by Sharelle B. McNair
July 26, 2025
Watters first danced his manner into the ballet scene at 16 years previous by becoming a member of a six-week summer time intensive program with Houston Ballet.
You will have seen him gracefully dancing in your TikTok timeline however now Harper Watters is dancing into a brand new place as the primary Black and homosexual principal dancer on the Houston Ballet, KHOU 11 experiences.
Watters took his first leap into the world of ballet at age 16, enrolling in a six-week summer time intensive with the Houston Ballet. What started as a short-term alternative rapidly grew to become, in his phrases, a life-changing journey. Although initially introduced on in a brief capability, Watters remembers telling his dad and mom with conviction that this was his “second.” “They provided me a spot within the second firm, and to be trustworthy I don’t assume I knew what that meant, I heard ‘contract,’ I heard you get to coach right here for a yr… And I referred to as my dad and mom, and stated that is my second,” Watters remembered.
Fourteen years later, his exhausting work and dedication paid off as he was lately promoted to principal dancer after coming back from Japan. Not losing any time, the New Hampshire native, simply as he did 14 years in the past, referred to as his dad and mom with the good information and up to date his social media profiles. Watters celebrates his dad and mom, who adopted him at simply two weeks previous, for his or her instrumental assist and labels them as a key ingredient in his success. “They gave me wings to soar right here in Texas, they usually have come to each efficiency… It was by no means no, it was ‘let’s do that collectively,’” Watters stated.
When the curtains go down, Watters may be seen educating and acting on TikTok. With shut to at least one million followers, a few of his hottest content material pays homage to Black ballet dancers each previous and current. He gracefully mimics pictures and strikes from a number of the most distinguished and influential dancers to ever grace the stage, like Judith Jamison, Keenan English, and Debbie Allen. Watters says he makes use of the social platform to showcase his “attribute aptitude.” ”I may be calm, cool and picked up, I may be fabulous, fierce, and fearless,” the principal dancer stated.
“You may add versatile too.”
Exterior of social media and the stage, Watters hopes his new place uplifts the chance for others like him sooner or later, pushing for extra variety within the trade. Retired ballet dancer, Misty Copeland, who grew to become the primary Black girl named feminine principal dancer on the American Ballet Theatre, referred to as the trade out for lastly making such a transfer whereas the corporate has been in existence for 75 years.
Throughout a CNN podcast in 2018, she highlighted that being a primary doesn’t erase the racism that sits on the earth of ballet.
RELATED CONTENT: Misty Copeland To Debut on Broadway
