Vengris '04

Indre Vengris '04 — these days, as soon as she is in her pointe shoes perfecting a pirouette, she is out of them again and off to practice body rolls with Disiac. It's true. She is a dancing dichotomy with quite the résumé at the green age of 22.

Vengris became a serious student of ballet in the eighth grade, meaning she was in a professional training program at the National School of Ballet. She continued with this program throughout high school and was offered a professional contract with the National Ballet during her senior year. She was also offered admission to Princeton University. Either was an opportunity and Vengris decided to defer her admission to Princeton — she knew it would wait.

And it did. She came to Princeton as a freshman one year after graduating high school and loved it. She was still training intensely to stay in shape, though — during her year with the National Ballet, she was in Finland where the Finnish National Ballet offered her a contract. At the time, Vengris turned it down. She was worried if she put off school too long, she might not go at all. But after freshman year, she took another year off to dance with this company. She loved Princeton, had one year under her belt and knew she could and would come back.

And she did. After a year in Europe, she began her sophomore year at Princeton and jumped into all things academic and extracurricular. She found a new passion — art history. She began writing for the arts section of The Daily Princetonian. And she explored a whole new type of dance through the Modern Dance Program and Disiac.

Disiac may seem the last place one would expect to find Vengris-the-ballerina — hip gyrations and body rolls are a far cry from first position. And Vengris was timid at first.

"I was like, guys, there's no way I can do this. I cannot do body rolls. What is a body roll? I've been told to keep my back straight for 10 years in a row," she said. "How am I supposed to move my hips like that?"

But she discovered she could move this way, too, and has taken many things away from Disiac that she might not have learned elsewhere. She has had the chance to choreograph for the company — and for the Program in Theater and Dance, for that matter — which she has never done before, and has become involved in aspects of a production other than the physical.

"With Disiac, it's all us, which is so wonderful because we put up these shows. Start to finish, I've never been as involved in a production of a show," Vengris said.

By "involved" she means members of Disiac are responsible for all of the lighting and costumes for their productions in addition to choreography and rehearsal. She said members have been known to stay up until odd hours of the morning sewing costumes and setting lighting.

Vengris is a senior and this begs the question, "Will she return to professional ballet after June, 2004?" Maybe, maybe not.

"I always thought that was for sure what I was going to do. You know, I'm going to go back, dance for as long as I can and then worry about a job. But being here has sort of like opened my eyes to so many things. I love art history. I want to go into museum work. I want to go into the art world and go to grad school for art," she said.

Never, according to Vengris, would she have thought this before coming to Princeton. Now, she plans to keep her options open and apply for jobs, apply to graduate schools and audition for ballet companies. Sounds like she has a busy year ahead — but it can be said with some certainty this won't keep her away from pointe shoes and body rolls.