with Vienna Staatsoper (State Opera) and Volksoper (The People’s Opera), performing the classics: Sleeping Beauty, The Nutcracker and Bayader. He missed his family though, and came to America in 2008 to join them. Now he works out only about seven hours a day: Part of that time is filled with classes and rehearsals at Media City Ballet and part with his father at his Karavan Dance Studio in Glendale.
Middleton’s father, Andre Tremaine, was also a formidable dancer, a former soloist with the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo and former Artistic Director of the Pacific Ballet Theatre. Her Nutcracker choreography is based on her dad’s version, which derives from the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo version. Middleton’s job now is to bring the classic to modern audiences by pumping up the volume: “We’re in a different day and age so I’ve added a lot of real magic to it,” says Middleton. “We just have so much more access [to technology] nowadays in theater and dance — and dancers are even more stupendous today — so I just take it to the greatest height and make it as spectacular as we can. We’re in Los Angeles, so entertainment will always come first.”
But for Nikolyan, Los Angeles is just one stop in his world tour. He finds working as a guest performer to be more artistically rewarding than settling down. “Because I can dance different pieces,” he says. “Not just three months of Nutcracker, I can dance Nutcracker, Swan Lake and Sleeping Beauty, with different companies.” It was while dancing the role of Basil in Don Quixote for MCB that he was seen and offered work with the Festival Ballet in Orange County. His ultimate goal, he says, is to dance Swan Lake with a major professional company like American Ballet Theatre.
Throughout his journey, perhaps his biggest fan has been his father. Nikolyan says his dad can never sit still when watching him perform. “He worries too much. He’s jumping with me, turning with me. He trained me early on and I’m working with him now. He was my first teacher and he’s my teacher now.”
© 2008 Southland Publishing
