Lensic program honors Indigenous ballet legend Jock Soto

The International Museum of Dance is honoring world-renowned Diné (Navajo) and Puerto Rican ballet dancer Jock Soto with an evening of performances by four of Soto’s students.

“We’re developing this program in order to get New Mexicans inspired by dance,” Soto said.

“An Evening with Jock Soto” will be presented at the Lensic Performing Arts Center on Saturday, Aug. 23.

“It’s going to be really special for me, because I was born here in New Mexico, in Gallup, 1,000 years ago, and it’s an evening to go through my life and what I’ve come to this far at the age of 60,” Soto said. “It’s also special, because I’m showing four dancers who I have been teaching for about 10 years. They are going to be performing works that I’ve done, and I’m going to be choreographing live on stage with two of the dancers.”

Soto has never choreographed live in front of an audience before.

“I thought it would be interesting, because I can’t really move as much anymore, but I can explain to these dancers what they should do. I love these dancers so much,” Soto said. “It’ll be a little bit of an experiment.”

Soto’s first exposure to dance came through the “Ed Sullivan Show.” By the age of 8, he was already performing in “The Nutcracker.”

“Even then, at that age, I was confused, because I didn’t know where dance could take me,” Soto said.

But he was ambitious. When he was 13, Soto moved to New York City to be a dancer. When he saw the Russian American choreographer George Balanchine perform live onstage, it moved him to tears.

“Then, he chose me to be in his company when I was 16. And that’s where I was ever since. He died in 1983, and then my directors became Peter Martins and Jerome Robbins,” Soto said. “I stopped school in seventh grade in order to move there (to New York City), and my mom and dad were not happy about that, but that was my life. I dedicated everything to being on stage at Lincoln Center.”

At first, Soto felt self-conscious, because he didn’t look like Balanchine’s other dancers.

“When I got to the company, I was like, oh my God! Look at these women, look at these men! Everybody was 6 feet tall and had long legs and was gorgeous,” Soto said. “And I was not born that way. I have short legs.”

But Soto said his differences helped him stand out, which is partly why Balanchine chose him in the first place.

“He liked the brown boy. That’s what he called me,” Soto said. “I hate to say that, but, you know, it was the ’70s.”

Soto said he wasn’t offended at the time.

“I didn’t know any better,” Soto said. “Now it would be a different story, but back then (I felt) it was great, because he kind of picked me out. He would hold my hand, take me to the front of the classroom and make me stand there. And I was terrified, because I knew that I had to prove myself. I had to give more than 100%.”

Beyond his physical appearance, Soto stood out for his versatility.

“I could adapt to anything that was given to me,” Soto said. “I think that’s how I became something other than the other dancers.”

In the early years, though, he struggled with self-confidence.

“I didn’t often have confidence, but my directors were very confident in me, and that’s what kept me going,” he said.

Even after performing for decades to great acclaim, there was a part of him that still felt insecure.

“You know, it’s funny, on my retirement, when I was 40, my mom came backstage. A friend of mine brought her backstage with my dad, and she said to me, ‘How do you think it went?’ And that was the first time I ever said to her, ‘It went pretty well.’

“Because dancers can be very critical. They can be like, ‘I didn’t do good enough.’ And that’s when I finally realized, when my mom asked me that, that it went pretty well.”

Now, at the age of 60, Soto looks back with gratitude on a successful career.

“I’ve been very, very lucky,” he said. “We grew up in a trailer. So, I’m very grateful now that I live in a beautiful home in Eagle Nest, New Mexico. Every cent that I make goes into this house and into my relationship with my husband and my dogs.”

Soto has been married for 22 years. The couple met at a bar in New York City.

“He was an opera fan. He didn’t know anything about ballet, and he didn’t know who I was,” Soto said. “I was 37 at that point, and the other rude thing he said was, ‘Aren’t you a little long in the tooth to be dancing?’ I was like, ‘Are you f***ing kidding?’”

Soto was still performing regularly at that time. But ballet dancers do sometimes have short careers due to the toll it can take on their bodies.

“Knees, ankles, hips — everything — my hip is terrible right now,” Soto said. “But I still perform every now and then.”

These days, Soto is more focused on extending his legacy to new generations of dancers through his teaching practice and the newly created Jock Soto Scholarship, which he intends to award annually to at least one Indigenous dancer to support their continued dance training. The inaugural scholarship will go to Heloha Tate, one of the students who is performing at the Lensic this week.

“He is one of the first Native dancers I’ve seen who is interested in doing anything that I’m interested in,” Soto said. “Maybe we can do something for other kids from the reservation in the future.”

“At my age, I’m just trying to do something for the rez kids,” Soto said.

In addition to the dance performances and live choreography, “An Evening with Jock Soto” will feature a live interview with Soto and the unveiling of a new searchable digital archive, “Jock Soto: The Dancer and His Life.”

Lensic program honors Indigenous ballet legend Jock Soto