What to call Alissa Dale? Nevada Ballet Theatre has no principal dancers; it’s an ensemble, or unranked company, which means everyone above trainees and apprentices has an equal shot at big roles. Yet, at 34, Dale is the theater’s senior ballerina, in both age and time with the company. She’s performed Odile/Odette in Swan Lake and the title character in Giselle. In 2008, the year current artistic director James Canfield arrived, he created a part specifically for her in Cyclical Night.
But to call Dale just “dancer” feels wrong for reasons beyond her stage cred. Each summer, during NBT’s off-season, she takes on a very different role: certified Grand Canyon river guide. She’s been part of this elite group officially since the age of 18, but unofficially she prepared for it her whole life, growing up in a family — parents, uncles, cousins — of river guides. They’re so well known in the community that they jokingly refer to themselves as the “Dale Dynasty.”
“I did my first full Grand Canyon river trip when I was 4,” she says. “My brother was 6. So my parents were juggling one out-of-control child (points at herself) with one pretty good child. I was wild and fearless. They made me wear my life jacket pretty much the whole time.”
Wild and fearless sound about right. In NBT’s rehearsal studio two weeks before the season closer, Romeo and Juliet, ballet mistress Tara Foy runs nine dancers through the scene in which Romeo kills Tybalt. Lady Capulet, played by Dale, goes mad. She kneels by her son’s side, trying in vain to wake him; rushes onlookers with her bloody hands; picks up her son’s sword and heaves it at Romeo; then throws herself on the dead boy’s body, wracked with grief. The scene ends with her kneeling over him, back arched, broken heart lifting heavenward, her long blond hair cascading toward the floor. Foy stops the music and tells the dancers to take five. Dale’s face is still red with emotion and exertion as she begins to relax out of character. “She’s seasoned,” Foy says, describing Dale’s work ethic. “She’s been here a long time and has really grown as an artist.”
Dale believes growing up in Grand Canyon, with its humbling scale, allowed her to internalize an awesome beauty that she can draw on readily.
And then there’s the river. “Boating itself is so fluid, and there’s so much movement to it,” she says. “You have to be really creative on the spot to adapt to situations, much like on stage. If the music is fast, or your partner does something different than what you expect, it’s similar to how it feels on a boat if the water does something different or the wind blows.”
This month, Dale takes on another role, that of wife. She’s set to marry fellow dancer Joshua Kekoa, who’s currently in his third season at NBT. For their honeymoon, he’ll accompany his new wife on her second river tour of the season.
