Sophie Williams' Pointeworks Provides Off-Season Opportunities for Dancers and Choreographers
- Lillian Dunn
- 16 hours ago
- 5 min read
San Diego-based nonprofit ballet company Pointeworks is making its second season debut of “Ballet Nights” this June with performances in San Diego on June 14 and Irvine on June 20.
Founded in 2023 by professional ballerina Sophie Williams, Pointeworks aims to fill the summertime gap in dancers’ contracts, allowing them to work in some capacity year-round with an artist-forward and female-focused approach.
While European, Australian and New Zealand companies often have 12-month seasons where dancers are able to work year-round, Williams says it is common that contracts in the United States last around 35 weeks. This leaves dancers scrambling for work in the remaining weeks of the year, often picking up freelance work and teaching jobs for supplementary income.
After dancing with Royal New Zealand Ballet for three yearlong seasons, Williams returned to the United States to dance with Texas Ballet Theater in 2022. Seeing the need for company dancers to find work in their off-seasons, Williams created Pointeworks.
Picking just a few pairs of dancers from a range of companies, including Philadelphia Ballet, Houston Ballet, San Francisco Ballet, Texas Ballet Theater and New York City Ballet, Williams pulled together a collaborative group of 14 dancers for a mixed repertoire show. In the first year of a small company’s journey, expecting a full “Swan Lake” production is not realistic.
To prepare for these shows, comprised of multiple short works by different choreographers, Williams spends September through May combing through submissions from choreographers hoping to work with her. This year, over 400 choreographers from across the world sent in applications to work with Pointeworks, and Williams filters pieces, interviews people, and matches up choreographers with dancers and musicians.
Behind the Scenes
Williams’ behind-the-scenes work on the June debut of Pointeworks’ second season started back in October, while she was still in the middle of a season with Texas Ballet Theater. When all of the dancers she selects enter their off-seasons and can get into the studio together, the artistic side of the production finally begins.
Pointeworks allows artists from various companies to come together and challenge themselves in new ways by working with dancers and choreographers unfamiliar to them. Choreographers walking into a typical ballet company might find that many of the dancers move similarly because they work with one another for most of the year. With Pointeworks, choreographers and dancers alike can push their limits.
“I think you can have so much artistic growth as a dancer, just taking class with new people and kind of seeing how they move, and maybe you start incorporating it into your dancing,” Williams said in an interview with Culture OC. “That's how we learn ballet from when we're kids; we mimic and imitate our teachers to grow. You just keep doing that as you see things you like, and you add it into your skill set.”
Paige Nyman, principal dancer with Texas Ballet Theater, board member and original cast member of Pointeworks, says that working with both companies allows her to maximize the amount of time she is able to spend dancing in the short career of a ballerina. Not working in the summer leads to a lack of self-motivation for a lot of dancers like Nyman, and Pointeworks keeps dancers networking, goal-oriented and in shape, constantly getting better and working toward an eventual performance.
Because Pointeworks is still a startup, the company also allows dancers to put on hats they don’t get to in a larger, more established organization.
“(Pointeworks has) changed me as a dancer, because it has given me insight more into the creative and administrative side,” Nyman said. “All of the details in terms of stage management and fundraising and those kinds of things that Sophie has had to do because this is a startup, she has let us into that side of the organization. It’s been really just an educational journey to look at, intellectually.”
When dancers come to Pointeworks, they must learn to work with one another from scratch. Everyone starts on equal footing, and the company's collaborative environment pushes artists out of their comfort zones and creates opportunities for dancers to bring their growth from Pointeworks back to their home companies.
Another Texas Ballet Theater dancer and original Pointeworks member, Rayleigh Vendt, agrees that Pointeworks offers unique opportunities to continue dancing in her layoff period, dancing with new people and choreographers that she wouldn’t have otherwise been able to work with.
Just a few days ago, Vendt was given the opportunity to work with current artistic director of Ballet San Antonio, Sofiane Sylve, who coached Vendt and her partner on their pas de deux.
“It has completely changed my outlook on a lot of ballet,” Vendt said. “It brought attention to things I didn’t think about when I’m just with TBT normally, so (Williams) bringing in guest teachers has seriously kind of regenerated my love for ballet.”
Highlighting Female Choreographers
Williams went into her first year of Pointeworks intending to highlight female choreographers, and this is still an essential part of the vision she is trying to create. This season, Pointeworks will be debuting a piece called “Chasing Shadows” to an original score by female composer Katie Jenkins, in collaboration with New York City Ballet dancer and choreographer Laine Habony.
Highlighting female choreographers is essential to Williams because in her 11-year professional career, she can count the number of works she has performed by woman choreographers on one hand. Since Pointeworks began, she has commissioned nine new works by female choreographers.
“It's just nice to see a different voice at the front of the room and a bit more representation,” Williams said. “As a dancer, like among my peers, there’s been an equal interest of just female dancers and male dancers wanting to transition into becoming a choreographer, and then seeing all the people at the front of the room always being a male-identifying choreographer, it just gets a little frustrating.”
Though women make up the majority of ballet dancers and audience members, choreographers remain predominantly male.
“I just wanted to create a space where they could have a bit more of a platform to be the voices that we're actually seeing on the stage, especially for new works,” she said.
Williams looks for choreographers who bring unique styles to the table and begins curating a program with one piece that sparks inspiration. From there, she gathers four to six more pieces that exhibit a wide range of texture and movement until she finds an equilibrium.
In famous ballets like “Giselle” and “Sleeping Beauty,” women take center stage. They are the main characters; they make up the corps de ballet; they are the most present force, yet these women are not telling these stories from their own perspectives. These ballets are written and choreographed by men.
Not only does Williams want to emphasize female voices, she also wants to put dancers and artists first, making sure they feel comfortable with what they are asked to do. After all, their bodies are the most valuable instruments a dance company has to tell stories.
“From my perspective, being a female dancer in my career, I would like to be working for someone who understands what it’s like to be in my shoes,” Williams says. “There is so much range, but within that range, what’s lacking is whose perspective we are representing, and we are telling when we are on stage.”
Very few ballet dancers have been allowed to tell new stories, and by giving them the tools to grow and experience new kinds of collaboration and movement, Pointeworks is allowing them to do just that.
Pointeworks II: Ballet Nights
When: 8 p.m. June 20
Where: Irvine Barclay Theatre, 4242 Campus Drive, Irvine
Cost: $28 - $100, + fees
Contact: pointeworks.org or thebarclay.org
