Hello everyone, hope everything is dancing along nicely! My student guest this month is SILVIA NEVJINSKY, who was the cover for TIME magazine on March 8, 1999, and is now dancing at The City Center Theater in New York City with The Paul Taylor Dance Company.

Finis: Well, Silvia, you certainly surprised me when you came into class the other day and showed me TIME magazine -- and you on the cover. What a beautiful picture of you!

Before we go into how it happened, let's let our readers know more about you. Why don't we go back to the beginning. Where did you begin dancing?

Silvia: I started my dance training in Lisbon, Portugal, where I was born and raised. I started very late, when I was in high school, at age 14, with jazz dance, because I thought ballet was 'for girls.' I was a tomboy. I did horseback riding from age 9 to 14, played soccer, and windsurfed, all activities not exactly conducive to ballet training. Then, when I was 15, I entered a national disco contest in Portugal, and won first prize for female individuals, and won a $1,000, which I used so that I could come to New York City in the summer.

I went to The Alvin Ailey American Dance Center, and took my first ballet class (ever) with Robert Christopher, and jazz at Jo-Jo's Dance Factory. I loved it so much, and was so impressed with all the amazing dancers I saw that I decided I wanted to become a professional dancer.

When I returned home after that summer, I started taking ballet classes at The Gulbenkian School in Lisbon, and danced with an amateur dance group.

Finis: And how did you find studying ballet after all your previous athletic activities?

Silvia: It was extremely hard. After so much horseback riding, I was so turned in, and my back was swayed. My feet sickled from windsurfing. Ballet seemed to be so strict and constipated, compared to the freedom in jazz dancing. But, my jazz teacher was adamant about all of us taking ballet to improve our technique. At first, it felt like taking a bad medication, but little by little, it became an enjoyable experience.

From that year on, I returned to New York City every summer and was on scholarship at Steps Studio.

Finis: So how did you end up in New York City on a permanent basis?

Silvia: From 1984 to 1989, I danced with The Lisbon Dance Company, which was a contemporary repertory company, and I got to work with many choreographers from the United States, like David Parsons, Igal Perry, Monica Levy, Gerri Houlihan, and Mark Haim. Unfortunately, Rui Horta, who was the artistic director and my mentor and first teacher, was fired by the executive director in 1987, and from that time on, the company took a turn for the worse, and I decided to leave the company and come to New York.

Finis: What did you think you would do in New York City?

Silvia: In the summer of 88, Maggie Black, with whom I was taking classes, recommended that I go and audition for Lar Lubovitch. Although I didn't get hired at that audition, I loved it so much that I kept asking when there would be courses and other auditions so that they would call me. I took two workshops, and it was after the third audition, in December 1990, that Lar hired me.

Finis: What you're saying is very important for aspiring performers to realize; if at first you don't succeed, try, try, try again! You persisted from 1988 to 1990, until you made it into the company.

Silvia: It's important not only to persist, but also show that you've worked on your technique and quality of movement.

Finis: Even more important! You're making great points here.

Silvia: Yes, just because a director says 'no' the first time he sees you, it doesn't mean that one cannot go back and re-audition and show improvements. It is this kind of determination that sometimes makes the difference between the dancer that is chosen and the dancer that is not.

Finis: Is this about when you first came to my ballet classes?

Silvia: Yes. Your classes were helpful to me, because you taught me how to move seamlessly, which was one of the cornerstones of Lar's style.

Finis: So what was it like to dance for Lar? Was it at all what you had ever imagined?

Silvia: It was very exciting! It was my first big company job in the U.S., and, over the years, I had fallen in love with that style of movement. I had seen Lar's work performed by the Gulbenkian Ballet, and never imagined that me, a little Portuguese girl, would ever meet Lar and dance for him.

Finis: That's great, because all dancers have dreams they wish would come true.

Silvia: The other exciting thing was that we were the only dance company to perform at The Mostly Mozart Festival at Lincoln Center. I'll never forget the incredible feeling of dancing at Avery Fisher Hall with a live orchestra behind us, playing Mozart.

