We recently connected with Carla Stallings Lippert and have shared our conversation below.
Alright, Carla thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. When did you first know you wanted to pursue a creative/artistic path professionally?
I am the second born of 4 girls. My parents noticed my older sister, 15 months my senior is highly intelligent and a voracious reader. She would sit quietly and read while I was out in the middle of the floor jumping, spinning and bouncing off the walls. So they signed me up for gymnastics which I loved. Then to help my gymnastics and to give me more experience of what is out there, they signed me up for ballet. I never looked back at gymnastics and turned my focus to ballet. I was very fortunate that there was an excellent teacher just a few miles from my childhood home. She gave me a wonderful foundation with strong technique and sense of artistry. I performed with her pre-professional company and traveled to the Regional Dance America Festivals. I don’t remember a particular moment deciding that I wanted to pursue ballet, but never considered anything else. Nothing else brought me this joy and sense of self.
Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.
I consider myself extremely blessed to have had the career I have had. This would not have happened if it wasn’t for the training from Marguerite Phares, Bill Martin Viscount. They both gave me the exposure I needed to the industry as well as a strong technical foundation.
I was awarded a full scholarship to the School of American Ballet and American Ballet Theatre’s summer intensive from attending a wonderful organization, the Pacific Regional Festival. My heart was with the classics at ABT but the scholarship at SAB included a stipend! We didn’t have much money so we needed to go with SAB and ABT was kind enough to let me attend the last weeks of their intensive that went later than SAB’s. I spent two summers doing this after 3 summers with Bill Martin Viscount in Fort Worth TX. There was a fair amount of pressure to leave home before I graduated from high school but I really felt, along with my parents and teacher that waiting was ok. I’m so glad I did as it added so much to me as a person and artist. The musicals I performed in stretched me ways ballet didn’t and added to my artistic growth. Also, finishing high school gave me a maturity I didn’t know I would need as I began my career with ABT.
It was an amazing time to be with the company as The Turning Point had just been filmed with Mikhail Baryshnikov and many other great artists that were with ABT at the time. I was amazed to be there to see such greats and perform with this amazing company! This movie and the fantastic Misha created a wave of interest and excitement for the ballet world that brought it into the public eye in a very positive was. I learned so much in my 10 years there! It wasn’t easy – I was lucky(blessed) to survive the change of directors from the founder, Lucia Chase to Misha (Baryshnikov). I was moving up the ladder so to speak with Lucia and had landed many soloist roles! But with the change, I lost all of that and was sent back to the corps. I was depressed for months but at a certain point on a lonely stairway in Minneapolis, I decided my future was in my hands, not his. I picked myself up, worked even harder, won a bronze medal at the Jackson Mississippi International Ballet Competition and was finally given some solo roles again and awarded a soloist contract. It was lovely but incredibly boring! I went from rehearsing and performing every night with my buddies to mostly solo rehearsals and performing 2 minute variations once or twice and week.
Also at this time, the AIDS epidemic was raging and I lost so many of my colleagues. It was a dark time.
A bright light in this dark time was meeting my future husband, Robert Lippert! I was ready to move on to other opportunities and was offered a principal contract with the Boston Ballet by director Bruce Marks. In his heyday, he was a principal with ABT as was his wife Toni Lander. He was there before my time but we had a wonderful rapore with this common background. In the 9 years I had with Boston Ballet, I was able to put to use all that I learned watching the great stars at ABT! I know it wasn’t as spectacular as what I saw but I loved every moment and felt so incredibly blessed to have this opportunity!
Now I feel as a teacher, I can give back some of what I experienced in those years. I saw Natalia Makarova, Cynthia Gregory, Gelsey Kirkland, Carla Fracci, Alicia Alonso,Ted Kivett, Erik Bruhn, Fernando Bujones Kevin McKenzie, Martine Van Hamel and so many more! Amazing partnerships and performers! Not just the tricks they were doing but the artistry!!! I learned so much working under Natasha Makarova! She was tough on us but believed in us all!
So now, I am blessed to offer what I have learned to my students. I am most proud of their progress and dedication to the art of ballet.
How can we best help foster a strong, supportive environment for artists and creatives?
I think education is pivotal! There is very little education in the arts in public schools presently. Those of us in the private business sector trying to teach dance and squeeze a little history in when we can, music, let alone the fine arts! We need help! Financial is great but awareness and from the home is so needed! Support museums, symphony, theatre, ballet. Go see it!
Those who work in the theatre industry, support your local groups! We cannot afford to pay the prices that traveling big Broadway shows pay! It is breaking us! Our students need the opportunity to perform in a legitimate theatre once or twice a year!
Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?
Upon arriving in New York after graduating high school, I finished the intensive at the School of American Ballet (New York City Ballet’s School). We all had evaluations at the end. I remember going in and wondering if they knew I really felt more suited for ABT. I wasn’t terribly nervous but ready to get to ABT’s summer intensive as I had done the previous summer. Madame Glubov gave the evaluation. English was her second language, Russian her first so perhaps she meant differently but her words were “You have no talent and no potential but don’t be discouraged!” I was not asked to stay for the winter session. I was shocked and confused! Why had they put me in their highest class, paid for my scholarship for 2 years and then this?! I walked to the bathroom and cried a bit but pulled myself together and the next week, went to ABT for the rest of their summer session. When I arrived and spoke with Mr Danielian, director of the school, he didn’t remember me or have the letter my teacher had written to him to make the arrangements of my coming again! Now I panicked! My blood left my body and I couldn’t even think! I had come thinking I would stay and eventually audition or at least train at ABT for the winter. That was my plan. He must have seen the devastated look on my face and took pity! He said “Go take class and we’ll see.” No pressure! Well, he came and saw something in me and offered me a scholarship for the remainder of the summer. Thankfully, I was invited to stay the winter and joined the 2nd company, performing in small theatres and touring to Woodstock! It was wonderful!
Then, Baryshnikov embarked on his production of The Nutcracker and needed more corps for his Snow Scene. I was chosen out the school and went to Washington DC to dance in the world premier and the Kennedy Center! It was amazing! The company then went on a US tour and sent me back to NY. I was disappointed as they took my friend from the school but I felt I had shown them I what I could do. A few weeks later, I received a call from ballet master Terry Orr that they needed me to fly out to CA where the tour was and step in to some corps roles – there had been some injuries. I was ecstatic, bouncing off the walls in excitement and a little disbelief but so happy. Well, I did that, finished the tour and the Met season with them in NY and landed a corps de ballet contract for the next year! It didn’t;t matter that they weren’t taking me on the European tour that summer, I had a contract! What joy and relief!
It seems that the happy story ends or begins there but I have to add what happened when the company returned from the tour and a month long hiatus rocked me a bit – 1st Company class back always had many auditioners in it. Lucia Chase, current director, principal and founder of ABT was there to watch. As we finished barre and came out to the center for Adagio, she made the announcement “All company members in the 1st group, Auditioners in the 2nd group.” I proudly took my place in the very back corner not to disturb the great stars and soloists in the front! The music for the Adagio started and Miss Chase claps her hands to stop the music and says “You in the back there (me) – auditioners in the 2nd group please!” I felt my life pass in front of my eyes! What to do? It was a dilemma but I decided I had to correct this now! So I tiptoed up to her and spoke in a quiet voice to tell her I had a contract! She smiled and said “Oh, I didn’t know!” Class went on, and my career there took off! :)
Contact Info:
- Facebook: Carla Stallings Lippert
- Other: carlastarla@gmail.com
Image Credits
Roy Round, Boston Ballet