MOVEMENT TOWARDS PARITY

Calvin Royal III proves anything is possible as the third African-American dancer at ABT in the last 86 years.

Sommerville

“Each time the curtain goes up on a performance, it’s not just doing the steps to music and going through the motions, but it’s what am I saying with those steps that are going to give them meaning,” says American Ballet Theatre (ABT) principal dancer Calvin Royal III, who has built an extensive repertoire over the years. Starting ballet at the age of 14, he has climbed his way up to the top to become the third African American principal dancer in ABT’s 86-year history.

Born in Fort Stewart, Georgia and raised in Tampa bay, Florida, Royal was expressive with his creative side from a young age. He began with a passion for music, receiving a Yamaha keyboard for Christmas, he taught himself to play by ear. Later, he geared this expression towards dance. His mother, a dancer in her youth, took Royal to local classes and performances, exposing him to creative movement at a very early age. In elementary school, Royal IIIl auditioned and was accepted into the Chocolate Nutcracker, a local community project. Exposed to a variety of dancers from all different backgrounds, Royal was inspired.

“That first… made me fall in love with dance because I felt like I was part of something, that I belonged for who I was, and that I love to do it and there was no one telling me that I shouldn’t,” says Royal III.

His love for dance grew as he fully committed to the intense physicality of the sport. His delayed start in ballet could not stop his overwhelming talent, and two years after taking his first ballet class, he entered the Youth America Grand Prix (YAGP), earning a spot as a finalist in the world’s largest

Rosalie O’Connor non-profit international student ballet competition and scholarship program. The performance compelled the Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis School of American Ballet Theatre to offer Royal III a full-time scholarship. In his senior year of high school, Royal III left for New York City, taking up this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity and beginning what would later become a wildly successful career.

Royal III entered a world in which he was the opposite of the main demographic. Ballet does not seem to have a rich history of inclusivity, and as a gay Black man, Royal didn’t fit the prevailing ballet stereotype. When Royal III joined the ABT school in 2006, he was the only Black dancer in his class. He went from being surrounded by dancers that looked like him to a place where there were very few people of color.

“I realized, oh, wow, the world within ballet, specifically in the ballet school, didn’t reflect the world that I had come from, or the community that I came from,” says Royal III.

This change in atmosphere prompted questions from Royall III, questions he didn’t know who to ask, or where to find answers. He wondered if his hair would cause an issue for performances because it didn’t look like everyone else’s and if his skin would show through the white tights that he was wearing. Things he had never thought about before were now at the forefront of his mind.

He felt the need to constantly prove himself, for people to take him seriously. Royal III has frequently heard suggestions to become a modern dancer, or been assumed to be one. At a party, Royal III was approached and told he was only viewed as a contemporary dancer. This perpetuates a harmful stereotype because it implies that people are unable to see Royal III as a ballet dance because of his physical appearance. This is why Royal’s presence is important, as it is changing the way people perceive ballet dancers and what they should look like.

At the ballet barre at 7:05 every morning, Royal pushed his body to contort into unnatural positions and display incredible strength. As if the physicality of dance wasn’t hard enough, Royal III shattered perceptions of what ballet looks like in other ways. Every ballet duet on stage had always been heterosexual. Royal worked to change history.

In 2020, Royal III performed in Touché, ABT’s first all-male pas de deux, a love story starring two men. A monumental step forward for the ballet community, he is doing much more with his career than simply dancing. Royal III is looking outside of himself, making sure others also feel seen. Being one of the first black and openly gay principal dancers, he acknowledges the importance of his position, while also hoping to get to a point in the future where people are not too fixated on such titles.

“My hope is that one day we won’t have to talk about being the first and being the only and all of this, but that it’s part of our DNA,” he says. “And part of what we see as every day, this is what it is.”

Emphasizing the importance of representation for young people is of the utmost importance to Royal III. He realizes there is something bigger at work than just himself. Looking outside of his career, he sometimes struggles to understand the importance of the position he holds, how he once felt unseen, but now symbolizes hope for other dancers who are able to see themselves in him. He strives to be the person he wishes he had growing up, knowing that his innovative expressiveness will speak volumes to his audience.