Calvin Royal III is no stranger to the ballet festival scene. For years now, the American Ballet Theatre principal has been a regular at summer staples like Vail Dance Festival (where he was an artist in residence in 2021), Spoleto Festival, and Kaatsbaan Cultural Park Summer Festival. Now he’s putting all that experience to good use as he tries his hand at not just performing on a festival stage but curating it: UNITE, this year’s iteration of The Joyce Theater’s once-annual Ballet Festival, which had been dormant since 2019, will showcase Royal’s vision for what ballet can be. Running August 13–18, two programs will feature ABT dancers alongside artists from companies like Boston Ballet, Paris Opéra Ballet, and Paul Taylor Dance Company, and classics from George Balanchine and Sir Kenneth Macmillan next to works from newer choreographers, including one from Royal himself.
Had you done much in the way of curating before this?
It’s been a dream of mine for quite some time. Way back in elementary school, every Christmas I would bring together my brother and my cousins for the annual holiday production, and I was adamant about being the choreographer, the director, the lyricist, the producer. So it’s something that’s been in my bones for a very long time. I’ve also learned so much from doing festivals like Spoleto and Vail and Kaatsbaan. I curated some performances on Kaatsbaan’s outdoor stage during the pandemic. I’ve learned a lot about the ways programming is structured and produced, and I’ve gotten to hear feedback on what really resonates with audience members. That’s been such an incredible education that’s opened up this whole world of possibilities at The Joyce to now be able to do it from my perspective.
UNITE puts ballet classics like Apollo and Manon up next to works by some of your ballet contemporaries—Zhongjing Fang, Aleisha Walker, Adriana Pierce, James Whiteside, among others. What do you think audiences get out of seeing those works back to back?
My goal was not for it to become like a vegetable soup. Or like, “Oh, my god, it’s this after this after this?” But instead it’s about uniting this bright, long line of ballet. You get the past of where we’ve come from and what’s happening in the present and emerging choreographers that are bringing forth new ideas and reaching towards the future of what the art form can be. My hope is that people leave being able to see that there is that bridge throughout the line of ballet—where it came from to where it is today.
Tell me about your own piece on the program, Moonlight.
I created this work alongside Jacek Mysinski, who is a pianist and also is my dear husband. He’ll accompany me on the piano. The idea actually came to me out of this desire to write a poem with movement. The creation of the piece felt almost like a diary entry. It felt nostalgic and longing and reaching for possibilities.
I know you probably don’t want to play favorites, but are there any works you’re particularly excited to see?
That’s a challenging question because I’m hoping to be part of creating an environment that brings together the total from all the various pieces. So it’s not just a matter of a dance piece on a program that’s a favorite, it’s the contributions of all the people that will be taking part in this that excites me most. I’m looking for something much more profound than, “This is the one you gotta see.” I’m more interested in the fullness of it. The wonderful thing about UNITE, and uniting, is that you never really know what the outcome is going to be until it’s living and breathing. It’s going to be organic; it’s the alchemy of it all.