The holiday season is the perfect time for wishes to come true. So it was for former dancer Jennifer Levine, who received hers thanks to Wish of a Lifetime, a charitable affiliate of AARP that grants life-changing wishes to adults 65 years or older. Jennifer, who is in the advanced stages of macular degeneration, had hoped to once again experience a live performance by the ballet company she grew up seeing, New York City Ballet. Her disease has caused her eyesight to deteriorate to the level where she can no longer read, drive, or make out faces clearly.
Wish of a Lifetime from AARP contacted Jennifer—who grew up in New York, on Long Island, and now lives in Raleigh, North Carolina—after she was nominated by her daughter, Alexis Levine. The nonprofit arranged for Jennifer and Alexis to attend a December 6 matinee performance of NYCB’s George Balanchine’s The Nutcracker at the David H. Koch Theater. Wish of a Lifetime from AARP covered all their travel, lodging, performance tickets, and incidentals.
“It was surreal. I had to pinch myself,” says Jennifer. “It’s one of the best things I could be doing at this point in my life, and to do so with my daughter is a wonderful thing.”
Her wish was among the over 3,000 that have been granted by Wish of a Lifetime from AARP. Since its founding in 2008, the organization has helped people reignite an old passion, reunite with loved ones, fulfill a lifelong dream, or commemorate service.
“We get lots of requests each week,” says Natasha Hartsfield, southeast regional manager of Wish of a Lifetime from AARP. “We fell in love with Jennifer’s story and knew that her wish would spark hope and joy and inspire others. We like to say our job is part genie, part community organizer, and part storyteller. It’s quite fun.”
A former dancer and dance teacher, Jennifer Levine began training at age 9 at Long Island’s Eglevsky School of Ballet and joined the original Eglevsky Ballet Company at 14 as an apprentice. She performed in numerous productions by André Eglevsky and his wife, Leda Anchutina, including The Nutcracker, Coppélia, Cinderella, and The Sleeping Beauty, dancing with the company from 1972 to 1980. She’d also go into New York City to take open classes at American Ballet Theatre’s school in the late 1970s and early ’80s, sharing elevator rides and, in some cases, taking classes with stars including Mikhail Baryshnikov, Allegra Kent, Melissa Hayden, Cynthia Gregory, Alicia Alonso, and others.
An avid ballet-goer, Jennifer says her parents took her as a child every year to see NYCB’s Nutcracker. As she got older, she and her friends would take the Long Island Rail Road into the city on weekends to see NYCB and ABT productions.
Now 68, Jennifer has struggled with her health over the past decade, including the degradation of her eyesight and chronic neck pain suffered from two car accidents. Adding to that, both her husband and Alexis have had bouts with cancer in recent years. Wish of a Lifetimefrom AARP couldn’t have come at a better time to remind her of the joy that dance has brought to her life.
“Balanchine is in my blood,” says Jennifer, who says experiencing NYCB in his Nutcracker production again was spectacular. “The dancing was superb, and the orchestra was the best I have ever heard at the ballet,” she says. “We were in the third row and could see the orchestra and the dancers together. By doing so, you became part of the overall experience.”
Prior to the performance, Levine and Alexis received a VIP backstage tour from Mary Barna, NYCB patron program associate. “We saw all the production scenery and got our photo taken onstage, where I took a bow,” says Jennifer. She also received a signed pair of pointe shoes from the matinee’s Sugar Plum Fairy, principal dancer Isabella LaFreniere, which Jennifer says she will pass on to her granddaughter.
Levine says experiencing NYCB’s Nutcracker has rekindled the flame she has always had for the production and the company, so much so that she says she plans to take her grandchildren to see it next year.
“I just wish the ballet hadn’t ended,” says Jennifer. “I wanted it to go on and on. There is nothing like it in the world.”
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