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Jonathan Breight is a member of the Corps de Ballet with Pittsburgh Ballet Theater. I interviewed him on January 14th and we discussed his career, his love of dance, and some other fun topics – here are a few highlights from our conversation.
Avonews: What has been your favorite role to perform of all time?
Breight: The Lacrimosa Pas De Deux by Annabelle Lopez Ochoa.
A: Can you tell me more about that role?
B: Absolutely. So it’s actually a semi-religious pas de deux. It’s based off of the Pieta that is in the Louvre in Paris. The way the ballet works is that it’s the flipped version of the Pieta, so Jesus is holding his mother but in the statue, Mary is holding up Jesus. With being a Christian, that really resonated with me and I had had a consistent partner and we got to do it on and off for about two, two and a half years. The second time we got to approach it like a year or so later, there was just something that took both of us by surprise and we were just more daring and much more trustworthy of each other and we fed into our emotions. When we were doing this it was around Lenten time as well, so we just got real spiritual with it. I translated the words, and there’s two singers. One’s an alto and one’s a so
prano and they’re singing: while my body here decay, may my soul know anguish. Until im safe in paradise with thee. So it was just a really good meaningful time in life and getting to do that one. That’s probably why that’s my most special one.
A: That is really cool.
B: Thanks.
Avonews: Ok, kind of similar but a little more specific: Your favorite Nutcracker roles to watch and then your favorite to perform.
Breight: Favorite Nutcracker roles to watch would definitely be snow scene, whether it be Snow King and Queen or any of the snow corps. The music is my favorite, the choreography that Terry has is my favorite, just overall that is the one to do. And then I think my favorite role to dance, I’m split between the exuberance or the Russian dance and probably the Nutcracker Nephew. I think each one might just, I have a different love. They’re like completely opposite ends of the spectrum. One I just get to be a little monster on stage, that’s the Russian dance, and then with Nephew, I think I get to be much more soft.
A: And nephew you get to sit there.
B: Right. Exactly. I hope that answers the question.
Avonews: Let’s do a fun one, even though Nutcracker is fun. Ok. Favorite high-school subject?
Breight: Am I allowed to say chamber choir, where we were singing and I didn’t actually have to think too hard?
A: Oh yeah.
B: Otherwise, it was probably gonna be math. I was such a math nerd in high school.
Avonews: I know at least with the students, we all go to Market Square between shows. Do you often frequent Market Square?
Breight: I am such a stinker now, with wanting to save up to redo my kitchen and so I’ve been meal prepping and I don’t eat out until I redo my kitchen. So I’ve been penny-pinching, so this Nutcracker season and even with Peter Pan when we were doing that, I didn’t frequent Market Square.
Avonews: Ok. If you would go, are you a Chipotle or a Noodles and Company?
Breight: Neither. I would go to the sushi shop.
A: Oh, I always forget about that one cause I’m not a huge sushi fan.
B: Yeah, either sushi or honestly there’s a burger joint, I think it’s called Stacked, I think I would go and get a burger. Chipotle, I just can’t stand their food. And then Noodles and Company, I don’t know after a couple of years ago I would have eaten Noodles and Company but I don’t know they just don’t taste the same.
Avonews: Ok. Favorite style of dance, not ballet.
Breight: Why would you- I liked the question before you finished it. I love watching hip-hop. I don’t like doing it, but I love watching it.
A: Have you seen any of those videos of “a ballet dancer in a hip-hop class”? Those crack me up.
B: Yes, wearing the trashbag shorts? So funny. Honestly her [Bianca Scaglione] whole [Instagram] reels series of ballet dancers doing things is so funny to me.
A: Yeah
B: I don’t know, I guess contemporary. But also like, modern. I don’t know. That’s a serious question there. I’m a bunhead, I don’t know.
A: Ballet is your one true love.
B: Yeah, I mean, and I’m one of those old school, classicists, where I think, once you know your rules, then you can break them. For ballet, you know, you have the structure of the basics of movement, you know, the pedagogy of how the body moves. Then you can learn to break the rules, and it just has a better flow. I was talking with a friend who’s dancing at Birmingham Royal Ballet, and she is branching out now with the company cause she ranked up. They have different ranks than here in the States. So now she’s doing more contemporary work, as well as all of the classical work that they do there. She was saying, “I don’t know how people would just go contemporary, and then into ballet because I wouldn’t know how to break these rules if I didn’t know my shapes, my basics.” And it’s the same with math, with the sciences, you have to learn your basics first. And then once you learn the basics, then you can expand and have the advanced vocabulary or the advanced repertoire (for our case) that is asked of us.
A: Yeah, I like that.
B: That’s my way of thinking of it. That’s why we take class every day, even when we’re doing the contemporary repertoire, because once you go back to the basics, then expanding outside of that basic circle is easier because you always have somewhere to go back to, like a baseline.
This was an interesting interview- I liked that you did some serious questions and some more unserious questions
It was really interesting to read about Breight’s connection with his role in The Lacrimosa Pas De Deux by Annabelle Lopez Ochoa.