Today we’d like to introduce you to Sophie Williams.
Hi Sophie, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
I was born a ballerina with a single obsession, DANCING. My first step was an arabesque (and there is a photo to show this!), and my favorite dress was always a tutu. A native of San Diego, I left when I was 16 to continue my training and eventually embark on my international dance career. In 2023, I returned full of passion, with a vision to bring cutting-edge ballet to my hometown, and founded the ballet company Pointeworks.
I trained in Solana Beach at Ballet Arte Academy of Classical Ballet under Sara Viale (see story in Feb 2024 issue) and Erlends Zieminch. Their rigorous coaching and passion gave me the foundation and resilience that set the stage for me to build my career as a dancer. This training prepared me well to attend prestigious summer ballet training programs with the School of American Ballet in NYC, Royal Winnipeg Ballet, Bolshoi Ballet Academy, and Houston Ballet and to enter Miami City Ballet’s Pre-Professional Division II.
My professional career has been a story of passion, perseverance, and resilience. I began my professional career with Ballet San Jose under the direction of José Carreño. Six months into my first season, the company folded, my first challenge in my chosen career path. I went on to dance with various companies in the USA, including Oklahoma City Ballet, Aspen Santa Fe Ballet, BalletMet, Complexions, Richmond Ballet, and American National Ballet. In early 2020, I was thrilled to have received a contract from English National Ballet in the UK to dance in Swan Lake. But as the pandemic put the world in lockdown, I had to return to San Diego. And then a new opportunity presented itself –- a contract with Royal New Zealand Ballet, a rare opportunity I was able to accept due to my New Zealand citizenship and Kiwi roots through my father’s side of the family. I received a call offering me the contract, and within 24 hours, I was on a plane setting off to start my new life “down under.” Here, I was able to connect with my New Zealand roots, tour the country, and be mentored firsthand by celebrated principal dancer and artistic director Patricia Barker. In 2022, as the delta wave swept across New Zealand, my life was again uprooted, and the tides swept me back to the USA, where I joined Texas Ballet Theater. Since then, I have been in Fort Worth, Texas, dancing for artistic director Tim O’keefe and renowned choreographer Ben Stevenson.
In February of last year, I was rehearsing a triple bill by all male choreographers and heading into a layoff week. I was struck by one thought that I could not get out of my head: it was beyond time a female voice had a say. That night, I went home, started my 501c3 application, and Pointeworks was born.
I am incredibly excited to bring my love of dance to San Diego audiences.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not, what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
Ballet is an incredibly competitive career – with far more talented dancers than there are positions. Resilience and a passion so great it overrides the setbacks have been essential in my journey! My new challenge is setting up a nonprofit ballet company with no experience or training in business, marketing, or fundraising. I know ballet inside and out – it has been my passion and my life for two decades, but all the rest has been a steep learning curve. One of the real beauties of ballet is it is an old art form; it isn’t just some trendy dance that you can pick up off TikTok or something that you can learn off your phone. Ballet is storytelling, it is years of history, traditions, knowledge, all passed down from generation to generation through our teachers, choreographers, and the dancers before us. That is something that makes it so special and beautiful, our craft is passed on and evolves for the next generation through hours of work, discipline, grueling physicality, in our studios and on our stages. Some of the best advice I was given was from my first ballet teacher, Erlends Ziemich of Ballet Arte, telling us that we had to be sponges, we had to be thirsty for the knowledge, and absorb everything we could from the front of the room – and I’ve tried my best to do just that! From my career as a dancer, I’ve had the immense privilege of working for a range of directors and experiencing the direct impact of their unique leadership upon myself, my colleagues, and their respective organizations. Drawing from all those experiences has helped shape my vision for Pointeworks. Notably, while working at the Royal New Zealand Ballet, I had great admiration for Patricia Barker’s initiative to program female choreographers, a concept which I replicated and put at the core of Pointeworks. At BalletMet, I observed invaluable leadership skills from Maria Torija. And even while growing up, I had the influence of my mother, Alexandra Newton, whose leadership skills as the first female in North America/UK to be President of The International Union of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology have been inspirational to me.
So many aspects of creating Pointeworks have been a steep learning curve – learning the ins and outs of administration, development, marketing, accomplishing tasks as grand as renting a theater to smaller details that had never even crossed my mind, such as designing ticket stubs, finding the right insurances, and all the nitty gritty details that come with running a 501c3. I’m loving the learning experience and excited for this new chapter in my career.
