East Harlem-born ballet dancer, choreographer, educator, and administrator Christopher Charles McDaniel first discovered his love of movement in his beloved church at about age seven. Under the mentorship of a favorite cousin, he had become a praise dancer. “I recognized that I was connected to movement, and that I was somebody who was able to move people with my movement,” he told the Amsterdam News in a recent interview.
McDaniel trained at Dance Theater of Harlem, performed with Los Angeles Ballet, Ballet San Antonio, and Dance Theatre of Harlem as a principal dancer. He was the first person of color recruited to the faculty of the School of American Ballet who neither trained at the school nor danced with New York City Ballet.
Today he continues to teach throughout New York City while developing community-focused arts initiatives through Trouble Maker: Public Works. He was also recently named artistic director of Dances Patrelle, the New York City ballet company best known for its annual production of the “Yorkville Nutcracker.” Unlike the traditional “Nutcracker,” this version takes place in New York and features New York City historical figures.
McDaniel was inspired to become a ballet dancer at the age of eight after seeing a Dance Theater of Harlem performance. He recalled attending a community engagement program at Aaron Davis Hall, which was put on by his school, P.S. 50. “They showed barre work, center work with women on pointe, men’s jumps, lifts across the floor, and I just really remember feeling like, wow, that is the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen,” he explained. “It seemed very elegant and very ethereal. Classical ballet was just a different thing that I felt like I could connect to. I heard ‘principal dancer’ during that performance and said to myself, ‘That’s what I want to be!’”
Ballet also strengthened his self-worth. “People said really mean things to me as a kid. I was dark, ugly. I was short. I wasn’t cute enough, or I was annoying. [With ballet], I felt, no one can tell me anything negative about myself because I’d be royal.”
Enterprising even at eight, he immediately approached his school’s assistant principal with a deal. “I told her I would stop acting out and get my grades up if she would call and get me an audition for [Dance Theater of Harlem school].” Both kept their end of the bargain and McDaniel was accepted in 2001.
Destiny was delayed by a year because of his grandmother’s reluctance to have him travel to classes in the immediate wake of 9/11. “New York just wasn’t a cool place at that time,” he recalls, “and my grandma wasn’t so sure that it was a good idea.”
McDaniel, who starts each morning listening to his gospel playlists, soon found himself confronted with another obstacle — his beloved church. For McDaniel, ballet and praise dance each occupied their own sacred place in his life. In church, “We were honoring an audience of one, and it wasn’t about ourselves. Ballet was very self-affirming even as a kid.”
However, the church, where he was now also teaching Sunday school and helping with audio production, saw his ballet practice in a darker light. “In front of everybody, I was told, ‘You’re just dancing your way to hell!’ It really, really broke my heart. I didn’t want to hurt anybody. I didn’t want to harm anyone. I just wanted to be good.”
Two of McDaniel’s mentors, ballet great Arthur Mitchell and Dances Patrelle founder Francis Patrelle, played crucial roles in keeping McDaniel committed to ballet in the face of church opposition. “He [Mitchell] told me I could be a principal dancer because I had the work ethic. He told me, ‘Because you’re from Harlem, you have a responsibility to walk through the streets like you own them. So keep your chest up. You’re a prince. I don’t care what your family tells you. I don’t care what the church tells you. You’re going to be a dancer if you want to be a dancer.’”
Patrelle also offered unabashed encouragement, sharing that he too faced opposition to his chosen passion from those close to him. McDaniel hopes to honor Patrelle in his position as the company’s artistic director. “Francis was really big about giving young people an opportunity to see themselves on stage, and so I really want to prioritize that as well.”
McDaniel also plans to pay it forward by opening up opportunities to expose today’s young people to ballet through community engagement programs.
Asked about the outlook for today’s young Black aspiring ballet dancers, McDaniel is cautiously optimistic. “I do think that we’re facing a challenge in terms of funding, because people are trying to limit being labeled someone who’s supporting DEI. But I still feel hopeful that there’s a remnant of people who are committed to making opportunities for the next generation, and so long as we can identify those folks and keep them close, I think we will be okay.”
