A&E Q&A - A girl walks into a barre ...

Husband and wife perform leading roles in Atlanta Ballet’s Sleeping Beauty

Whatcha got planned for your boo this Valentine’s Day? A fancy dinner? Champagne? A dozen roses?

Sorry, but unless you’re planning to perform opposite your honey in the leading role of the most quintessentially romantic ballet ever written, your plans fall a little short, buster. Try again next year.

Husband and wife John Welker and Christine Winkler are both principal dancers with the Atlanta Ballet. They’ll take on the leading roles of the prince and princess in the Atlanta Ballet’s production of Tchaikovsky’s The Sleeping Beauty Feb. 11-13, thereby making everyone else in the city look bad.

But how do they manage to live and work with each other without wringing each others’ necks? And why do they seem so intent on making the rest of us feel like chubby, loveless losers? We cornered them during a break from rehearsal and demanded they tell us.

You guys live together. You work together every single day. Can you tell me about that?

Christine Winkler: Everyone thinks it’s insane.

It is insane.

CW: It’s pretty unique. We work together and live together and drive home together in the same car. But it’s great. It’s worked for us. It’s so comfortable. But we still push each other and make each other better than we were yesterday. It’s like all we’ve ever known. It’s actually weirder when we’re apart. When he’s not around I feel like something’s missing.

John Welker: We’ve been married 11 years. We’ve been together 16. That’s a long time. You could say we’ve already had the lifetime of spending time together of a typical couple. ... We spend so much time in the workplace. It’s so hard. You’re so tired at the end of the day. You just want to relax and let the body recoup. You get to know each other on a deep personal level because of the work environment. A lot of people find partners in their work. If it works, it works.

Do you ever find that you take stuff from the studio home with you?

CW: We try not to. I think that’s probably what saves our marriage.

JW: We do a pretty good job actually once we get home. The car ride’s kind of a transitory time. We try to keep those boundaries. Once we get home it’s all about, “What’re we gonna have for dinner?” or “I need a drink.”

Back up. Ballet dancers drink?

JW: Yeah. Oh, yeah. It helps relax the muscles.

How did you guys meet?

CW: We were both dancing for Ballet West in Salt Lake City, Utah. We joined from two different places and met there. We were in The Queen of Spades. We were in the back of the room, the paeans.

JW: We were new in the company, just out of school.

CW: I think you said, “Can you do a push up?” and I was like, “Yeah, I can do a push up.” And I went to go do it, and he pushed me into the floor. It wasn’t very good flirting. Luckily, he’s cute.

So it was romantic right from the start. Was there dancing at your wedding?

JW: Not any classical dancing, but, yeah, we ripped the dance floor up a little bit.

How many times have you heard this joke: “Did you pick her up at the barre?”

CW: laughing I’ve never heard that before.

JW: Actually, I pushed her down.