Baby boom: more dancers--and artistic directors--are accepting pregnancy as part of life.

After Royal Ballet principal Darcey Bussell had her first child in 2001, a London critic wrote, "Dancers who have had large families don't stay at the peak of their profession ... If Bussell ever wanted to be a mother of four, she would certainly have to kiss her ambitions goodbye." Last winter, those words still stung, but not enough to deter Bussell. She was 34, pregnant again, and intent on returning to the stage. "I don't feel that old," she said.

American Ballet Theatre's Julie Kent, also 34, is expecting her first child this month and plans to be back in costume by fall. "I feel so blessed to be able to have this experience, and at the same time continue doing something I have such a passion for," said Kent.

Fifteen years ago, most ballerinas retired when they wanted children, bowing to the still-persistent notion that a career in dance and motherhood are so much oil and water. Even choreographers aren't immune. Consider this remark from an online review of Julia Adam's Angelo for San Francisco Ballet in 2002: "Adam came out on stage, very pregnant, which could explain why this piece wasn't up to her usual level of craftsmanship. With all those extra hormones churning around it's hard to concentrate." Ouch. Did another woman actually write that?)

This generation, however, isn't buying it--even at 35 or older. Bussell is one of five career mothers at The Royal Ballet. Houston Ballet has six, San Francisco Ballet has five, and ABT has three. (This doesn't count dancing dads; some companies claim a few of those, too.)

So who's to thank for family life's new toehold in ballet? For starters, there's a practical answer: The American Guild of Musical Artists didn't add a maternity clause to its contracts until 1990. Today's thirty-something ballet dancers at least with major companies are the first generation who grew up knowing they wouldn't lose their jobs after a pregnancy leave.

Although history yields a few stellar exceptions (beginning with Marie Taglioni and Carlotta Grisi in the ninetheenth century), most ballerinas saw motherhood as a career handicap. "No babies, no husbands, no boyfriends," said Patricia Neary, a New York City Ballet soloist of the 1960s. This unwritten rule was understood by almost everyone who danced for George Balanchine, she said. "He was very possessive, and he wanted all of his girls to dance."

Melissa Hayden, former New York City Ballet principal, said she thinks Balanchine just didn't want to be inconvenienced. She, Karin yon Aroldingen, and Allegra Kent managed to stay with NYCB after having children. Still, she said, "The percentage of people who had babies during their careers was about 0.5." She performed Stars and Stripes at five months. After that, Balanchine invited her to teach the boys' class at the School of American Ballet. "I told him I'd be huge, and he said people needed to see what a pregnant woman looked like."

Even today, babies are less plentiful in the uber-competitive swift of New York. The biggest change is happening in other cities, in part thanks to directors like Houston Ballet's Stanton Welch.

Welch is the elder son of dancers himself his parents are Australian Ballet luminaries Garth Welch and Marilyn Jones, that company's first prima ballerina. (His brother is Australian Ballet's Damien Welch.) Not surprisingly, given his history, Welch views motherhood as artistic enrichment. "Dancers need to have experienced different things in life to interpret roles," he says. "It broadens their outlook."

Statements like that may have contributed to the baby boom this season in Houston. Welch had just brought back Barbara Bears, who'd retired at 30 to start a family, and welcomed back Lauren Anderson, who at 38 had a baby boy last year, when three more of his dancers announced that they were pregnant.

Dancers say they change after they've had kids--profoundly, the better. Not only do they perform with greater depth, they've also got a more balanced perspective about career ups and downs. "If you're not cast on opening night, it's not such a big deal," said Marilyn Jones.

"Having a child makes you more stable," suggested Hayden. She also felt less selfish after having children. "It gives you a generosity, that carries over to the stage."

After her daughter Phoebe was born, Darcey Bussell came back revitalized. "Just to have that time away made me realize why I love what I do. Being a mother is a lot of hard work. Performing is an amazing release. 1 really get carried away now instead of looking at all the technical things."

Bears said that before she had her son Ethan, "Nothing [I did onstage] was ever perfect." Now she lives more for the moment, on and offstage. "I'm well aware that the opportunity Stanton has given me is gravy," she said. "I'm trying just to enjoy it."

Boston Ballet principal Adriana Suarez, expecting her second child next month, concurred. "I've improved so much," she said. "You can get a lot done technically by being in the studio twenty-four hours a day, but if you don't have a life, what do you express?"

Still, having babies continues to pose tough issues for career-driven dancers-physically, mentally, and financially. No woman knows until she's given birth exactly what her body will be like afterward.