Artistically, I have absolute faith in my dancers, my choreographers, and the creative energy that is driving Pointeworks. Having a team full of passionate, dedicated artists who give their absolute 100% into the project, who share a powerful love of this artform combined with our uniquely female vision creates excitement and a draw to audiences as we fill a void that much of the dance world has left untapped. We have a spectacular performance, incredible repertoire, and world-class dancers, and now our big challenge is going to be filling our theater, spreading the word, and finding support within our community for the future of Pointe works. That is our biggest difficulty, finding the support. We’ve raised initial funds through generous individuals, but we can’t say we have everything we need, we are certainly reliant on ticket sales, and filling our theater to secure the future of Pointeworks.
Appreciate you sharing that. What should we know about Pointeworks?
We have brought together a cast of 20 artists: 10 dancers, 5 choreographers, 2 composers, 1 pianist, and 2 visual designers. These artists hail from Japan, Argentina, New Zealand, Ukraine, Hungary, Germany, Brazil, Guam, and all parts of the USA, and in June 2024, we will embark on our inaugural season of Pointeworks to share this international talent and international collaboration with La Jolla and our San Diego communities. Every element of production has been planned with intention and thought to highlight the female voices of the arts.
Every facet of this production presents our female-led voice and vision. We are presenting two exciting world premieres, Familiar Reflections by Nicole Von Enck and Off Beat by Reka Gyulai; both new works embody the female-driven essence of Pointeworks. The costuming of these pieces is in collaboration with designer Susan Roemer, a former dancer and the designer behind the impressive entrepreneur business S-Curve Apparel & Design. The musical elements continue to emphasize female voice, with the score to Off Beat composed in collaboration with LA-based artist Katya Richardson, whose musical scores have been featured in Emmy-Nominated Documentaries.
We will also be bringing to stage Floreciente, a masterpiece by Melody Mennite, Press Play by Caili Quan, and Meraki by Heather Nichols. These three works bring the full range of ballet to the stage under the guidance of diverse female visions, which are often lacking on today’s stages. Floreciente has been summed up in one word as “epic”, and “is thrilling, clever and breathtaking. It’s the kind of ballet even non-classical dance obsessives can not only appreciate, but enjoy” (Amber Elliott, The Houston Chronicle). While Caili Quan’s Press Play has been praised as pure fun, a piece that dances the night away! Our final touch is Heather Nichols’s creation, derived from the Greek word Meraki, meaning the “essence of yourself.” Her work represents a universal concept of putting one’s love and a piece of oneself into their work.
Passion, creativity, and dedication to the art of dance are the driving forces of Pointeworks, and this collaboration of artists led by strong female visions will be onstage at the Conrad Prebys Performing Arts Center in La Jolla, CA, on June 20, 2024.
What has been the most important lesson you’ve learned along your journey?
Forging my own path and finding creative expression outside a structured ballet company has been the most experimental lesson learned. As a ballerina your path can be limited, your career is always subject to someone else’s opinion, usually the director or choreographer. What roles you will dance? If you will dance? And every variation between. There have been so many scenarios where I’ve thought to myself, “There must be a better way,” or “Why don’t they do it like this?”. But as a dancer, it is rarely your choice. I have danced in 13 companies for 16 different directors, and I have seen what works, what doesn’t, the director’s point of view, and the dancers’ points of view. And with Pointeworks, I felt I could use what I had learned. I believe in classical ballet and in giving my absolute maximum. Today’s dancers are phenomenal; they deserve more, and I want to do everything I can to give them a stage. It is a win-win, providing opportunities for my artists and bringing the beauty of ballet to my home-town audiences. The beautiful artists and people I have met along the way have forged life-long friendships, enriched my life as a person, as a dancer, and have all shaped my vision of Pointeworks. Especially during the pandemic, so many dancers were neglected or fighting for their careers, and I would like to give them a stage. They have so much to share, and you can see it onstage in La Jolla in June.
Pricing:
- $43-$98 Tickets to the Inaugural Performance at the La Jolla Conrad Theater
- Purchase tickets at: https://theconrad.org/events/23-24-pointeworks/
- Donations from $5-$100 help support the artists and operating costs of Pointeworks https://www.zeffy.com/en-US/fundraising/9da199a1-ea97-47ae-bb92-3257738c42c1
Contact Info:
- Website: www.pointeworks.org
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/pointe_works
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pointework
- Other: https://theconrad.org/events/23-24-pointeworks/
Image Credits
Samantha Zauscher
Nathan Carlson
