When principal dancer Buse Babadag steps onstage this weekend because the Sugar Plum Fairy, she’ll be carrying milestones of her personal into Ballet San Antonio’s Fortieth-anniversary manufacturing of The Nutcracker.
Promoted to principal also called a prima ballerina earlier this 12 months — the best rank a dancer can obtain in a ballet firm — Babadag is the primary Turkish dancer to earn that title in america, a distinction that also feels surreal as she prepares to bop one of many artwork type’s most iconic roles in a landmark 12 months for the corporate.
For Babadag, the anniversary season arrives at a second she has been working towards since a baby, on a path she by no means anticipated to stroll. Born in Istanbul, she started ballet virtually by chance — tagging alongside to weekend lessons as a result of her greatest good friend had an curiosity within the artwork however didn’t need to go alone. She loved the mini tutus and didn’t thoughts dancing for an hour on Saturdays, however noticed her future elsewhere.
“Ballet wasn’t on my radar in any respect,” she mentioned. “I needed to be a lawyer. I assumed I might be a businesswoman in my life.”
Issues modified when her good friend determined to audition for admission to a conservatory program that would offer an schooling in ballet. As soon as once more, Babadag accompanied her on the request of her good friend’s mom, a call that might form the following 20 years of her life.
“Her mom requested my mom if I might go to the audition along with her,” Babadag recounted. “Within the audition for the conservatory, there’s like 10 folks watching you in entrance of a mirror. It’s sort of like a film — thrilling, however a nervous scenario. My mother was like, ‘I’ll ask her,’ and we mentioned ‘certain, we’ll try this. It’s fantastic, you realize; we don’t have to even be chosen.’”
The pair attended the audition for a transitional conservatory meant to help college students progressing to larger ranges of ballet. Whereas her good friend was not chosen, Babadag was requested to return and audition for the professional-level observe.
“They insisted, and I used to be like, ‘Positive, I’ll go to the audition.’ The first step, I handed; step two, I handed. Then they advised me, ‘Now you need to apply so you can begin learning.’ I used to be nonetheless unsure,” she mentioned.
She agreed to attempt it for one 12 months. “As quickly as we began that 12 months, inside a month, I used to be offered and obsessive about ballet,” she mentioned, noting that her teacher — a lately retired, “gorgeous-looking” Polish ballet dancer — pushed her to succeed.
“I had a ballet crush on him,” she mentioned. “I needed to be the perfect within the class as a result of he would really like me. It’s actually humorous — he’s in Poland proper now and we nonetheless speak. He’s like my second father, and that’s how I received began in ballet.”
Ballet ultimately carried her from Istanbul College State Conservatory to the Ballett-Akademie in Munich, the place she educated within the Vaganova method underneath former stars of the Bavarian State Ballet. She carried out in gala productions throughout Europe, in cities together with Dresden, Rome and Cairo, earlier than transferring to america in 2014.
Her American profession took her to Oklahoma, Florida and later Indiana earlier than she joined Ballet San Antonio as a soloist in 2021, debuting with the corporate because the Sugar Plum Fairy — the identical position she’s going to carry out this season in her first Nutcracker as a principal dancer.
“I nonetheless can’t consider it,” she mentioned. “This has been my dream for such a very long time. Turning into a principal is such a tough factor to realize — I believe perhaps 2% of individuals can have this rank on the planet as a result of there are just a few contracts. It occurred after 4 seasons with Ballet San Antonio. After I heard that, I used to be simply crying. I used to be like, ‘I can’t consider that is occurring. Turkey’s gonna lose it over there.’”
The information traveled rapidly again dwelling; Turkish media coated her promotion over the summer season, opening the doorways for dancers to dream larger.
“Turkey is a large nation, and it’s an enormous factor for them that that is occurring. All people in my nation is aware of me as a result of, you realize, I’m the very first one and now children are rising up and desirous to be like me as a result of I made it so distant from dwelling in such an enormous nation with a lot competitors,” she mentioned. “I really feel like I’ve to maintain pushing to my greatest to have the ability to present them a great instance to allow them to additionally push their goals and make something occur.”