Finis: Most modern companies in the U.S. struggle to survive, and it's usually very difficult for the dancers to make a decent living. Was this true while you were with Lar?

Silvia: The actual weekly salary was very good compared to what I had been making with smaller companies, but we didn't work often enough, and so I would go on unemployment and this was not something I had expected, since in Europe, most of the companies are government subsidized and work the year round. The state of things got so bad that in 1995, Lar decided to cancel all our engagements and fold the touring company, which meant I was out of a job that April.

Finis: So what did you do?

Silvia: I started auditioning like a maniac! Sometimes three auditions the same day; musical theater, commercials, dance companies. Even if I didn't know how to tap, I'd still go to the audition, just to get comfortable with the process. I got two commercial jobs that were very good: one was an industrial for New York Life at Madison Square Garden, the other was Pocohantas in Central Park. They were very good experiences, and financially very rewarding, but artistically not the route I wanted to pursue.

Sometime that June, I happened to check my answering machine, and found out that there was an private audition for Paul Taylor. I went to the audition and was kept for the call-back the next day. I had never taken class at the schools, but had had some classes with Susan Mcguire and Jane Kosminsky (former Taylor dancer) in Lisbon, so the movement, while foreign, still felt good for my body. I made some mistakes, but didn't give up, and tried to have a good time. I think that Paul must have liked seeing that I enjoyed what I was doing, hired me.

Finis: Another good point for our readers. Just keep going, no matter what happens. Give it your best shot and enjoy it. So what has life with Paul Taylor been like? Or should we all just go and see the documentary, The DanceMaker, which has been nominated for an Academy Award?

Silvia: Definitely! It really does show a lot about what we go through backstage and in rehearsal. I've been in the company since August 95, and it has been an incredible experience. The first rehearsal period was very intense, because I had to learn seven dances in six weeks, and one of them was 54 minutes long (Speaking In Tongues.)

There was a lot of pressure, because we were going from rehearsal straight into our NYC performances at City Center. It was very exciting, and scary at the same time, to not be able to test any of these new works before opening in New York. But, everything went very well, and it was thrilling!

Right after City Center, we went to Aruba, which was fantastic, since I love the beach. With Taylor, I have traveled to the most amazing destinations. We've been to India, Singapore, Mainland China, Hong Kong, several European countries, countless cities in the U.S., even Hawaii and Alaska.

Not only do we travel to these places, but we also have time to visit and explore. In India, I saw the Taj Mahal; in China, the Great Wall and The Forbidden City. It is definitely one of the perks of being a Taylor Dancer.

One of the highlights of 98 for me was to perform at City Center on a barely healed fifth metatarsal (which I had broken in rehearsal five weeks before) and then to be able to return home to Lisbon and perform there, fully recovered. I hadn't danced in Lisbon since 1989, so it was very exciting. In the audience were many of my family and childhood friends.

Finis: I know how you must have felt! What are future plans with Taylor?

Silvia: In the near future, we are scheduled to do a Capitals of The World Tour: Santiago, Chile; Taiwan, Paris, New Zealand, London.

Finis: You certainly have an exciting life with Paul Taylor, and I must say, he is probably the most prolific choreographer today with an incredible history of wonderful pieces that run the gamut of human emotion.

Silvia: Yes, for instance, on the same program, I might dance Roses, which is very romantic and lyrical to Wagner, and we are in love with our partners; followed by The Word, where we are almost robots and the movements are jarring and intense.

Finis: I'm going to see you this weekend, and can hardly wait. Now tell me, how in the world did you end up on the cover of TIME?

Silvia: It was really unexpected for me, too. I had met Howard Schatz, the photographer, at a photo shoot for the company, and he had asked me to come back and do some pictures for a book about dancers' bodies. TIME magazine hired him to produce the cover, and Howard submitted my photo. I didn't know my picture would be used until I saw it online, on the cover.

Finis: Now that's a long way from horseback riding in Portugal! A nice big perk for a wonderful dancer. Thanks so much, Silvia!