Brown Ballerina Advice: Erica Lall on Being Expressive On Stage, Performance Prep, and Keeping a Positive Mindset
Black culture is celebrated and spread through storytelling and connection. In honor of Black History Month, we launched our Brown Ballerina Advice Series, where we feature experienced dancers of color from various backgrounds and industries. In each interview, dancers will offer their wisdom and insight on dance-related topics ranging from career journeys, traveling, motivation, health, and more.
Be sure to follow our blog and our Instagram page to stay up to date on the series updates!
This week, our featured dancer is Erica Lall, a professional dancer at the American Ballet Theater. Erica shared advice for blending acting with ballet; her performance prep routine; and ways to be more confident, vocal, and optimistic in the ballet world.
Photo: Erica Lall, shot by James Jin
The Artistry of Acting in Ballet
Erica fell in love with dancing when she was a toddler, following the footsteps of her older sister. She would stand and imitate the dancers in her sister’s dance classes, where she was often allowed to watch. She mainly learned jazz, tap, hip-hop, and contemporary until 9 years old, when she auditioned for Houston Ballet’s Ben Stevenson Academy. Excited for the new challenge, ballet became her passion - and later, her career.
Q: When did you realize you wanted to make a career out of dancing?
A: I think I really knew I wanted to pursue a professional ballet career when I put on pointe shoes for the first time. That’s every little girl’s dream, and at that point, I thought, ‘Wow I really love this art form.’ When I was in the school at Houston Ballet, there were a couple of ballets where students could audition or were asked to be a part of and I was very lucky that I got to be part of some of those shows as a student. I got to have a sneak peek at what professional life would be like because I was on stage with professionals getting the real-life experience of what it’s like. That was where I fell in love - the stage!
Performing has always been my favorite part of ballet, and it’s especially what I miss right now because of COVID. I love performing and I think that kind of thrill and the adrenaline you have when you’re onstage is so magical. Being able to give the audience a beautiful show, being able to have a place where people can come into the theater and escape everyday life is such a beautiful thing that we can offer them.
I love being in this art form. You really feel what people are emoting onstage. With Broadway, you have speaking or singing, and people are saying certain things and saying how they feel, but with ballet, it really is about that whole breath and expression because we’re not speaking. We really have to tell a whole story with our entire body, movement, and our facial expressions.
Q: I read in your bio that one of the things you're known for is being an expressive actress. Is this something that comes naturally to you, or was this a skill you built?
A: I’ve always loved playing characters throughout my life, just kind of imitating and being someone else besides who I am. In school, I remember we were learning short skits and then presenting them to the class and family members. I remember my group of five decided to do Willie Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, and I was Veruca Salt. I wasn’t super bold and sassy in school and around others that weren’t my family, but I really loved playing that character and showing a different side of me.
When I was in middle school, we had an elective class called A.M.S. (Art, Music, and Speech). Speech included learning how to present; such as a speaking presentation or memorizing books, prose, poetry, and speeches, and how to focus on annunciating fully. It included tournaments, which were my favorite part. In tournaments, we were required to memorize poetry, prose, and books. I memorized a children’s book and I had to act out the entire book, and that got me really interested in acting. I’ve always loved acting and that was my first sneak peek. You go into these tournaments, it would be all day, and you would be competing within all of these different categories. There was also a lip-sync section that was so fun because I was a dancer and I got to incorporate a little bit of my dancer self into this section.
I’ve always loved acting and I think that shows on stage, especially in some of the specific roles I’m given because you have to act almost over-the-top so the audience can see it. You have to be able to show your facial expressions or show what’s happening all the way to the back of the opera house, all the way to the top of the nosebleed seats. It’s always been a very important part to me. I wasn’t born with all this, quote-unquote, ‘ballet body.’ The hyper-extended legs, the crazy arched feet - I don’t have that natural ability, but I’ve always been very expressive. I feel like artistry is one of the most important things for a dancer, and that’s how you connect with your audiences.
Q: If a dancer were struggling to become more expressive, what advice would you give them?
A: I would say, don’t be afraid to look silly! In ballet, if we’re rehearsing, they’ll say, ‘We’ll let you know when you’re doing too much.’ But they don’t ever want to say you’re not doing enough. Don’t be afraid of looking silly and going above and beyond what you think is too much.
