How to pronounce“hankes”in English

Amanda Hankes: It was about 13.

Amanda Hankes: I had grown up going to see New York City Ballet and American Ballet Theater.

Amanda Hankes: A typical day in season is a very, very busy day.

Amanda Hankes: Which daily class sort of reminds you of, reminds your muscles of what the basic positions are and the steps, but then you've also got the ballets that the

Amanda Hankes: I don't have that much trouble marking.

Amanda Hankes: Sometimes if I see an -- Adrian Danchig-Waring: Amanda Hankes: opportunity I'll take it.

Amanda Hankes: It's a different process than trying to learn a ballet that's already been choreographed.

Amanda Hankes: I sort of disagree that in the corps there's no room for that.

Amanda Hankes: No it's not encouraged.

Amanda Hankes: Dancers' Emergency Fund was something that was set up to sort of help out dancers if they find themselves needing some financial assistance outside of our salary

Amanda Hankes: Thank you.

Amanda Hankes: We have 15 hours left -- Adrian Danchig-Waring: Fifteen hours left to upload yeah.

Amanda Hankes: they're in the middle of it.

Amanda Hankes: I had sat on a committee for the first Dancers' Choice so I sort of knew what was going to get poo-pooed and also there is an enormous, active rep

Amanda Hankes: Yeah.

Amanda Hankes: They're amazing ballets and the music's amazing and for us it's like home but if you're not used to seeing neoclassical --

Amanda Hankes: or hearing neo-classical Stravinsky ballets, seven in a row would be really hard on the audience.

Amanda Hankes: Highly.

Amanda Hankes: There were definitely some people that I had been dying to see in some roles over the years so it became sort of an opportunity to do that.

Amanda Hankes: Well I think that they'll see a very cohesive evening with a really good program and hopefully it is a program that will appeal to a younger audience

Amanda Hankes: We had a lot of people help us dye red pointe shoes because we had hundreds of pairs and that's everybody's old, used pointe shoes that we started collecting

Amanda Hankes: You do it on your hour off or if you only have the last ballet you run up to the spray room with a can of spray paint, so we did it over the course of two or three

Amanda Hankes: Meghan Kent: do you have any questions for our artists while they're here?

Amanda Hankes: Serenade -- Adrian Danchig-Waring: Serenade -- Amanda Hankes: Serenade definitely.

Amanda Hankes: We're very lucky to be in a company where the bulk of what we do is really, really spectacular.

Amanda Hankes: I think our spring season last year sold very, our winter season, it was our winter season, sold very, very well.

Amanda Hankes: But if it brings people in and gets them interested then I think it's really good.

Amanda Hankes: Facebook and Twitter have been huge places for us to sort of get out and be seen.

Amanda Hankes: I think the art form has changed, I think as the art form has evolved the audience has evolved a little bit.

Amanda Hankes: Look forward to a nap.

Meghan Kent and Amanda Hankes: Adrian Danchig-Waring: I think there's room for growth in that way, I don't necessarily think it's encouraged.

Meghan Kent and Amanda Hankes: Adrian Danchig-Waring: And so we decided, I mean for a number of reasons we decided

Meghan Kent: Amanda Hankes: And so then this performance became attached to it and turned out to be very successful as far as raising money for that fund.

Meghan Kent and Amanda Hankes: Adrian Danchig-Waring: And now they are backpacking in Thailand with a laptop under their arm trying to find some way to upload this film that will take less than 40 hours

Adrian Danchig-Waring: Amanda Hankes: Yeah, it's a very anxiety inducing question it's something we all deal with, but because of the threat of injury it's not like you can, I mean you should plan

Amanda Hankes: Frantic.

Amanda Hankes: So there was a lot of misinformation out there, but all press is good press to some degree .

Amanda Hankes: Adrian Danchig-Waring: But I think that the company class like taking ballet classes every morning is this really unique element of the ballet dancer's life 'cause everyday

Amanda Hankes: It's completely .

Adrian Danchig-Waring: They're in 15 hours left of a 40 hour -- Amanda Hankes: We're hoping it comes through by Sunday.

Meghan Kent: Adrian Danchig-Waring: And then we sort of wheedled it down -- Amanda Hankes: You weed it down by picking like who you would envision casting in these

Adrian Danchig-Waring: No, thank you guys for your -- Amanda Hankes: Thank you.

So you kind of need -- Amanda Hankes: Some wind down time.

We have two dancers from the New York City Ballet, New York City Ballet Corps de Ballet member, Amanda Hankes, and