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Born to be wild: when she's onstage, the Joffrey Ballet's Maia Wilkins can't hold back.

Article Excerpt
Earlier this year, as Maia Wilkins was rehearsing her role in Antony Tudor's Dark Elegies, she did something she knew she would never do in a performance, but something she needed to try anyway.

"I realized I was being too controlled and studied, and that I wasn't letting things just naturally come out in the dancing," Wilkins recalled. "So instead of the usual run I did to get offstage, I ran full out, with no constraints. I had to taste the feeling of that so I could tune what I was trying to say in the piece. I had to experiment and explore the boundaries."

It is that passionate attention to building a role that makes Wilkins such a fascinating performer--a dancer whose pristine technique is only the handmaiden to the challenge of interpreting a role and making it her own.

"Maia is not a classroom dancer," says Donald Mahler, the representative of the Antony Tudor Trust who set both Dark Elegies and Lilac Garden on the Joffrey, and who cast Wilkins in both ballets. "She is superb onstage--the total artist, with a very individualistic approach. Working with her I've come to realize that it is best to let her lead."

He adds, "She doesn't come to a role with a preconceived notion....

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