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the trust I've created and see what can be achieved as a principal with this company. I also want to become more involved in the community, so I've been working with The Montrose Center. I do as much as I can, but they keep us very busy here. My dad is a big inspiration to me; he's such a public servant." His father, David Watters, has served in the 24-member New Hampshire Senate since 2012. No one should mistake Watters' starshine personality, however, for a lack of grit and steely ambition. "I'm one of the only principals to have danced at every rank in this company," he says. "To get out of the corps, become demi soloist, then soloist … Then it was 'Oh, the next step, it's right there.' I used my goal to become a principal as my motivation for everything. Every life decision. What I ate. When I would go home. The breaks I would take. The time I would come in here on my off time. It was 'You need to do this to become a principal.' And when I achieved it, it was so rewarding." Plum Roles and Choreography What sorts of roles is Watters looking toward in the future? Is there a preference for 20th and 21st-century choreographers, known for creating opportunities for male dancers to be full artistic partners beyond the oftentimes conventional lift-and-support function of the classical repertoire. Or is he drawn equally, or perhaps more, to the principal male roles in full-length classical story ballets such as Swan Lake. Watters is philosophical about his future roles. "To be honest," he says, "we're a big company here, and you do find yourself with the roles that you do. As you get higher up, it becomes more specific. I used to be intimidated by Giselle and Swan Lake and Sleeping Beauty, but I'm accepting and understanding that they might not be coming my way. I do Romeo and Juliet and Sylvia, which I guess you could say are the more neoclassical ballets I find myself in, and that's just the nature of the game. I really don't know whether I connect with those characters. I think a few years ago I would have looked at those roles as a way of rising through the ranks, because there's so much weight to them and importance in our field." Everything changed for him with the promotion, though. "Now I feel at peace with being a neoclassical principal or doing the more contemporary works and perhaps not having the opportunity to do the classical works," he says. "I'm not writing them off. Who knows if they will come again. But it is something I think about." Watters has wonderful stories of the living "I'm a counts person when learning choreography. A lot of people will just do it on the sound. I need a one, two, three, four. Tell me when to do that, and then once I have the structure, I can create the freedom of movement. I think of it like interior design. If you don't have a well-built house, there's no point decorating something without a foundation." —Harper Watters Louis Vuitton Men's LV Moiré classic evening shirt $1,610, Pearls tie $460, and AF tailored flared pant $1,360, at select Louis Vuitton boutiques, 866.VUITTON, louisvuitton.com. 70