Last fall, Anderson felt "like some alien dumped this body off and took mine." Her hips seemed different, her ligaments overstretched, as she worked hard to regain her form. When Houston presented The Sleeping Beauty last September, she danced the roles of Lilac Fairy and Carabosse instead of Aurora--although she was back in Sugar Plum shape by December.

For San Francisco Ballet's Katita Waldo, physical hurdles weren't a problem. After she gave birth in 1999, she lost weight quickly and gained new strength and flexibility. But even though her status as principal was ensured, she found it hard to fit in again because she'd been out for six months. "In dance, if you're gone, you're forgotten," she said. "You have to reassimilate yourself into the group, especially if you're an older dancer, because there are a lot of younger dancers coming up."

One of the scariest things about having a baby is money. Unlike a corporate professional, a ballerina can't choose to stay on the company's clock until a few weeks or days before her due date. Her pregnancy leave begins when she is no longer able to perform, and only ends when she's rehearsing and performing again. In the interim, she's entitled to disability leave of only about $250 a week--even if she's a principal. Waldo says SFB artistic director Helgi Tomasson helped her by letting her perform nondancing character parts while she was pregnant to keep her on the payroll.

"Maternity leave is crazy," Suarez said. "I'm a career woman. I'm full of energy." Like Welch, she too is a dancer's child. About her mother Celia Marino, she says, "She was performing The Nutcracker with the National Ballet of Venezuela three weeks after I was born."

In December 2002, Anderson was five months pregnant when she performed in The Nutcracker. But she couldn't have made it much farther, she said. Alter four or five months, arabesques and cambres were physically impossible. "Grand battements were funny, too. My extensions were fine to the side, but nonexistent front to back."

Julie Kent was five months pregnant by the end of ABT's fall season last yea Her repertoire was reduced, however. Her role in Symphonic Variations and the cartwheels and stomach spins of the spoof Le Grand Pas de Deux were too physical. Her fans worried that the partnering in Dorian, a premiere, and Antony Tudor's Pillar of Fire was too rough, but she said it wasn't a major issue.

Marcelo Gomes, one of Kent's partners, said those scenes looked meaner than they were. "We changed a few things but kept the energy so it wouldn't jeopardize the choreography." He was a little scared, but honored, too. "There was such a big taboo a few years ago against babies," he said. "It's a beautiful thing for me to see."

A few years ago, Kent herself had no interest in babies. "Acquiring a ballerina repertoire requires an incredible amount of time," sine said. "You're constant involved with few you look and how you feel. And there's no way around that you're interested in achieving that level." Now, she said, her ballerina psyche has room for something else. In her last performances, the baby was active as Kent stepped onstage. "It wasn't until then that I felt the two worlds coming together," she said. "I'm sure it will be so many things that I don't expect, and hopefully some things I was prepared for. I'm so looking forward to raising a baby in the ABT family."

TERESE CAPUCILLI, FROM NEW MOM TO MEDEA 

Terese Capucilli. principal dancer with the Martha Graham Dance Company, gave birth to Thompson Daniel Randolph last rear. She is now getting in shape to return to the major role of Medea in Graham's masterpiece Cave of the Heart, which she has not performed since 1997. The company's season at The Joyce Theater April 14-25 marks Capucilli's twenty-fifth year with the group. A Dance Magazine awardee in 2001, she is also co-artistic director of the company. In January Capucilli, 47, was interviewed by DANCE MAGAZINE'S Wendy Perronn.

DM: You've been married since 1984. What made you decide to have a baby when you did? TC: I always thought I would have ant but the momentum of my career took hold, and I kept thinking, "Next year," or "One morn New York season." then it got to a point when my biological clock was ticking. With the suspension of the Graham Company in 2001, I wasn't doing much performing and I thought" I better do it now."

How do you feel now about your decision? It's an incredible experience. It's my best role yet. With your body being your life, it's hard to take that plunge. In some respects I wish I had started earlier because I'm not sure how many years Thompson will have of watching me dance.

Did you perform during your pregnancy? No I had a miscarriage the year before. When I got pregnant the first time I kept dancing and teaching. Dancers always think they're invincible! I was feeling good, but the baby just wasn't strong enough. So when I got pregnant again, I really did nothing--nothing for a dancer I taught some but took it easy.

Did your dancing help you with the delivery at all? I had a Cesarean section. Having your body cut open in that way was traumatic. It was a real struggle to get Thompson out; the uterus contracted around him like an hourglass. I had thirty-three hours of back labor. Forget about Lamaze! I did breathings that I had done through my whole dance career. With a C-section you feel like you've had trucks running inside of you.