That sense of duty follows her onto the stage, particularly in a season outlined by the corporate’s historical past. She has danced Ballet San Antonio’s Nutcracker for 5 years, and she or he says the troupe’s rendition of the traditional — choreographed by former skilled dancers and San Antonio locals Haley Henderson Smith and Easton Smith — nonetheless surprises her with its distinctive mix of humor, theatrics and bodily problem.
“It’s very distinctive as a result of I discover it has an excellent humorousness within the ballet. I really like the rat scene — after they combat, it’s hilarious,” she mentioned as she mirrored on what makes San Antonio’s Nutcracker totally different from others she has carried out. “On this model, you possibly can’t hold any of your power in. It’s important to take the chance and go for it onstage — like, ‘Let’s see what occurs.’ There are flips, there are loopy lifts occurring to the music. It’s very spectacular for the viewers and for us.”
The Nutcracker stays a spotlight of her season not simply due to the custom, however due to who shares the stage along with her. Greater than 100 native kids rotate by the forged every year, a lot of them college students at Ballet San Antonio College, the place Babadag additionally teaches. Watching them expertise the ballet from the within, she mentioned, is without doubt one of the most rewarding elements of performing the present.
“They appear as much as us, and you’ll see they’re somewhat shy and mesmerized, they usually need to do our roles sooner or later,” she mentioned. “It’s such a great feeling as a result of I had these moments once I was youthful — I used to be idolizing folks — and now I’m in that place and our college children are wanting as much as me. That’s treasured. I can’t even clarify it.”
These emotions prolong past the youngsters within the forged. Every December, as a part of Ballet San Antonio’s Ship the Children to the Ballet program, hundreds of scholars from native faculties fill the Tobin Middle for a particular morning efficiency of the ballet’s second act. For a lot of, it’s the first time they’ve ever seen dwell theater.
“It’s such a ravishing occasion. We do the second act throughout the week and solely faculties are available and it’s like first-time ballet watchers, as quickly as they get in there, they’re already, like mesmerized and amazed, with the theater. The Tobin Middle is gorgeous,” Babadag mentioned. “All people’s smiling as a result of the youngsters are so cute. It’s simply so good to really feel them having a good time.”
She recalled going downtown after one in all these performances, she stopped for a espresso when a gaggle of younger college students approached after a Ship the Children to the Ballet efficiency.
“They had been like, ‘Are you the Sugar Plum Fairy?’ And I mentioned, ‘Yeah,’ they usually needed to take a photograph,” she mentioned. “It was simply such a cute second.”
This system’s attain is one cause she believes The Nutcracker stays such a cultural touchstone. For kids, she mentioned, it turns into a reminiscence they carry lengthy after the vacations fade. For the corporate, it’s an opportunity to achieve new audiences who may by no means in any other case set foot in a theater.
As Ballet San Antonio marks its Fortieth 12 months, Babadag imagines a future the place the corporate expands outreach efforts and performs not solely on the Tobin Middle, however in public areas and neighborhoods throughout the town. “I might like to do ballet within the park, one thing free for the group,” she mentioned. “That may be lovely.”
For now, her focus is on opening weekend — on stepping earlier than hundreds of kids and households, some watching their first ballet, others returning to a practice that has anchored the corporate for many years. It’s a full-circle second that blends her private journey with the group’s.
“I hope folks come and see Nutcracker, as a result of they’re going to have a lot enjoyable,” she mentioned. “It’s not simply ballet, there’s a humorousness, there’s pleasure, you realize, all of the choreography, all of the characters within the second act, it’s very thrilling and an enormous present for the vacation season.”
Ballet San Antonio opens its Fortieth-anniversary manufacturing of “The Nutcracker” on Friday, Dec. 5, with performances operating by Dec. 14 on the Tobin Middle for the Performing Arts. Tickets can be found for buy on-line beginning at $31.
