NOBA ballet prodigy dances her way to Harlem

16th November 2015   ·   0 Comments

By David T. Baker
Associate Editor

Editor’s note: This article contains the complete interview with Cori Lewis, and is, thus, longer than the version that appears in the print version of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.

After 11 long years, the globally-renowned Dance Theatre of Harlem, founded by Arthur Mitchell and Karel Shook in 1969 to bring classical ballet to the youths of Harlem, is returning to once again perform for audiences in New Orleans.

In preparation for their return, Dance Theatre of Harlem has been leading a five-month residency in New Orleans working with students from the New Orleans Ballet Association (NOBA) — through its Chevron Master Artist Series — a partnership partly birthed from a shared mission to provide education and access to the art of dance to youth. As part of the residency, students underwent weekly technique training with Dance Theatre of Harlem artist Kellye Saunders and former Dance Theatre of Harlem premier danseur Donald Williams, who danced with the company for 27 years, in addition to choreography workshops conducted by Robert Garland.

As the climax to the residency, 14 NORDC/NOBA Center for Dance students will be performing two of Garland’s works, Return (which is set to the music of James Brown) and Fire, Fire, ahead of Dance Theatre of Harlem’s main stage performance at Mahalia Jackson on Nov. 21.

One of those students is 17-year-old Cori Lewis, a senior at Lusher Charter School and a young dance prodigy who manages to earn high marks in class and in the studio. In a relatively short career, she has already performed twice at the prestigious Joyce Theater in New York (the second time performing with Misty Copeland, who was a guest artist) and has been selected to be a cast member in all of NOBA’s guest artist projects working with renowned artistic directors, performers, choreographers and dance companies including Complexions Contemporary Ballet, The Joffrey Ballet, Martha Graham, Parsons Dance, New Zealand’s Black Grace and Limón Dance Company.

Last week, I sat down with Cori to discuss her career in dance, the upcoming performance and her aspirations for the future.

David T. Baker: How long have you been a ballerina?
Cori Lewis: I started taking ballet in pre-school and I was way too shy so my mom took me out. And then I started training with NOBA when I was 11.

DTB: Do you enjoy it?
CL: I love it.

DTB: Let’s talk about how your first day of ballet went as an 11-year-old entering the ballet association.
CL: My first day of ballet with NOBA was during their summer program, and I remember I had a really hard female teacher (Christine Johnson) – she was a former Dance Theatre of Harlem member actually – and I just remember her being really strict on me. I assume she saw potential so she worked on me a lot, but I was definitely intimidated, but I enjoyed myself, and I’m glad I stayed.

DTB: Why were you interested in being a ballerina?
CL: Like I said before, I was – I am – really shy, and I’m not the best talker, not the best communicator, and I feel like with dance, it’s a lot easier to communicate when thinking through my body instead of through words.

DTB: Why are you interested in being a nutritionist as well as a dancer?
CL: I don’t know…I changed to math and computer science because math is kind of what I’ve excelled in my whole life, and I feel like it’s something I could stay more interested in, and computer science is something that’ll last forever, and [in] these times, I think it’ll be more useful.

DTB: You train more than 15 hours per week. How is that on your social life? How do you balance your work (Cori has a work-study internship with NORDC and NOBA), school, ballet and family?
CL: Balancing everything is kind of difficult but I find myself at school, say I get there like 7:30 (a.m.) and school starts at 8, I’ll be in my teachers’ classrooms asking for help, or finishing my homework or I’ll go during their lunch office hours, or I’ll go see them after school when I’m not in rehearsal, and then I also have rehearsal at my school – at my high school – so, I don’t know. It’s just finding time to eat and sit and breathe for a little bit. I take a lot of naps when I can.

DTB: Do you have siblings?
CL: I do. I have one older sister. She’s in her third year in Hollins (University) in Virginia.

DTB: What is practice like? What’s it like to perform?
CL: On a class day like this, I would usually come early and stretch and then we have our bar warmup, then we have center, and then we either put point shoes on and — right now we’re rehearsing for Nutcracker — but on Fridays we rehearse for the Dance Theatre of Harlem project. I like performing a lot better than I like class [Cori chuckles]. I mean, nothing’s wrong with it but it’s a lot easier. In class, our teachers will ask us to project and, perform for ourselves so it’s not, like, boring and drawn out. And we find ways to enjoy ourselves because it can be repetitive, but when we’re on stage performing, it’s a lot easier to project yourself, and really perform and express yourself when there’s actually people on the other side instead of a mirror.

DTB: Do you get nervous on stage?
CL: I don’t really get nervous anymore unless it’s a lot of people. Like a lot of, lot of people. Or I’m not confident in the choreography that I’m doing.