One of my things, when I was a competition dancer, is they wanted you to have these expressions on stage and I was just so stubborn and hard-headed that I would never do it. Then at one point - I guess it was from performing on stage and having to act - I thought, ‘It doesn’t matter if I look silly because I’m really putting myself in the shoes of this character I’m playing and allowing the audience to read what I’m thinking, what I’m feeling, how I’m emoting.’
Just keep practicing. Practice in the mirror. Don’t be afraid to look silly, because you never will - and if you do, just laugh at yourself.
Preparing for Performances
Q: How do you prepare for performances? What’s your process like?
A: Every summer we have our MET season which is typically early May through July, and it’s 8 weeks of performances, a new ballet - or three - each week. So that’s our most taxing and grueling season. Usually, we work from 10:15-ish to 10:30PM on those days, when we’re performing.
I always start that day with a cup of tea, a small breakfast, and then I head to the theater. While I’m rehearsing during the day before a show, I try to conserve as much energy as possible because we are doing rehearsals all day until about 4:45 or 5:15 before a show. You have to be able to have enough energy at the end of the day for the show, which is sometimes difficult when you oftentimes have to run an entire full-length ballet before a show that same night.
Before a show, I’ll take a nap if I have time. If not, I’ll have another cup of tea if I’m feeling a little lethargic. And then, I listen to a lot of music. I have to listen to music before a show. One of the fun parts about our Met season is we have really big dressing room spots, so I’ll be listening to Hamilton and singing along with my friends in the dressing room. I have a playlist that I’ve been constantly adding to for about 3 or 4 years, so I’ll play it through because it has all of my favorite songs throughout the years that get me pumped up for a show! I have to listen to music very loudly. It gets me pumped - and I really love to do my makeup for shows. It gets me in the right mood and is kind of the calm before the storm - a time where I can sit and relax while preparing for the stage!
I definitely have to do a barre before every show. It puts me in the right headspace and warms up my body perfectly. Then, I’ll put my leg warmers on, put my dance booties on, change into costume, and just kind of stay pumped up in the wings. I always try to dance around, look across the wings at my friend on the other side of the stage, and try to get their attention and just try to have fun, so I don’t have any of those butterflies in my stomach.
Post-show, I always take an Epsom salt bath, especially during our MET season, because I want my muscles to recover and not be too sore the next day. But also, pre-show I always have to have a full meal, No matter what! I have a very high metabolic rate, so I will get hungry fast. For example, if we’re performing Giselle, which is a two-act ballet, If I don’t eat a full meal before Act One, I will be hungry for Act Two. So, I always have to have a carb, a meat, and a veggie before a show. Usually, it’s like a baguette sandwich, or some sort of chicken, rice, and veggie combo.
Speaking Up & Letting Your Light Shine
Q: Is there anything you'd go back and change about your career journey if you could?
A: I wish now, as a professional, that I would have gotten some sort of private lessons. I just didn’t know it was an option back then and neither did my parents. I think it’s really important to get some one-on-one time with a coach. Sometimes classes are huge and sometimes you don’t get that necessary attention. When you’re one-on-one with a coach, they can really nitpick and see every little detail and anything that’s a little off. I think that would have helped me a lot growing up.
I think in the ballet world in general, from the time you're young, you’re kind of taught not to speak. You go to class, you don’t show too many emotions, you can’t just be crying in the corner. I think that can affect you as an adult and I think that it’s really difficult as a student to go through that. I wish there was some sort of way we could tell our younger selves, ‘Hey, it’s okay to feel this way and to be upset and talk to someone.’ I think I would have talked to more people about emotions about my childhood and growing up and just life in the ballet academy - it’s difficult, and you don’t really get much time to speak, or feel that you have the ability to express all that you are feeling.
Q: If you would have had a mentor or access to an organization like Brown Girls Do Ballet, do you think that would’ve helped you feel comfortable confiding in someone?
A: Yes, as this kind of support was definitely missing when I was young in the ballet world. I do think that it’s changing now, and I do think people feel a little more comfortable speaking up if something’s wrong or if something was said a little inappropriately. I think now, especially during COVID, we’ve had a lot of discussions that we wouldn’t have had previously just because of time constraints. Now, we’ve had so much time to speak and I think that people are feeling that they are now more welcomed to speak, and they’re feeling that they can speak. You always technically can, but there’s always this fear of speaking up in the ballet world, as if it will negatively affect you by speaking up about an issue.
