Being a professional ballet dancer is sort of like being a unicorn.
At least according to Carolyn Judson, one of the Texas Ballet Theater’s company members. She’s been a dancer with Dallas and Fort Worth’s leading ballet company for 16 seasons, and she says that even now, people don’t know how to react when she tells them she’s a ballerina. Most people don’t know that you can be a professional dancer, and even seasoned balletomanes don’t know what it’s like to spend six-plus hours in the studio every day.
Texas Ballet Theater is currently rehearsing Cleopatra, and Judson is one of two leading dancers taking on the namesake role. The ballet, choreographed by the company’s Artistic Director, Ben Stevenson, O.B.E., has only been performed four times since it was created — twice in Houston, and twice in Dallas, where Judson first played Cleopatra in 2009.
“It’s been nine years since we did it, so it sort of feels new again,” Judson says.
Cleopatra is hardly what one would think of when imagining a ballet. There’s not a tutu in sight – the women wear skirts, slinky tops, and lace-up sandals, while the men wear togas. Cleopatra dons several wigs throughout the production, and her stage makeup is inspired by Egyptian wall paintings. Stevenson wanted to imitate hieroglyphics in the movement, so the women bend their arms at an angle and “walk like an Egyptian.”
Technically speaking, this ballet is a doozy. Cleopatra stays on stage for most of the show’s duration, stepping off only to change into new costumes and wigs. She partners with two different men, Julius Caesar and Marc Antony, and in one pas de deux, she must portray a relationship that turns from loathing to love in seven minutes. Her solos aren’t easy either, with a succession of five double pirouettes in a row that turn into a manège at the end of her first entrance. The ballet is full of turning, jumping, and balancing, so the dancers must be on their game at all times. But artistically, this performance is even harder for Cleopatra.
“She’s pretty busy the whole time. It’s challenging physically… because she’s supposed to be precise and these movements are really large and strong. But I would say emotionally, it’s even harder, because you have to give so much just with a look to show how strong and powerful she is. So, by the end of the ballet I’m pretty sweaty,” Judson says.
This ballet is really about laying your soul out on the stage. With a convoluted plot that follows Cleopatra’s rise to power and her relationships with Caesar and Marc Antony, there’s a lot packed into 90 minutes. It’s a visual feast, with magnificent costumes and sets, lines of corps de ballet dancers in flat sandals and pointe shoes, soaring music by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, and, of course, Ben Stevenson’s masterful choreography. The Artistic Director of TBT certainly knows how to tell a story, and his movements can reveal a character with something as simple as a side eye or the flutter of an arm.
“I think in this, if you’re not telling the story, no one’s going to care about your positions. If you can tell the story and have a nice line, then that’s perfection. That’s what’s difficult, to be able to get into a role so deeply and so wholly, and still remember to point your toes.”
A lot has changed for Judson in the nine years since she last portrayed Cleopatra. She now has a two-year-old daughter at home and juggles being a working artist with being a mom. Having to balance the two has made both parts of her life better. When her daughter was born, she went through the typical emotions that working mothers experience—feeling guilty for spending hours in the studio, but then feeling just as guilty when she left the rehearsals to care for her child.
“In working through that I was able to find that in being away, it made my time with my daughter that much sweeter and that much more present and in being away from work, the same thing. When I was here, I’m much more focused, I can step outside of the bubble and focus on what really matters and then just do that and not worry so much about all the little things,” Judson says.
Carrying a role like this requires that sort of self-possession. Cleopatra is a strong female character, emphasis on strong. Somehow, the ballerina who plays her must both wield her power and allow her to crumble onstage. She can’t get distracted by tricks or difficult turns; she needs to be fully immersed in her character.
The focus on technicality over artistry and storytelling is growing more common in today’s ballet community. In the age of social media, it seems like every dancer has an Instagram video showing dozens of turns or out-of-whack extensions. You can’t search #ballet on Instagram without being wowed by near impossible feats of physicality. Judson states that it can be difficult to maintain an equilibrium between being inspired by your peers’ talents and becoming bogged down with self-criticism. In the cutthroat ballet world, you can’t wallow on either side.
Luckily, Texas Ballet Theater is not the type of company where dancers put glass in their rival’s pointe shoes. Judson describes it as a true “family.” Many of the dancers are friends outside of work, and some have even married within the company.
“I think that’s a product of Ben Stevenson, somehow he’s employed people that really get along with each other,” Judson says.
TBT also has a hometown advantage. North Texas has a very receptive audience for the ballet. Whether performing at the Bass Performance Hall in Fort Worth or at the Winspear Opera House in Dallas, Judson describes the warmth that audiences have as something different from anything she’s ever experienced.
And the crowds keep coming back. With a repertoire as diverse as Texas Ballet Theater’s, there’s always something new to see season after season. This year’s program not only includes the epic stories of Cinderella, Cleopatra, and The Nutcracker, but also mixed reps, including works like Forsythe’s extreme and neoclassical In the Middle, Somewhat Elevated and Christopher Bruce’s dramatic Ghost Dances. With so much to see, it’s no wonder balletomanes and novices alike keep returning for more.
Cleopatra comes to Bass Performance Hall on September 28, 29, and 30. The company is set to stun audiences, having already done full run throughs of the ballet three weeks before opening night. Carolyn Judson has her pointe shoes ready to go.