DTB: How do you get past that?
CL: I don’t really have a choice but to get on stage, and once I’m on stage, after a little bit, then I get used to it. And if I’m on stage with other people, then it’s a lot easier if I’m bouncing off of their energies too.

DTB: Do you find that the disciplines in ballet class have impacted other areas of your life?
CL: Definitely…Etiquette toward your teacher and being self motivated; knowing you have to work on yourself and that you’re not going to get corrections directed to you all the time but applying corrections you hear to other people to yourself. So, I think between the discipline and the self-motivation and the respect for your teacher and each other is…I think that translates to being a student, being a person who’s growing up and knowing that I have to accept responsibility for myself more often than not, as I go into college especially.

DTB: And what college do you want to go to?
CL: Looking into that. I think my dream school right now would be Dominican University of California. Last summer I went to Alonzo King LINES summer program and their Bachelor of Fine Arts is programmed with Dominican University, and I love San Francisco.

DTB: Do you get to go to San Francisco a lot?
CL: No. That was my first and only time.

DTB: What has been the most inspiring thing for you in ballet and in life?
CL: I think the amount of time I’ve already dedicated to dance, to ballet, just keeps motivating me more, because what’s the point of being here, what’s the point of spending all my time in the studio if I’m not going to get something out of it?

DTB: You had the opportunity to work with several dance companies in what has been a short career. How do you feel about that?
CL: I think it’s been great being able to work with so many professional companies. And we just get a lot of exposure to the outside, grown-up world I guess you could say. And the choreographers that we work with really don’t treat us as middle school and high school students. They really treat us as their instruments that want to portray their artistry on. And I guess they might be a little nicer sometimes than they would be to their dancers that they pay, you know [she says with a chuckle]. And then when we get to perform with the professional dancers, it’s amazing to see their self-motivation and how they interact with each other and with their choreographers. It’s great being able to be next to them and take class with them, and you’re like feet away from what you want to be in a few years.

DTB: Have you found any role models amongst any of these dance companies? I see you’ve worked with Misty Copeland, and you’re now working with Donald Williams.
CL: I don’t think I have a favorite dancer. As I’ve said, I think they’ve all inspired me in some way. But I think any works with Limón. They inspired me a lot because a lot of them weren’t, well, some of them weren’t, like, professional dancer age. A lot of people say that you’re, dancers are young and then once they get past a certain age then they can’t really dance, but a lot of them were older and still dancing just as strong, just as passionately as before, and even if they didn’t have the same physicality as they used to or as some of the other dancers, their heart and their soul, you could just see it pouring out of them. And it just made their dancing so much more inspiring to me. And I feel like working with Donald Williams…he’s a lot different than a lot of other teachers I’ve had. He is very much about technique but he’s also very much about expressing yourself and looking like something, and feeling something when you’re dancing even just in class.

DTB: You have a work study with NORDC in which you go and teach ballet to younger kids. Why did you begin doing that?
CL: I started assisting with the younger kids’ class because I know how i was when i was younger and i think i might have stayed if i had someone who was closer to my age and who is currently still going through being taught. And I feel like i might be able to translate something better to them or give a correction more efficiently to them than their teacher could possibly. I know some of the kids from school in that class and I think it’s great seeing them grow because I’ve known them for a couple of years now, so I just like seeing the growth in them, and myself and my peers.

DTB: Are any of the other kids at your [high] school or that you grew up with currently in dance?
CL: There’s Kennedy Dorsey in this class, and I’ve known her since second grade. And then Isabella Beninate. I met her here first then she came to my school when she was in eighth grade. There’s a lot of them. Celeste (Jupiter) and I have gone to school together. Well, she came to Lusher two years after me, in kindergarten, and we’ve known each other since then. Jaelyn (Robinson) and Taylor (Landry), they started Lusher in the middle of elementary school. I know a lot of people, and we spend a lot of time together so we just get closer and closer.

DTB: What are you most appreciative for?
CL: I think I’m most appreciative for the artists that we receive and that receive us into their minds, and I think it’s great that they’re willing to work with such young artists. And they may not know anything about us or anything about New Orleans or haven’t worked with younger students before, but that they’re just so willing and open to work with us – and come back in some cases – is really great to me.

DTB: What are you most excited about the upcoming performance with the Dance Theatre of Harlem?
CL: I’m real excited for the soloist to be a part of it. Because right now, we’re kind of standing outside. While the music is playing they’re supposed to be dancing. And we’ve been rehearsing this for quite a while now, and it’s not getting tedious but I, personally, think it’s kind of flatlining a little bit, because we don’t have as much energy together but I feel like as soon as we get the professional dancers with us and working with us, we’re just gonna be so inspired and want to work a lot harder than we think we actually are now.

