Conversations with Crystal Fullmer

Today we’d like to introduce you to Crystal Fullmer.

Hi Crystal, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today?
Personal:

My name is Crystal Fullmer and I am the artistic director of Southwest Ballet Theatre – a position I have held since May 2024. I am also currently a faculty in the Dance Department of Grand Canyon University (GCU), in my 5th year.

My training in dance started around age 8 and I performed several seasons with Clackamette Youth Ballet (CYB), which was a pre-professional youth ballet company which aimed to give professional level performance opportunities to dancers aged 6-75. Experience gained in this company gave me not just performing skills but also mentoring in stagecraft, directing, costuming, and being a rehearsal mistress. I started teaching ballet in 1997 at a small ballet studio in Oregon City, Oregon and went on to earn a BS in Dance Pedagogy from the University of Idaho in 2003. I continued teaching throughout college in Idaho and Washington state, adding modern and jazz dance to my teaching skills and in 2006 I became the owner and director of Northwest Dance Center (NWDC). It was here that I directed and staged my first full-length ballets – “The Sleeping Beauty,” “Coppelia,” and a vignette of ballets which included original work, as well as “The Firebird,” and “Les Sylphides”. During this time I became the Director of Dance for Washington State University’s Department of Theatre and Dance (a department that no longer exists, as an aside) and taught courses in ballet, jazz, modern, movement for the actor, and directed 4 main stage productions.

After selling NWDC, I earned an MFA in Dance Choreography from the University of New Mexico, in Albuquerque, NM. I was a full time lecturer in the dance department of Central Washington University from 2013-2015, a visiting assistant professor with Alma College in Michigan from 2015-2017. I was the ballet program director for Danswest Dance in Tucson from 2018-2021 and then began teaching at GCU in the fall of 2021.

Sorry, I know that was a lot.

My time with Southwest Ballet Theatre (SWBT) has been brief but has already left a mark on my heart, and I hope on the dancers we train. Everything that has come before in my experiences has informed the way I lead the productions in our organization, as well as the way I mentor our dancers (both young and old). I think it’s important to “lead with love” and try my hardest to allow that idea to guide me. I have very high standards and expectations for the dancers’ work ethic and commitment to details in class and performance – and the only way I can ask them to meet those expectations is through love. I love the person in front of me first, and because they know I love them we are able to build a mutual respect and understanding that encourages them to strive beyond what they thought possible. I love our students. I love our guest performers. I love our volunteers and production team. I love our faculty and staff. And I love extending that feeling into our audience each time they come to one of our performances.

Specific to SWBT:
I fear my short tenure with SWBT does not make me the best spokesman for their history and mission. But what drew me to the organization, and ultimately helped me make the choice to join their artistic team, is the commitment to creating pre-professional level training and performing experiences in ballet on the West side of the Valley. It is so important that we continue to grow the cultural opportunities for the communities of Goodyear, Buckeye, and beyond and that is what SWBT aims to do. I was a country girl when I started my ballet and dance journey and I want those same opportunities to be available for the aspiring dancers in our community.

This is the organization’s 11th season producing “The Nutcracker” and my second season as part of this annual production. Much of the production was updated last season, with fresh choreography and a deeper emphasis on storytelling. This year we are adding a bit more new choreography – focused on the Party Scene and the character development contained within. Our production will run in the beautiful performance space of the Performing Arts Center at Estrella Mountain Community College December 11-14.

This pre-professional level production highlights the talented students who train with us at SWBT, while also creating a space for emerging professionals to perform. With Mice as young as age 6 and Party Guests as old as… well, I won’t give their ages. It is such a special opportunity to see a multi-generational performance that will bring magic into the holiday season. Our “Nutcracker” production also holds a special place in my heart because it allows me to share my own memories and the choreographic traditions of the Clackamette Youth Ballet production I was a part of in my own time.

We also produce a full length narrative ballet each spring. Last season I created an original production of “Alice in Wonderland” for SWBT, using the music of composers Herbert Bauman and Alfred Reynolds. It was a wacky adventure (one that stretched my creative and organizational capacities) which loosely followed the characters as introduced in Lewis Carroll’s novels and included performers and students from Southwest Ballet Theatre, pre-professionals from Grand Canyon University, and members of the Valley community. We also collaborated with the animation class from GCU who designed the fully original and animated projections that served as the scenery for this show.

In Spring 2026 we will be staging the Romantic Era classic, “Coppelia” which is a ballet comedy in three acts. I don’t want to give away the story but there is a bit of a love triangle, some midnight shenanigans, a splash of magic, and maybe even a wedding! Your readers really won’t want to miss out on this! “Coppelia” is a favorite of mine and a ballet that I have had the opportunity to stage in full, when I owned NWDC in Washington, and selected scenes, during my time in Michigan. There is plenty of storytelling and some great dancing.

Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Ha!

Which road? There have been so many roads.

My teaching and choreography career now spans about 28 years and many states. I’ve taught for private dance studios and conservatories and for 5 university or college dance programs. I don’t even recognize the teacher and choreographer I was 28 years ago. There is always evolution in your artistry but I also think I have had to “reinvent” myself many times to fit the needs of the environment in which I found myself working. There is nothing wrong with that, of course. But there also comes a time to know who you are as a teacher and artist and to not compromise the values that come from your very marrow. I am grateful for the challenges I have faced in my career path because they have helped mold me into my current state and I am content with that.

