With “Unite,” a festival he planned and curated at the Joyce Theater, Royal is “taking the time to do things right,” he said.
It was oppressively hot on a recent afternoon in a dance studio at a former Boys’ Club of New York in the East Village. Two long-limbed dancers, precise but visibly tired, rehearsed, as a coach gave suggestions. The whirring of fans made it almost impossible to hear what was being said. But the two dancers, Chloe Misseldine and Calvin Royal III, had no trouble understanding each other. The moment Misseldine faced Royal and stepped into a long, stretched arabesque, his face lit up.
Here and in other rehearsals that day, Royal, 35, a leading dancer at American Ballet Theater and the company’s only Black male principal, radiated an engaged, gentle energy. He was preparing for “Unite,” a ballet festival that he planned and curated, which will be presented by the Joyce Theater, Aug. 13-18.
These rehearsals were only a week after his spring season with Ballet Theater and just before he was to depart for the Vail Dance Festival. But Royal, a careful planner, was calm. “I’m taking the time to do things right,” he said of the preparations, which began over a year ago.
“He’s been very methodical, very organized,” said Linda Shelton, the executive director of the Joyce, in a phone interview. “If he ever decides he wants to run a company, I’ll be his first reference.”
Royal is not certain about that path, although “I love being able to coach and give back experiences,” he said. “Unite” is one of Royals’ first opportunities to do this in a more formal way, and it’s ambitious. The two alternating programs will feature work by 17 choreographers, performed by dancers from nine companies, including Ballet Theater, the Paris Opera and Alonzo King Lines.
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