How did you recover your dancer self? Four months after I had Thompson, Jacqulyn Buglisi [of Buglisi/Foreman Dance, of which Capucilli was a co-founder] asked me to do a studio showing at Chautauqua [Institute Schools of Fine & Performing Arts, in Chautauqua, New York]. I still had a lot of my baby weight, and I look Thompson Lip there. I was still nursing. The two parts I danced were deeply physical but not fast, so I was able to work on strengthening the inner core that's so important in our work. I didn't have the pressure of being on a stage. Jackie re-created my costume for Requiem to accommodate my new voluptuousness. Having the opportunity to start rediscovering that inner strength early on was wonderful.

How did you lose the baby weight? I lost it just from working and juggling a lot of things. I looked very motherly before, and I loved looking motherly. I don't look motherly now.

What kind of workout did you do to get your technique back? I work with Gyrotonics; it's organic tar my body and uses the circular energies that relate to the Graham technique.

How do you balance motherhood and career? You want so much to be with the baby that it's hard to get motivated to get back into that discipline. I bring him to rehearsal; he's been on tour. As an artistic director of the company, I'm also dealing with planning meetings. I'd bring a sitter with me, and they'd be in another room. The company has been extremely supportive.

Have there been any physical problems in rehearsals? Sometimes with the partnering and lifting, I was getting dizzy and feeling uncentered. Your body reacts to anything that is twisted or contorted when you haven't done it in a while. Right now every fiber in my body is sore.

What are the challenges of Medea in Cave of the Heart? Medea has a fire in her being; she's wild but contained. I have to work toward a depth of physicality to create the consuming jealousy that obsesses her. Technically, Medea does seven cave turns across the stage. That's like a penche turn but your body's in a contraction over your standing leg.

I'm trying not to get frustrated. You get in front of that mirror and you want it all back at once. But it has to be a slow and progressive journey, and you have to keep pulling back from doing too much.

In the story of Medea, she is so jealous that she kills her two children as revenge. Now that you are a mother, is her action even more difficult to think about? It is difficult to go from such a warm, nurturing feeling to one of such rage. But tap ping into those evil places is what brings the character to life. In terms of Martha's portrayal of the character, there's nothing depicting the murder of the children. Her venom is toward the princess whom Jason has taken as a lover.

How do you think your performing will change now that you're Thompson's mother? I'm reawakening everything I worked so hard to achieve, and bringing this fresh new' experience to every role that I do.

HEALTH TIPS

BY SUZANNE MARTIN

PREGNANT. The word can't help but evoke an emotional response. And for a dancer, it has bittersweet implications. I can remember standing backstage watching a pregnant performer "suck up her pull-up" before she burst into her opening movements. Another time, I watched a dancer with morning sickness run continuously in and out of the bathroom in order to avoid vomiting in the rehearsal studio. The bottom line is that dancers love to dance, and will dance, but how does the baby inside the dancer change all that?

Dancers have been having babies forever, of course. But now we have far more medical information about the effects of physical activity on both pre-and post-natal morns. Many recent studies support exercise during pregnancy. One Italian/English study on female athletes [Sports Medicine and Arthroscopy Review, March 2002] concluded that exercise helps the mother's oxygen usage, her muscle metabolism, and her glucose tolerance. In general, the study found, exercise reduces the common problems of muscle cramping, lower limb swelling, and fatigue, as well as shortness of breath, and it promotes better blood sugar regulation.

DOCTORS advise women not to exercise and to seek medical advice if elevation of heart rate or blood pressure persists after exercise, if a woman has palpitations or chest pain, unexplained abdominal pain, or persistent contractions greater than six to eight per hour.

So a pregnant dancer should use her intuition. It's not the time to up the ante to add more yoga and Pilates, but you need strength and core work to see you through. Build your health care team, which should not only include yore obstetrician and a pediatrician, but also a physical therapist and/or pre and post-natal conditioning and nutritional counselor. Educate yourself. The Mayo Clinic and other websites have invaluable information (log on to Mayo's at www.mayoclinic.com). Make your baby one of the lucky ones who can say she or he came into the world dancing!

HERE ARE 6 of the guidelines that the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) implemented in 2000 for exercising pregnant:

1

Avoid exercising on your back after the first trimester.

2

Modify the intensity of your exercise according to your symptoms.

3

Weight-bearing pre-pregnancy activities may be undertaken if there are no symptoms.

4

Body changes that could lead to loss of balance should be avoided especially in the third trimester.

5

Pregnancy requires an extra 300 kilocalories per day in order to maintain the nutritional needs of two.

6

Keep in mind that many of the hormonal and body changes persist for four-to-six weeks post partum, which is the riskiest time for injury.

Molly Glenlzer is a dance critic for The Houston Chronicle.