Ballet West was a gift that will continue to bring joy in 2024.

The renowned ballet company from Salt Lake City, along with dancers from the Joffrey Ballet, Houston Ballet, Boston Ballet and Royal Ballet, participated in the Aspen Santa Fe Ballet’s gala event, which opened the summer season on July 10 and 11.

The company will take the stage at the Aspen District Theatre on Tuesday evening at 8 p.m. Ballet West has a long history with ASFB.

“Ballet West sparked Aspen’s love affair with dance with its summer residencies in the 1970s,” said Tom Mossbrucker, ASFB artistic director. “We are thrilled to honor that legacy by closing our summer season with a performance by this world-class company of exceptional artists.”

“The program includes 18 dancers performing both classical and contemporary works – including Christopher Wheeldon’s striking ‘Within the Golden Hour’ and a full version of Gerald Arpino’s fast-paced ‘Light Rain,'” he added.

The four Ballet West dancers who performed at the gala in June – Emily Adams, Hadriel Diniz, Rylee Rogers and Jordan Veit – not only held their own against some of the best dancers in the world, their two performances were considered by many to be the best of the evening.

“It’s a great experience to do these guest appearances and galas with other dancers,” Veit said in an interview from his home in Salt Lake City. “We ballet dancers all speak the same language and we don’t always get together. It’s fun to get to know people from new companies. There are many similarities and also many differences.”

Veit grew up in Seattle, where the Pacific Northwest Ballet ran outreach programs in elementary schools. Veit joined the program when he was 10 years old. His teachers told his parents he had potential, and Veit has been fulfilling and exceeding that potential ever since.

After a few years in the afternoon program, Veit got his first role in “The Nutcracker,” but more importantly, he had found his regular group.

“It’s very nice to find your people,” said Veit. “And I found them in dance. I felt like I belonged. I always enjoyed the physicality of ballet and also the art. I stuck with it because I loved it so much.”

In the world of ballet, young dancers who are serious about the discipline begin attending intensive summer courses at ballet schools across the country each year around the age of 12.

“I did my first intensive when I was 13,” Veit said. “One of the things you see at the intensives is the 18-year-old dancers, many of whom are not yet dancing professionally,” Veit said. “And you see their dedication and how hard they work, and you see what it takes to make it happen, and you either say, ‘I’m not sure I have that in me,’ or ‘I’m going to work as hard as I can to get where these dancers want to go.’ I chose the latter. I worked hard and danced all day long.”

In the following years, Veit completed summer intensives in Boston, New York, San Francisco and Houston. During the school year, he participated in the Pacific Northwest Ballet’s pre-professional program, where he participated in their professional productions, dancing with the company and serving as a background dancer while also taking classes.

Veit’s career was marked by one success after another. The biggest challenge for him was when we injured his leg at the age of 18. He had to wear a boot for two months and not go to the dance studio.

“When I came back, I had this super weird feeling – ‘Why am I doing this? I’m smart. Why am I standing here in a leotard and tights?’ That way of thinking had never crossed my mind before. But as I recovered from the injury, I rediscovered what it felt like to dance and realized how much I love this art form and how much I get out of working hard at it.”

The next milestone for dancers is trying to get into a professional company through open auditions. A dancer travels all over the country spending time with a company, taking classes, auditioning and rehearsing in the hopes of being signed by a company.

“Ballet West was my last audition,” Veit recalls. “I was offered a position in a second company.” (That was in 2012. In the last 12 years, he has progressed from demi-soloist (2016) to soloist (2018) and principal soloist (2020).)

There are currently nine principal dancers at Ballet West (there were only four during his time as principal).

“At Ballet West, we share the workload,” Veit said. “If I’m not suited for a role, I do something else. You’re expected to be very versatile in what you perform. I’m in my third year as a principal dancer now, so I think I’m just starting to figure out the roles I want to play and what I can do as an artist.”

Veit loves living in Salt Lake City and dancing with Ballet West. “I feel very comfortable here and I think it’s important to be relaxed and confident in your environment to be able to let go. I think that will help me reach my next level of performance.”

He said he hoped the audience could lose themselves in the beauty of ballet while watching the dance.

“There’s so much going on in our lives. I hope I can connect with people enough to make them forget their problems and experience what I feel on stage,” he said. “That’s what got me dancing and I hope I can do that for other people too.”