11-Year-Old NYC Ballet Dancer to Be the First-ever Black Lead in ‘The Nutcracker’

Getty Images | TIMOTHY A. CLARY

For the first time since 1954, the lead role of Marie, the young heroine of George Balanchine’s “The Nutcracker,” is being played by a ballerina of color at The New York City Ballet.

To make 2019’s casting even more noteworthy, the ballerina who made the cut is only 11 years old. The talented Charlotte Nebres is a student at the School of American Ballet. Her mother’s family is from Trinidad and her father’s is from the Philippines; Charlotte was born and raised in New York City.

The young dancer has been practicing ballet for as long as she can remember but was profoundly inspired at the tender age of 6 by Misty Copeland, the first female black principal dancer at American Ballet Theater. “I saw her perform and she was just so inspiring and so beautiful,” Charlotte told The New York Times.

“When I saw someone who looked like me onstage, I thought, that’s amazing,” she added. “She was representing me and all the people like me.”

Charlotte’s mother, Danielle, who also trained as a ballerina, described the moment her daughter exited her Nutcracker audition. “With that poker face of hers, she said, ‘Well, I’m Marie,’” Danielle regaled. “And I just thought, oh my goodness, they really did it. I couldn’t believe it.”

Charlotte prepares for her audition as dancers aged 6 to 7 try out for The School of American Ballet Winter Term in New York's Chinatown on April 16, 2015. ©Getty Images | TIMOTHY A. CLARY

Danielle admitted not having realized that her daughter was quite so theatrical. “She is introverted in a way,” Charlotte’s mother reflected. “But then when I saw her, I thought, okay, I’m the one that doesn’t know Charlotte.”

The young ballerina’s response to being chosen over 180 competitors for the lead role of Marie was shock. “I thought maybe I’m just dreaming,” Charlotte admitted, speaking to Today.

After learning that she represented the first-ever colored lead for The New York City Ballet, Charlotte was astute. “My instant reaction was, I was kind of shocked that even in these recent times it hasn’t happened yet,” she said. “I just want to make sure that, yes, I am the first black Marie, and I want to make sure that I’m not the last.”

Choreographed to Peter Ilyitch Tschaikovsky’s classic score, George Balanchine’s “The Nutcracker” features over 150 dancers and musicians and more than 125 children in two alternating casts.

Dena Abergel, the children’s ballet master of City Ballet, chose to cast young dancers from mixed racial heritage for all four of the main roles in the 2019 production. Charlotte’s Prince in the production, ballet dancer Tanner Quirk, is half Chinese. Their counterparts, Sophia Thomopoulos and Kai Misra-Stone, are half Korean, half Greek; and half South Asian respectively.

Speaking to CNN, Abergel explained that the 2019 cast is a reflection of the “tremendous effort” that the School of American Ballet is currently making toward diversification of its student body.

“It’s pretty amazing to be not only representing [the School of American Ballet] but also representing all of our cultures,” Charlotte reflected, speaking to The New York Times. “There might be a little boy or girl in the audience seeing that and saying, ‘Hey, I can do that, too.’”

“They don’t want to change her; they want her as she is,” Danielle explained in an interview with CBS This Morning, “and for women of color, for black women, that’s very important to know that you are enough.”

While 11-year-old Charlotte is already breaking boundaries by helping change the face of classical dance, her love of ballet remains at the core of her desire to take center stage over the 2019 holiday season.