It’s so great to have organizations such as Brown Girls Do Ballet. We now have way more support being a Black artist than before. I felt like we would only have mentors to speak to and that recognized our feelings being Black in the ballet world. Now we have huge groups and foundations that are there to support us.
Q: As a professional dancer, what is something you often struggle with?
A: Confidence. I would love to be more confident in myself. I now have a higher confidence in my abilities, but it’s just something that I think we all struggle with always. I am constantly telling myself, ‘You are here for a reason. You have made it this way because you’re talented. You can and you will succeed. You will do more and bigger and better things.’ It’s sometimes easy to get into the negativity of your head and be like, ‘Well, I’m not getting anywhere. I’m not getting opportunities.’ So, I’d honestly like to just believe in myself more.
It’s hard with an art form like ballet because you don’t get validated that often, or as much as you’d want. If you compare it to an Olympic sport, you have a gold medal, or you win first, second and third. You have a score that you can feel great or bad about. In ballet, you don’t have that kind of placement to validate you. You have soloists, principal, and corps - but again, every day after rehearsal, it’s not like, ‘You did a fantastic job. Amazing, fantastic show.’
Mainly, after a show, they’ll say, ‘Good, let’s work on this for the next one.’ You don’t have constant validation, which you shouldn't need, but some people need it more than others and that’s when people can think, ‘Wow I’m not good at that,’ or ‘I’m not getting this.’
Q: What's your favorite mantra or affirmation?
A: There’s a bible verse my mom has had around my family for a long time. It’s Matthew 5:16. I take the beginning, and it’s, ‘Let your light shine.’ My mom has had this verse hanging in her office since I was a baby. I always think about it. Let your light shine, because we all have a light inside of us, and sometimes it can feel a little bit dull, but in the end, I always want my light to shine.
Everyone, I think, also wants their light to shine. Sometimes you have to tell yourself to just let it shine instead of allowing certain things or people to hold you down and dull your light. That’s always stuck with me throughout my life. People say I’m a sunshiny person. My parents have called me Sunshine my entire life, and I try to be a positive and happy light for people because, I don’t know, I just really like to make people happy. I’m smiley and I love to let my light shine. I want other people to feel that kind of warmth as well.
Fueling a Positive Mindset
Q: Do you have any other advice or wisdom you want to share with dancers?
A: When I was younger and in training, and even now, there would be some negativity about my race in ballet. Certain things would be said like, ‘Oh, she’s only getting this because she’s Black,’ and ‘He’s only paying attention to her because she is Black.’ I would go to my mom and she’d say ‘Erica, that’s not okay. That’s not a nice thing to say and it takes away all of the hard work you have done to be here today,’ and I would not even realize how awful that was.
So, I think there’s going to be a lot of comments and negativity throughout your life, and it’s about taking those kinds of comments and turning them around and using them as a push. That’s kind of how I think I made it through. It lit a fire under my butt, and I thought, ‘Okay, let’s go. We’re going to prove them wrong.’ Sometimes, it’s hard to see your talent but you just keep on pushing. You keep on showing up. You keep on giving 200% and working hard.
I think that kind of positivity came from my parents. They would always turn negativity into positivity. I think that’s why I was successful because I had them behind me supporting me fully. I had them helping me see the bright side in all situations. They would always talk about remembering that the glass is half-full, and I think that’s really important to remember in whatever field you’re in - to keep that positivity. It’s extremely difficult at times to keep thinking positively. Sometimes you’re just stuck in a dark hole and you don’t want to force yourself to keep thinking negative thoughts, and that’s okay. Sometimes you just need to feel that heaviness, but just know that there is always the glass-half-full compared to the half-empty.
Erica joined the American Ballet Theater in December 2015 and became a member of the corps de ballet in May 2016. She is an American Ballet Theater certified National Training Curriculum instructor and was named as one of Dance Magazine’s “25 to Watch” in the world of dance. Learn more about Erica by visiting her website, and be sure to connect with her on Instagram!