Indiana University senior Ben Delony is featured in the Indiana University Ballet Theater's spring 2010 program, "An American Evening." He's "The Champion Roper" for Rodeo and a Principal in Rubies.
Highlights From The Interview
"I started dancing when I was nine," Delony says. "I'd watched my sister dance and really I come from a musical family. My father is a college professor of music in Louisiana and my mother teaches music in public schools. My choice of dance for artistic expression seemed a very normal thing for us."
"The two pieces that I'm dancing in are really different. Rubies is a George Balanchine classic to the angular music of Stravinsky. It's all about shape and form and almost geometric development. Fortunately, both at Indiana University and in my earlier training, I've had a lot of contact with Balanchine's works and the demands that they make. With Rodeo, the focus of Agnes de Mille's choreography to Aaron Copland's music is on character. I'm dancing at least sort of like a cowboy and even trying to think like a cowboy."
In addition to his own dancing, Delony is a choreographer and an active teacher. "I work with the Pre-college Ballet Program. It's great to see the light come on in a kid's eyes when they get it. When the training and the practice that they've done come together."