DTB: How many dancers from the DTH have you all had the opportunity to work with so far in preparation for the performance?
CL: In preparation? Robert (Garland); Kellye (Saunders); Mr. Donald (Williams). It’s just them. (Virginia Johnson, the artistic director once watched the group perform, adds Jenny Hamilton, executive director of NOBA who is sitting through the interview with us.)

DTB: Do you feel like you’ve built pretty good relationships with other people in the industry?
CL: I hope so. I guess I’ll see [Cori laughs] through college and after college. I think I have built good relationships. I really hope so at least. (Hamilton interjects to remind Cori of an experience that excited her from LINES Ballet this past summer).

In 2013, the ballet master of LINES Ballet came here with two company members, and they were here for a week, and then Summer 2015 when I went to San Francisco for LINES, he taught a class and he recognized me. He remembered me. He was like, ‘Wow. You’re really growing. I’m really impressed with you.’ So, that was exciting.

DTB: Do you find that there’s that sense of camaraderie and family, if you will, all across dance or was this just one moment that is rare?
CL: I feel like the dance world is really small, so you have to be supportive of each other. And once you meet somebody, if they spark something in you or if you spark something in them, you’re going to remember their faces, you’re going to remember their bodies, their movement.

DTB: What has been your greatest challenge as a dancer?
CL: I think my greatest challenge has been getting past myself.

DTB: How so?
CL: Breaking out of how shy I was and allowing myself to be corrected. allowing myself to express emotion and dialogue through dance. I think I’ve seen a lot of improvement in myself in that way and my performance quality. So, I think that’s it. Being able to perform.

DTB: What’s been your greatest success?
CL: I think my greatest success is the improvement I’ve seen and being able to perform.

DTB: What is your dream performance?
CL: Like, dream outcome?

DTB: No. (Cori laughs). Is there a ballet out there that you want to dance, whether it’s Swan Lake or dancing with DTH. What is your dream performance, and where do you want to perform it?
CL: I don’t think I have a dream performance. I just like performing in general. (Cori laughs) I don’t have a preference. I don’t know. I feel like it wouldn’t be a story ballet – a classical story ballet. I think it would just be something that either really counteracts my personality and forces me to break out of myself and really just flying colors everywhere, or something that really relates to me and I can tie it to a personal story or something, and I can put my own life into, I think.

DTB: Do you think you’ll ever choreograph?
CL: Well, I’m choreographing now for my senior project for my high school to receive my Certificate of Artistry in Dance. But professionally, I like translating others’ choreography. Others’ movement onto myself. I don’t really like choreographing very much.

DTB: So, how’t that project going then?
CL: (Laughing) It’s me and three other seniors working with four juniors, so it’s a collaborative thing. I’m not all by myself.

DTB: What’s been your most joyous experience?
CL: The first time we went to New York to perform with Complexions at their gala, I was freaking out. And the dress rehearsal did not go well at all for me, and I just felt like I was going to ruin their show and everyone was just going to remember that little girl who kept messing up on stage. Afterwards, one of the dancers we had been working with – Clifford Williams – he gave me this big bear hug and I was crying and everything, and freaking out, and the performance went a lot better. And when we went back my junior year, it was a lot nicer. I just felt a lot more confident and comfortable with myself, and not being the youngest one there helped me, I think, because that was really intimidating. I just felt a lot more comfortable and confident with myself the second time around.

DTB: What is it that you want audiences to take away when they’re watching you perform?
CL: I want the audience to just feel genuine and pure to whatever emotion I was performing [or] portraying whether it was a sad piece or a serious piece or a really happy and joyous upbeat one. I just want them to know and feel that whatever I was doing was really genuine and pure.

DTB: Do you have any advice for emerging dancers?
CL: (She chuckles nervously) I would advise to just keep pushing yourself and not compare yourself to other people, because that can be very intimidating. It can be very easy to put yourself down as a dancer, but you just have to keep going, and just remember that you’re only going to get better even if one day wasn’t that great.

Cori will be performing alongside 13 of her classmates at two separate demonstrations on Nov. 20, one at the Mahalia Jackson Theater and the other, a private event held at Dillard University. The other thirteen NOBA dancers participating are Tia Alexander, Isabella Beninate, Will Bynum, Emily Cox, Kennedy Dorsey, Caleb Dowden, Leilani Ealey, Haleigh Giorlando-Wall, Celeste Jupiter, Cori Lewis, Emma Loetzerich, Sarah Meunier, Jaelyn Robinson, and Manon Scialfa. For more information about the New Orleans Ballet Association’s community dance programs or Main Stage Season, visit www.nobadance.com or call (504) 522-0996.

You can follow news and updates from David T. Baker on Twitter at @Tadfly.

This article originally published in the November 16, 2015 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.