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The Yale Alumni Magazine is owned and operated by Yale Alumni Publications, Inc., a nonprofit corporation independent of Yale University. The content of the magazine and its website is the responsibility of the editors and does not necessarily reflect the views of Yale or its officers. |
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For a student interested in a high-flying career in finance, there's probably no better place on campus to work than in the office of David Swensen, the wizard who manages Yale's endowment. During the fiscal year that ended June 30, the Dow Jones average actually lost five percent of its value; the University's nest egg, on the other hand, gained nearly 41 percent, surging from $7.2 to $10 billion. Economics major Robert P. Wallace '02 had a ringside seat, but this sorcerer's apprentice is no stranger to soaring. It's just that his leaps have come on a different stage. Before he arrived at Yale in 1998 as the oldest freshman on campus, the now-35-year-old junior had been the principal dancer for such esteemed companies as the Washington Ballet, the Boston Ballet, and Mikhail Baryshnikov's American Ballet Theater. At age 12, Wallace had seen Baryshnikov dance and been "blown away by his athleticism." The youngster soon began taking classes, mastering technique, and enduring the inevitable harassment of his peers. There was, however, one significant compensation -- "I was usually the only boy among a group of teenaged girls" -- and by the time he was 17, he was offered a job with the Washington Ballet. Instead of going to college, Wallace turned pro. He became well respected as a ballet dancer, and when the grinding demands of classical technique took their inevitable toll on his knees and back, he turned to modern dance, which is "more user-friendly to the body." Wallace enjoyed critical acclaim, and worked with some of the nation's best choreographers -- Agnes De Mille, Twyla Tharp, and Jerome Robbins, among them. But after a 16-year run, he found himself at a career crossroads. "I was slowing down, and I couldn't jump as high, but I felt I was still growing artistically and had a couple of years left," he explained. Good material, however, was not coming his way, and with the end clearly in sight, he could have started to make a transition into choreography, teaching, or directing a dance company, the typical paths for artists who are past their performing days. But Wallace, whose wife Katie, a social worker, was pregnant with the couple's first child (they have since added a second son), was experiencing a definite "restlessness" about this professional route. "I wanted to challenge myself in a different way," he said. "I had always hoped to go to college, and I figured that if I didn't then, it was unlikely I ever would." In late 1997, Wallace, along with thousands of other prospective members of the Class of 2002, applied to Yale. The admissions office found something compelling about a resume that included being hand-picked by Baryshnikov as his replacement in a Mark Morris piece that opened, to rave reviews, at the Met, and the following spring, Wallace received the thick envelope. With a family to care for and having already experienced the less-than-lucrative rewards of life as an artist, Wallace opted for a major in economics and a career in finance. But though he has hung up his dancing shoes, his past continues to provide its benefits. Wallace may be closer in age to
junior faculty, but he has found it easy to relate to his fellow undergrads because
"I worked with 18- to 21-year-olds every day in the ballet companies." The passion
and hard work that defined his artistry are also qualities that help guarantee
academic success. And as far as being able to deal with the vagaries of financial
markets, a dancer is, after all, an expert in attempting to defy gravity. |
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