It was oppressively hot on a recent afternoon in a dance studio at a former Boys’ Club of New York in the East Village. Two long-limbed dancers, precise but visibly tired, rehearsed, as a coach gave suggestions. The whirring of fans made it almost impossible to hear what was being said. But the two dancers, Chloe Misseldine and Calvin Royal III, had no trouble understanding each other. The moment Misseldine faced Royal and stepped into a long, stretched arabesque, his face lit up.
Here and in other rehearsals that day, Royal, 35, a leading dancer at American Ballet Theater and the company’s only Black male principal, radiated an engaged, gentle energy. He was preparing for “Unite,” a ballet festival that he planned and curated, which will be presented by the Joyce Theater, Aug. 13-18.
These rehearsals were only a week after his spring season with Ballet Theater and just before he was to depart for the Vail Dance Festival. But Royal, a careful planner, was calm. “I’m taking the time to do things right,” he said of the preparations, which began over a year ago.
“He’s been very methodical, very organized,” said Linda Shelton, the executive director of the Joyce, in a phone interview. “If he ever decides he wants to run a company, I’ll be his first reference.”
Royal is not certain about that path, although “I love being able to coach and give back experiences,” he said. “Unite” is one of Royals’ first opportunities to do this in a more formal way, and it’s ambitious. The two alternating programs will feature work by 17 choreographers, performed by dancers from nine companies, including Ballet Theater, the Paris Opera and Alonzo King Lines.
What mattered most to him, Royal said, was the idea of unity. “I kept coming back to that word,” he said, “and asking myself, How can I show this concept of unity through dance?” One way is through the multiple links connecting the artists involved: dancers he has performed with for years, others he has met at festivals, or admired onstage; choreographers whose work he long aspired to dance or who are just beginning. Taken together, they are like a family tree — past, present, future.
The oldest work on the program, from 1928, is an excerpt from George Balanchine’s “Apollo,” a role Royal first danced in 2019, just months before he was promoted to principal. It is meaningful to him, he said, because it was the first role in which he had to carry a ballet, as well as his first inkling that he might make it to the top.
But also because, while Apollo is a god, Balanchine presents him as a young man absorbing lessons from those around him, just as Royal has from his colleagues and mentors over the years. “Apollo represents leadership to me,” he said, “climbing the mountain of your art form and your career and your life, and then being able to reach back and pull others up.”
Some of those lessons have come from choreographers, like Alonzo King, one of the few Black choreographers whose work can be found in the repertory of large ballet companies, including Ballet Theater. The two first met in a summer program when Royal was a teenager. King’s inclusion is an “ode to what he represents, not only to the dance world but also to me as an artist,” Royal said.
But Royal is not just looking back to the artists who formed him. Many of his choices are aimed at advancing the ideas and careers of a new generation. Misseldine, 22, Royal’s colleague at Ballet Theater, is a rising star of a younger generation, who was just promoted to principal. He often stands near her at the barre during company class.
“I watch her, how exacting she is,” Royal said, “and I learn from her.” The two will dance Balanchine’s playful showpiece “Tchaikovsky Pas de Deux,” a bit of fireworks to close one of the programs.
Royal and Adji Cissoko, a member of King’s company who was a classmate of Royal’s in ballet school, will teach master classes for teenagers as part of the week’s activities.
Royal has slipped naturally into this mentorship role with many younger dancers. “I’ve always been an observer,” he said. He pays attention to the recent recruits and sees the ones who are putting in the most effort, working, sometimes unseen, to realize their ambitions.
“He’s the kind of person who will come and see you perform and root for you during one of his few nights off,” said Luigi Crispino, a Ballet Theater corps member who will be performing a new work by Zhong-Jing Fang, another colleague.
Royal said it was also important to him that the festival be inclusive in the kinds of relationships it represents onstage. Two pieces, by Adriana Pierce and Christopher Rudd, are about same-sex love and attraction. Pierce’s “Petalwing,” to a guitar piece by David Israel, is a pas de deux for two women on pointe in which the effort of partnering — supporting and assisting the other — passes fluidly from dancer to dancer.
More personal for Royal is “Touché,” created by Rudd for Royal and João Menegussi in 2020. In this pas de deux, both men struggle with feelings of shame and self-loathing before finding freedom in the expression of their attraction. “I was able to explore sides of myself that I couldn’t bring to other roles,” said Royal, who is married to the pianist Jacek Mysinski. “And that was such a gift.”
The presence of Mysinski, who trained at Juilliard and also works at Ballet Theater, will be felt throughout the program. He is responsible for the musical arrangements and will accompany several of the works, sometimes joined by a violinist. His closest collaboration with Royal here is “Moonlight,” a solo Royal created for himself, set to Mysinski’s rendition of Debussy’s “Clair de Lune.”
The whole festival is a bit like a portrait of Royal, reflecting facets of his career and relationships, as well as what he thinks is important in the life of an artist. “Authenticity,” he said. “I really wanted to be intentional about that, because it’s not just about me, it’s about all of us.”
