'Things are happening so fast. Five years ago I would never have thought I’d end up here in the dressing room of New York City Ballet.'
Former Houston Ballet Principal and current New York City Ballet Principal Chun Wai Chan poses in a studio at the Margaret Alkek Williams Center for Dance on Tuesday, Feb. 21, 2023. Chan returns to play the role of Romeo in the upcoming Houston Ballet performance of Romeo and Juliet.Now he’s one of the stars in a star-studded environment — the kind of place where Steven Spielberg or Brad Pitt pop in to watch rehearsals.
When the pandemic hit, and NYCB delayed announcing it had hired him, he feared he might end up with no job. He signed up to compete on the Chinese reality TV show “Dance Smash” to keep himself in shape. “That was really a completely different life, traveling around, learning and filming 24 hours,” he said. The experience gave him a reset — plus hundreds of thousands of new fans and a chance to work with Shen Wei, a legendary modern dance choreographer who was among the show’s judges.
She and Chan have giggled a lot during their rehearsals, to the point she hopes they don’t burst into laughter during the ballet’s tense moments; but they have similar priorities. “We talk a lot about process,” she said. “I’m totally down to have the nerdy conversations with him about acting.” He worked so hard in the beginning, he struggled early with injuries and worried that he’d chosen the wrong career. He almost left the company to pursue a dual degree in dance and business at the University of Arizona. Welch encouraged him to pace himself, and he learned that well, too. “When I’m tired, I have to take it easy. When I’m starting to hurt, I should take it easy even more,” Chan said. “The thing is to work smart and then show it onstage.
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