Issue link: http://papercitymagazine.uberflip.com/i/1540686
By Anne Lee Phillips A fter a performance of Maninyas last March, Houston Ballet artistic directors Stanton Welch and Julie Kent joined the dancers onstage for their final curtain call The local ballet world is being brushed by a star: Houston Ballet's newly anointed principal dancer, Harper Watters. He sat down with PaperCity performing arts critic Adrienne Jones between a busy summer that included performances in Tokyo and Nagoya, Japan, and the start of the ballet's new season. The New Main Man Houston Ballet's New Principal: The Remarkable Two-Decade Élevé of Dancer Harper Watters Photography Alejandro Salinas. Art direction Michelle Aviña. Grooming Juan Peralta. to announce Harper Watters' promotion to principal dancer. It was the company's first promotion to that rank since 2018. Watters became one of only two African- American male principals currently dancing in a major U.S. ballet company, an honor shared with Calvin Royal III of the American Ballet Theater. The announcement took Watters by complete surprise. The moment is captured in a video: He takes the stage for a deep bow with a blend of obvious delight and professional poise, the audience roaring with enthusiasm in front and the dancers applauding behind. Did he have any inkling he was about to be promoted? "The PR was there with their cameras," he says, "and you can tell when Stanton dresses up a little bit more that he's going to be onstage, because it's a tradition that they announce promotions onstage. But to be honest, I was so unaware. It's a hard ballet — two pas de deux back-to-back, and I was concentrating on 'Be there for your girls.' I remember thinking a few months earlier, 'If I get promoted, what am I going to do?' And then I didn't do any of it." At the Paris Opera Ballet, the official title of a principal dancer is étoile, or star. "Star," it seems, would be an ideal designation for Watters. Stars shine, twinkle, and captivate. And even if they are covered at times by clouds, it doesn't mean they're not there. Watters has that rare certain something called charisma. Pure and simple, when he is onstage, you can't take your eyes off him. If Cole Porter had seen Watters dance, he might have added a stanza or two to his 1929 song "You've Got That Thing." When asked if he knew that about himself, Watters says, "I think I did. I was just terrified to bring it out onstage, but I definitely thought I had to. When you're at the bottom of the company and you don't see a lot of people who look like you — I mean there's not a Beyoncé- obsessed child from New Hampshire who was adopted by two professors — I thought, 'I must conform a little bit.' … It's funny to talk about myself in that way, but I know that I have a sense of humor and a wit and a charisma that says, 'I'm quick.' But I think there was a disconnect when I wasn't bringing that part of who I am into my dancing." Off-stage, he expresses his humor, creativity, and vivacious personality on social media. Using short videos on TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube, Watters began sharing the fun-loving, youthful, flamboyant, and queer part of himself. The result is his huge and enthusiastic media presence. By current estimates, he has 600,000 followers on TikTok and 270,000 on Instagram. "Say what you want about social media," he says, Louis Vuitton Men's LV Moiré Fluid single-breasted jacket $3,300, matching shorts $1,480, LV Moiré classic evening shirt $1,610, and LV anchor tie $250, at select Louis Vuitton boutiques, 866. VUITTON, louisvuitton.com. 68