Today we’d like to introduce you to Steffi Carter.
Hi Steffi, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstories.
Hi! I’m Steffi Carter, a professional classical and contemporary ballet dancer and choreographer, certified ballet teacher, ballet academic, and founder of Renversé Ballet (RB). Ballet years are like dog years, which makes me a dancing fossil (dancing for 25yrs), an established teacher (15yrs), a seasoned professional (10yrs), and a fresh director (2yrs).
I began ballet at 7yo when my mother (who correctly identified me as a quietly emotional creature) arranged for me to observe both a tennis practice and ballet class to see if I took interest in either. Ballet happened to come first, and as unglamorous as classwork is when compared to what we put on stage, I was immediately mesmerized. Ballet seemed to me strange, cerebral, and important. Mom enrolled me that very day. (And good thing – I’d’ve been dreadful at tennis!) After moving to Southern California Ballet at 10yoa, I completed my ballet education in the Cecchetti Method, spent summers with Marin Dance Theatre, performed as a principal artist in a pre-professional company, and became a certified ballet instructor before I graduated high school. My most influential teachers were Margaret Swarthout (Royal Ballet), Ahita Ardalan (Paris Opera Ballet), Sylvia Palmer-Zetler (Royal Winnipeg Ballet), and Lynn Cox (Atlanta Ballet).
I attended the University of Chicago (BA Political Science) to further develop my artistry, versatility, and leadership as Head of Teaching for UBallet, choreographer for UTheatre, and work-study intern at Hubbard Street Dance Chicago, and featured performer throughout the city. My undergrad thesis (Waltz of the Powers: Exploring the importance of dance in the performance of citizenship) gave way to my postgrad research in the evolving role gender politics plays in the classical ballet industry, as well as ballet pedagogy and methodology reform.
I started my professional ballet career late by any standard, after university (23yoa). After a few seasons as a soloist and corps member in San Diego, Portland, and Chicago, I began freelancing principal roles abroad. I created Renversé Ballet (2020) as a virtual platform committed to creating a more diverse, informed, inquisitive, and inclusive ballet community through three pillars: Instruction, information, and collaboration. I continue to perform (San Diego, Chicago, Amsterdam, Dublin, and London), completed international choreography residencies, directed my first short dance film, directed my first full-length ballet, and am currently working on the next. I love what I do, and I love the artists I get to meet, bring together, and uplift!
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
No matter how much you love it, ballet doesn’t always love you back. I enjoyed a privileged pre-professional pedigree, and I’ve been extraordinarily lucky to carve out an international career – but ballet has made me intensely aware of class, color, and the cost of dreams.
The ugly truth? We are often ranked and cast based on things we cannot change, like whether or not we look like the rest of the company, tiny enough to lift, or delicate enough to fall in love in a leading role. These factors are open secrets, implicit biases and vague discrimination neatly tucked under “aesthetic preferences”. So much of our careers depend on others taking risks on us, on others giving us permission to continue. Having attended hundreds of auditions, it’s validating to know I can hold my own in any given room around the world – yet I struggle with employment because leaders have trouble associating me with the ballet archetype.
“Some dancers just aren’t built for tutus.” It’s something you never quite forget. My director went on to say that my technique, artistry, and interpersonal working style were wonderful – but I should adjust my professional hope in working toward more classical roles. At the height of my EDs (anorexia and bulimia, 108lbs, 5’5”), I realized it wasn’t my weight. And if it wasn’t my weight, technique, artistry, or interpersonal skills, I was being limited due to far less changeable, far more sinister factors. It is ironic that even though I’m a native San Diegan, began ballet, and launched my career here, my professional experience is cut with prejudiced chills at odds with our warm, welcoming weather.
I grew exponentially as an artist when I left San Diego to perform principal roles in Europe (Swan Lake, Giselle, Don Quixote, La Bayadere). The brutal realities of the ballet industry extend far beyond San Diego, and I have only been able to weather them with the unending support of my family and friends. My love for ballet is intact – this in itself is a luxury! Ballet can be a lonely path and is too easy to be heartbroken by and barred from it. I became passionate about creating opportunities for dancers who are, for many indefensible reasons, overlooked or underrepresented.
Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
I love ballet down to my bones and, to me, loving ballet means trying to change it for the better. I am most proud of creating Renversé Ballet (RB), a virtual ballet diversity platform. What sets RB apart? Our structure, and our artists.
Renversé Ballet’s structure feels like a trick question! RB is neither a ballet studio nor a ballet company, but we function like both. This can be difficult to grasp because of our universal familiarity with traditional ballet structures! I acknowledge the convenience of sliding into the traditional company structure – you’ll have a brick-and-mortar building, greater available funding, and a local ensemble of dancers at all times. It would be easier to build RB as a traditional ballet company, but it would limit our vision. Ultimately, we want more people to tell more stories more often, and achieving this goal relies on dismantling boundaries of access to both high-caliber classes and inclusive performance opportunities. RB does just that, and virtual spaces cannot be underestimated in this line of activism.
Renversé Ballet connects and services dancers around the world in providing classes and producing performances. We have dancers in Africa logging in on California time to take class led by a Brazilian teacher logging in from London. RB’s Summer 2022 choreographer roster includes a disabled artist who will be setting new works on dancers logging in from all corners of the country. RB creates equal opportunities, maximizes accessibility, and amplifies diversity in its current structure. I prefer the challenges of building into this virtual sphere because the collateral beauty is undeniable.
Renversé Ballet’s artistic team is a star-studded cast – but you might not know it! “Classes led by world-class professionals” – we use it all the time in our marketing, and it’s not a throw-away line. RB Guest Faculty features dancers from The Royal Ballet, Boston Ballet, LINES Ballet, Philadelphia Ballet, Dance Theatre of Harlem, Ballet Black, and more. These are titans in the industry! Remember a couple years ago, when Russian Pointe, Bloch, Grishko, and Capezio came out with inclusive pointe shoe satin colors to promote ballet diversity? Freed of London did it earlier, and the dancers who originated those new satin colors are RB teachers! (Cira Robinson and Marie Astrid Mence.) I am perpetually inspired by the dancers I have met and get to work with through RB.
The best part? You can take RB classes for just $10. Realistically, when’s the next time you’ll be able to take an affordable class from these world-renowned teachers in a class size so small that they know you by name?
Where do you see things going in the next 5-10 years?
We’re at a tipping point in the industry regarding diversity of all forms. Personally, I hope leadership composition, company make-up, and ballet repertoire itself will significantly change, both onstage and backstage. This could become the new golden age for classical ballet! But first, it must genuinely reflect the depth and breadth of diverse human experience. Ballet owes, to itself and the world, this progress.
Pricing:
- Renversé Ballet Live Classes: $10
- Renversé Ballet Class Recordings: $5
- Private Coaching Available!
Contact Info:
- Website: www.renverseballet.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/renverseballet
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/renverseballet
- Other: https://steffirina.weebly.com
Image Credits
PC Alex Fine
Kent Freeman
Ming Lu
Peter Kurta
Alex Fine
Daithi O’Brien
Danielle Sosa
Greg Olive
Open Wedding Gallery
Steffi Carter
