Pittsburgh Ballerina Indira Cunningham Wonders If Ballet Will Ever Defy The Status Quo

Source: iOne Digital Creative Services

Looking back on her life as a ballet dancer, Indira Cunningham wishes that she could have gone to a few more birthday parties as a child. Alas, dancing was her first love and to truly excel, especially in a genre like ballet, she knew that she had to sacrifice much. Besides, she made friends in her ballet classes, and that took some of the sting away from missing out. Now, when the ballerina and dance teacher is guiding younger dancing students through the earliest stages of their journeys, the advice she stresses most is the importance of staying focused and charting your own course.

“I tell them that you don’t have to listen to the limitations of other people. Keep at it. Your pathway is uniquely your own,” Cunningham says. “It may not take the length of time that you want, but if you work at it you can get to where you want to go.”

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The 24-year-old Atlanta native, who started dancing as a toddler and, more recently, moved to Pittsburgh in 2021 to dance professionally with Confluence Ballet Company, sees many more brown girls these days taking ballet and pursuing ballet as a career. Still, the lack of inclusivity is stark.

According to the American Statistical Association, as of 2021, Black dancers made up a mere 5.5% of dancers in professional ballet companies. Despite dance companies’ insistence that they are committed to diversity and equity, typically Black and brown dancers are only given the spotlight during Heritage Month productions. Oftentimes, Cunningham sees a long way between talk and action.

Indira Cunningham performed in 2023 as Sugar Rum Cherry in Norma Jean Barnes’ “The Chocolate Nutcracker.” | Source: Indira Cunningham

“I feel like at large, the changes I’ve seen have been performative. And it’s not just one company, it’s all of them,” she says. “When it comes to a mainstage production with everybody involved, where’s the Black talent? Where’s the Latino talent? There’s a lot of work that needs to be done.”

Cunningham isn’t alone in this experience-based assessment. Misty Copeland, often lauded as the Jackie Robinson of ballerinas, has spoken candidly about having to paint her pointe shoes in order to have a uniform that matched her skin tone. Through the years, Black dancers have also shared being asked to lighten their skin for productions. Sexism and body shaming of women with body types that don’t conform to the mainstream cultural ideals of beauty also is widely reported among women in general, and Black women, in particular.

In a truly diverse work environment, Cunningham said, Black and brown dancers wouldn’t be tokens in a sea of all-white productions. More than that, she notes that though few people want to be seen as racist, not enough shot-callers in the dance world are willing to actively work towards lasting change.

“I don’t know that I would say I have great confidence in a lot of the leaders that are in our industry right now. And that they want to do the work,” Cunningham says. “I think once you get to a certain level, you’re more invested in keeping your job, [which is] understandable in this economy. But it’s like, Is anyone ever gonna do it?”

Cunningham’s passion for dance has taken her far and wide—from summer intensive programs at Atlanta’s Ballethnic Academy of Dance to Orlando Ballet during her teens. While obtaining her degree in sociology at the University of Oklahoma, she continued her immersion in the dance world as a trainee and eventual studio company member of the Oklahoma City Ballet in 2017.

Cunningham performed “Opening the Mouth” by Ursula Payne as a part of Rainbow Serpent Inc.’s 2024 Gallery Opening of their Exhibit, “Myth-Science of the Gatekeepers,” at the Pittsburgh Glass Center. | Source: Nathan J. Shaulis

Since Cunningham joined Pittsburgh’s Confluence Ballet Company as an apprentice in 2021 (and was later promoted to company artist after one year), she’s had no shortage of opportunities in the City of Bridges.

Now that she’s made the Steel City her home, Cunningham says that although it was dance that brought her to Pittsburgh, what’s kept her in the city is its vibrant arts scene. She’s performed in Nutcracker for a Difference, Inside Out with the Staycee Pearl Dance Project, and the Pittsburgh Opera’s 2023 production of We Shall Not Be Moved. While Cunningham is no stranger to the stage, what made the Bill T. Jones-choreographed performance so special was that it challenged her to creatively multitask.

Source: Liz Linett Photography

“That was my first experience like that, where I was dancing, and I was singing and moving props. There were so many moving pieces, so you needed to know what’s going on,” Cunningham says. “That was really just like a great process professionally to grow, because it was definitely stressful, but I got it together.”

While Cunningham considers herself first and foremost a dancer, she also enjoys singing, modeling, painting, and acting. When she’s not working, she says she’s usually with her dog Bentley, the 7-year-old Maltese that she brought with her to Pittsburgh three years ago. Otherwise, when she’s offstage, she wears quite a few hats. Sometimes this means teaching young people ages 3 to 18-years-old at the Hill Dance Academy, or choreographing for the Confluence Ballet Company as a part of its partnership with local nonprofits.

Cunningham performed with Grammy-nominated artist STANLEY at Soho House Nashville, July 2024. | Source: Isaiah Davis

And despite the challenges in the dance world, Cunningham remains beholden to that muse.

“I draw most inspiration from people I work with, seeing how they work and grow—choreographers, dancers, people growing in their careers who are young professionals as well,” she says. “My boss at Hill Dance Academy Theatre, Dr. Ayisha Morgan-Lee, is a great example of someone who is a professional dancer who has achieved success and is still reaching great heights. It shows me that even when people think you are established there are still great heights to achieve in adulthood, motherhood, career success.”

Cunningham also recently created a self-directed residency as part of a 2023 Advancing Black Arts in Pittsburgh Award, which has allowed her to prioritize crucial self-care after 18 years of dancing (massage, physical therapy, and even something seemingly as simple as replacing gear like pointe shoes), and to take a step back to reflect on next steps.

Cunningham performed as The Nutcracker in Confluence Ballet’s “Nutcracker for a Difference” in December 2023. | Source: Jacob Woodyard

She feels she was brought to Pittsburgh for a reason. Wherever her path takes her, she plans to continue growing as an artist and one day become a leader in the ballet industry and the arts as a whole.

“I don’t know where or what I will be aspiring to in 10 years. I really couldn’t even say six months from now, but it will be art because I can’t live without it,” Cunningham says. “And I hope that the art will be reaching people, enriching lives, and, hopefully, opening doors for others.”

Atiya Irvin-Mitchell is a Pittsburgh-based freelance writer. She can be reached at airvinmitchell@gmail.com and you can follow her on X, formerly Twitter, @AtiyaWrites.

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