Sophie Williams’ decade-long dance profession has taken her throughout the globe, from the English Nationwide Ballet in London to the Royal New Zealand Ballet and the Texas Ballet Theater, the place she’s at present a member of the corps de ballet.
But she will be able to depend on one hand the variety of works she’s carried out by a feminine choreographer.
So when Williams began her personal nonprofit ballet firm, Pointeworks, in 2023, she knew she needed to highlight ladies, whether or not choreographers, dancers, costume designers or composers.
“Whenever there is an opportunity, I will utilize the platform to try and bring balance within the ballet world, which most of us haven’t seen in our careers,” Williams, Pointeworks’ creative director, informed The Instances.
From its inception, Pointeworks has strived to fill in gaps. Williams was impressed to start out the corporate as a manner to supply work for skilled dancers throughout their unpaid summer season layoffs. With a scarcity of alternatives and an abundance of expertise within the ballet world, Williams determined to create a gaggle that performs throughout the low season.
“[Pointeworks] is a very artist-forward company. It’s creating opportunities for the dancers — giving them new works, collaborations, things that can elevate their careers outside of their structured company season, and be able to provide them a platform during that time as well,” Williams stated. “And also for audiences who don’t get to see ballet during the summer because companies are off, they get to see Pointeworks.”
Pointeworks debuted final June with a sold-out efficiency on the 500-seat Conrad Prebys Performing Arts Heart in Williams’ hometown of San Diego. This 12 months, the corporate expanded to the East Coast with three exhibits at New York Metropolis’s Alvin Ailey Citigroup Theater in March. After a profitable return to San Diego final week, the group is getting ready for its first Orange County present Friday on the Irvine Barclay Theatre.
Earlier than the Irvine present, Pointeworks will host its first mentorship program for native college students who intend to pursue knowledgeable dance profession. Chosen dancers will take part in a Pointeworks class on Friday and be paired with a mentor from the corporate who will proceed to information them over the subsequent 12 months. As of Wednesday, seven college students had utilized and been accepted, in keeping with advertising and outreach coordinator AvaRose Dillon.
Sisters Claire, Nicole and Emma Von Enck rehearse for his or her efficiency of “Chasing Shadows” with Pointeworks.
(Raquel Beauchamp)
Williams obtained greater than 400 purposes from choreographers for this season total, she stated. Whereas her purpose is to spotlight feminine creatives, anybody is welcome to submit concepts.
Among the many items commissioned for the New York exhibits was Laine Habony’s “Chasing Shadows,” choreographed for sisters Claire, Emma and Nicole Von Enck — who had by no means carried out collectively professionally. Nicole, the eldest sister and Williams’ colleague at Texas Ballet Theater, leapt on the alternative to collaborate along with her siblings, who each dance for New York Metropolis Ballet.
Habony, additionally from New York Metropolis Ballet, needed the venture to be accompanied by an authentic rating. So she enlisted Welsh composer Katie Jenkins, whom she met at Revolve Dance Mission in Windfall, R.I., final summer season. The duo later recruited pianist and up to date Juilliard graduate Joshua Mhoon to play the dwell rating.
For the Irvine present,Williams, Paige Nyman and Adeline Melcher, all from Texas Ballet Theater, will carry out the piece. This can mark the primary time that Williams will dance to a composition by a feminine composer, she stated.
“[‘Chasing Shadows’] is just very unique in the sense that it’s a female composer behind the music and a female voice behind the choreography, female costume designer behind what we’re wearing, female lighting designer behind what’s going on the stage,” Nyman stated. “It’s just an entirely sisterhood piece.”
Along with “Chasing Shadows,” the Irvine program consists of new commissions from choreographers Reka Gyulai and Heather Nichols; DaYoung Jung’s “It’s Deep, It’s Dark,” which debuted in New York; and Christopher Wheeldon’s “Carousel,” a 2002 pas de deux set to music from Rodgers & Hammerstein’s musical of the identical identify.
“I think it gives a variety to the audience by commissioning new works, contemporary works, new classical works, but also putting in iconic classics — and ‘Carousel’ is one of those,” Williams stated.
Dance careers don’t final ceaselessly, so it’s necessary to benefit from each second, Williams stated. That’s why she’s obsessed with maximizing alternatives each on and offstage.
Sisters Claire, Nicole and Emma Von Enck carry out collectively for the primary time professionally.
(Nathan Carlson)
In October, Williams employed interns to assist with administrative duties. Amongst them was Dillon, Pointeworks’ advertising coordinator and a corps de ballet member at Texas Ballet Theater. This month, she started dancing with Pointeworks as effectively.
“I want to make sure that Pointeworks is for the dancers first,” Williams stated. “So by having dancer perspectives in just every angle — whether that’s marketing, administration, development — if you know what it is to be a dancer and you have been a dancer, I think that it’s a lot more cohesive, putting those interests first.”
Along with dancing professionally, Dillon takes on-line courses at Texas Tech College, the place she research public relations and strategic communications.
“I feel like [Pointeworks has] been the perfect supplement to my education, because I’m taking classes on how to write press releases and then I’m writing press releases for Pointeworks,” Dillon stated. “I could have never comprehended such a perfect opportunity to align with my goals as an artist and future arts leader and an arts advocate.”
Whereas Dillon is simply beginning her profession, Pointeworks additionally gives alternatives for extra seasoned dancers. For example, retired dancer Christian Griggs-Drane — beforehand with the Royal New Zealand Ballet — is the corporate’s growth and fundraising coordinator.
Three years after retiring as a ballerina, Jung continues to work as a choreographer, rehearsal director and dance educator. She and Williams met at Oklahoma Metropolis Ballet about 9 years in the past and reconnected eventually 12 months’s Nationwide Choreographers Initiative in Irvine.
Though Jung created “It’s Deep, It’s Dark” along with her dancers in simply 10 days, she stated she appreciated the chance to work with such knowledgeable, open-minded group of people.
“[Pointeworks] is not just about giving artists a platform. It’s about reshaping the dance landscape, ensuring women’s voices are heard and their vision brought to life,” Jung stated. “I feel like I could really take risks, experiment and develop my own artistic language without the limitation in traditional structure. And I think Pointeworks was perfect at it, that I could really explore myself as an artist and as a choreographer.”
