In the nine and a half years since the Weekly Planet (now Creative Loafing) recognized high school junior Calvin Royal III as an under-25 artist to watch, his artistry as a dancer has won attention at ever-loftier levels. His grace and expressiveness as a mover, not to mention his non-stop work ethic, immediately impressed his teachers at the Pinellas County Center for the Arts (Gibbs H.S. in St. Pete). The combination propelled him to elite training programs and eventually to the world-renowned American Ballet Theatre, where he rose from the junior company to become a member of the corps de ballet in 2011.
Last year he won a coveted $50,000 Leonore Annenberg Fellowship given to artists with potential to be leaders in their field (ABT’s Misty Copeland is a past winner); he’s using the funds to take classes around the world, including a private session with retired ABT star Ethan Stiefel that was covered in January by The New Yorker. In 2013, he was cited by New York Magazine as one of its Reasons to Love New York — “Reason #29: “Because Calvin Royal III Gave Up the Piano” — citing his decision to switch from piano to dance study in high school.
Now 26 and living in Queens, NY, he spent part of July at Jacob’s Pillow, the fabled dance center in the Berkshires where he once took classes. This time around he was a featured performer, one of eight dancers chosen by ABT superstar Daniil Simkin to take part in Intensio, a world premiere of four new works by contemporary choregraphers.
I caught up with Calvin in July at an outdoor cafe at the Pillow to talk about the impressive arc of his career.
DW: Did you envision any of this success when you were first taking a dance class?
CR: Honestly, it wasn’t till the beginning of my junior year when my teacher from PCCA [Suzanne Pomerantzeff] took a group of us to the Youth America Grand Prix scholarship semi-finals in Orlando. I was out my whole sophomore year because of injury [in a car accident], so once I got back on my feet, we went to this competition. And I got scores high enough to be invited to compete in NY, where I made it to the final round.
[At this point a middle-aged man stops by our table.]
Fan: Excuse me, but if I could interrupt just for a second, I just wanted to thank you for your performance — not just today but all of what you’re doing at ABT. It’s just so exciting to see you developing and becoming your own voice.
[Calvin thanks him, the fan leaves, and I ask if he knows him. He doesn’t.]
CR: That’s amazing. That’s, that’s what makes it worth it.
DW: So you made it to the final Grand Prix round in NY. And you’d only been dancing a couple of years — and a lot of that time was spent in rehab. That’s unheard-of.
CR: Everything was happening so fast. I was just like blown away that I had started at 14, and by 16 I was being seen by these teachers and directors from schools and companies from all over the world.
[Calvin, only 17, was invited to train at the ABT’s Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis School. While he was unable to continue studies at Gibbs, he did graduate (with honors) from NYC’s Professional Performing Arts High School, and made it into ABT’s junior company, ABT II. Toward the end of his time with ABT II, he went to study at The School at Jacob’s Pillow.]
CR: That summer I didn’t have anything set in stone for the following season. I went there with hopes of being seen. But a few days before I left, ABT called me and said I had a meeting scheduled with [ABT Artistic Director] Kevin McKenzie when I got back.
DW: What did you think? Could this have been, “Sorry, Calvin, this is the end of the road for you”?
CR: I didn’t have any major expectations. We normally have evaluations, so I thought we’re going to sit and talk about what the future may or may not hold for me. I didn’t have that feeling of, “Omigod, it’s happening!”
DW: So what did he say to you?
CR: It was short and sweet: “Basically, we wanted to let you know that you’ll be joining us next season.” They’re like, “You can scream if you want.”
DW: Is there a chance that something similar will happen when you go into Kevin McKenzie’s office in the fall after this time at Jacob’s Pillow — maybe a promotion from corps to soloist?
CR: Who knows? I could always keep my fingers crossed.
DW: How are your parents dealing with all of this? [His father is a retired Iraqi vet; his mother works for the Florida Dept. of Corrections; his brother, 23, is in the military.]
CR: My parents, they’ve always been very supportive of whatever it is that we wanted to do. I felt lucky because I have a few friends whose parents don’t support the fact that they’re in the arts.
DW: Even in ABT?
CR: Some even in ABT, which is unbelievable. But I feel really blessed to have that support. My mom this season came to see me for the first time since I began performing with the main company. She saw me play Benvolio in Romeo and Juliet, and Benno, the prince’s best friend in Swan Lake.
DW: You‘ve got to get out of these best friend roles…
CR: I know, right? Give me the prince already. No, but um, it was her first time seeing me with the company at the Met. My baby sister, who’s 4, went, too, and sat in the front row. My mom says she was waving at me — and my grandma was there, too.
DW: What did your mom say to you after that?
CR: I remember her telling me that night that she was really overwhelmed with joy.
DW: What did the Annenberg fellowship mean to you?
CR: I’ve always wanted to travel the world. At ABT sometimes with our season there’s not a lot of time for individual coaching — so I traveled to London, Paris, and St. Petersburg and I worked with private coaches at some of the top companies and schools.
DW: Do you feel that you’ve changed as a dancer through this?
CR: I definitely feel that I’ve changed. I feel like I’m a little bit more fearless than I used to be.
[We talk for a bit about his experience at PCCA, commuting to school every morning from Palm Harbor, getting on the bus at 5:30 to get to ballet class at 7:05.]
DW: Did you know right away this is what you wanted to do?
CR: Honestly, after my freshman year, I was thinking about switching. And I had a heart-to-heart with my teacher, Ms. P., and she told me not to give up. She felt like I could go somewhere. How far, we didn’t know at the time — I didn’t know at the time.
This article appears in Aug 13-19, 2015.