Case in Pointe
Joseph Sissens is the Cambridge-born dancer taking the ballet world by storm. We follow his inspirational trajectory to becoming first soloist at The Royal Ballet.
Words by Joy Sable
Joseph Sissens is having a well-deserved rest after a bout of physiotherapy. The rising star of The Royal Ballet decided to pull out of a performance of The Nutcracker after sustaining an injury prior to the show.
“I’d had quite a few rehearsals, I was tired and my shoulder did something funny. Now we just need the inflammation to go down,” says Joseph. It is not the first time he has had shoulder issues – it once popped out of its socket during a performance of The Sleeping Beauty.
Constant threat of injury is one of the daily hazards professional dancers face as they train like elite athletes to maintain the physical levels required for a life on stage.
The glamour of taking curtain calls at the Royal Opera House is a world away from Joseph’s early years. Born in Addenbrooke’s Hospital in Cambridge to a British mother and Jamaican father – he describes himself as British-Jamaican – he was one of six siblings in a household.
“I had a train set which I kept under my bed because I was obsessed with trains, and I was obsessed with dance.” This fascination started when he accompanied his sister to ballet class. “I used to hide in the back and copy what the girls were doing. When they were doing their classes I would make up my own dances in the village hall kitchen.” Spotted by the teacher, he was encouraged to join in, sparking his passion.
“At weekends I’d wake up at 7am, go into the kitchen with my CD player and I’d be there for hours just dancing to any soundtrack I had, whether it was soul, musicals or classical… I’d be constantly dancing, sometimes with tap shoes on!”
Being of mixed parentage and enjoying dance did not make life easy for young Joseph, and his mother took the difficult decision to send him to Tring Park School for the Performing Arts as a boarder.
“There was a lot of racism growing up, but my mum knew the only way for me to get out of that life was to leave it. No mother wants to send her eight-year-old kid to a boarding school unless it’s necessary, and I think she knew that it was for me to become who I am today. Where I come from, it was just not normal for a boy to do ballet. When I look back, I was always a very different child. I was very sensitive and would wear my heart on my sleeve.”
After five years at Tring, he was offered a place at the Royal Ballet School in Richmond Park. Eventually graduating into the Royal Ballet Company in 2016, he has risen through the ranks to the position of first soloist. Promotion to principal is surely only a matter of time, and he has already danced some lead roles. He excels in both classical and more contemporary works, and is one of the few dancers of colour in the company. Thanks to Joseph’s high profile, more students from diverse backgrounds are choosing ballet as a career.
“There is an enormous change going on,” he says. “I’ve been involved in a lot of projects with the Opera House, including a summer school mainly for kids of colour. It was a beautiful experience, to have a studio full of 50 dancers of colour learning their craft. I braid my hair back in cornrows for classical roles. In more contemporary works, I wear my hair in dreadlocks.”
Ultimately, bringing his love of ballet to new audiences is what means the world to Joseph Sissens. “If I’m having a bad day, it always makes me feel better to dance. It is in my bones.”
Joseph Sissens performs in Manon at the Royal Opera House until 8 March.