Dance is hard. Teaching dance is hard. It’s hard on the body and the mind. It is a huge time commitment without much financial compensation and requires a lot of time away from other areas of your life, like home and family. But I love it. Inside the classroom and rehearsal space is where I feel the most alive. Feeling the energy of the dancers – it fuels me. We make a pact when we enter that space together: They give me their attention and work ethic, and I will give them everything I’ve got. My job is to make them better movers, to find inefficiencies in their dancing or alignment and help them to overcome and refine their technique and artistry. I will do whatever it takes, finding as many descriptions or visual representations as I can until we find what helps them understand and adjust. I am a problem solver – I love a good puzzle. It can be exhausting to pour yourself out in this way, hour after hour. And it’s in the creative space of choreography – making an ensemble dance at GCU or working on a production for SWBT – that I so frequently get filled. I am inspired by the dancers I get to make art with and that can regenerate me sometimes. Not to mention the collaborations with fellow artists like SWBT’s costume designer, Elizabeth Seufert, and the theater teacm at EMCC headed by Tim Butterfield.

Last year (my first season with SWBT) was very challenging. Juggling my teaching load for GCU, directing student work at GCU, and balancing the creative direction of the two full productions at SWBT. Yeah. That was a challenge. But we came out the other side stronger and have had a very strong start to our second season together.

I’m not sure what else to tell you here.

I know that SWBT struggled during the time of Covid, as so many organizations did. And really they are just hitting their stride again. We have a strong and growing training program (which I hope Sydney has filled you in on) with classes for all ages and levels. We have wonderful partnerships with EMCC and St. John Paul II school and are so grateful to be in their facilities. Our board of directors is made up of great volunteers from many walks of life that are passionate about SWBT’s mission and have the amazing energy to make things happen. There are bright things to come for SWBT and I’m grateful to be part of it with the amazing staff and volunteers that have kept everything moving for so many years.

As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
I use the human body to communicate to an audience with movement. I like to say that I come from a line of storytellers – tellers of tall tales. My extended family was always so articulate about their histories and experiences (and often elaborated the stories more and more with each telling) and I do some of the same but with the moving body.

There are two different genres I use to make dance: ballet and modern dance. In my position with SWBT I get to bring classical ballet to the stage with all it’s wonder, magic, and tutus. I love the storytelling aspect that ballet can use to create narrative but also the extreme beauty created by the lines of the body, arms, legs, head placement, and focus. The dance historian in me gets so excited when we put ballet on the stage, with the hundreds of years of tradition to pull from. Something magical can happen in that space, where we are recreating choreography that has been passed from ballet master to student, dancer to dancer, generation by generation, to come to life on the stage for an audience that may not know what happens to get it there. For instance, when I am in rehearsal for “The Nutcracker” I frequently have such strong memories of my teachers Jacquie Kunzman, Nina Vasilief Raimondo, and Frank Bays, that they seem alive and in the space with us. It is so important to me that I pass on the lineage I was trained in, which can be traced back to dancers and choreographers who were a part of the Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes!

I really enjoy the character building part of ballet productions as well. Not only the fun ad lib moments that happen in rehearsals as you are trying to coach dancers to find their inner voice and play with the thoughts of the character they are portraying. But I also enjoy the element of comedy that ballet can produce. This can manifest in the background of the action in ballets like “The Nutcracker” Party Scene, or one of the lively acts in “Coppelia”. Or, as in the original work I created last season for SWBT, “Alice in Wonderland.”

But I also love to make dances that speak to the realities of the present. Something that audiences can connect with on a more personal level, without the magic of the fairytale. In the vocabulary of modern dance I find ways to tell personal stories. Sometimes that can be family history, like the ensemble I created for GCU in 2022 titled, “she hears HIM.” This dance connected an intimate, spoken biography of my grandmother, born in Ohio in the 1920s, a poem written by my mother’s cousin (from the other side of my family) which my sister and I recorded reading aloud, and the song “Ain’t No Grave” by Crooked Still. This was a dance for 5 women and navigated a life lived, with many hardships and struggles, and ultimately found resolution in grace at the foot of the cross.

Another favorite work that I have created for GCU was in spring of 2023 titled “Our Memories Carry Us”. This dance had a large cast of one soloist in a colorful dress and the rest of the dancers all in varying shades of gray. The soloist navigates grief, the constant and shifting waves that it comes in, as she dances with and through several different memories and types of loss. She begins alone, against a brick wall, illuminated by a stark light with the sound of dripping water. And after all the dancing dissolves into the shadow, she finds herself in the same place. I think this is so often the way grief feels. We experience it. It can change over the years. But once that piece is torn out of your heart, it never fully resolves, does it?

Let’s talk about our city – what do you love? What do you not love?
I love the southwest. Though I was born in the Pacific Northwest, I spent a portion of my childhood visiting extended family in New Mexico, before attending graduate school in that state. My husband and I always had a strong pull to move to Arizona, first Tucson and then the West Valley of Phoenix. When we first moved to the area, we landed in Buckeye. We were drawn by the agricultural history of the area – my husband’s family were farmers in southern Idaho and I was originally a country girl from Oregon. I love the beautiful fields of alfalfa and corn that I drive by. But we arrived in the area just as Buckeye was exploding with new growth and construction. So, we left that behind for the dust of Arlington, AZ. Don’t know where that is? That’s why we chose it! We have a little fenced acre of dirt that’s inhabited by entirely too many ground squirrels that my German Shepherd refuses to chase away. We love the views of the mountains and the clear open skies. There is a rugged beauty in our desert and I love that you are only a short drive to many different landscapes and terrains. I am a country girl at heart, so I tend to stay out of the city whenever I can. But I do love the variety of people who live here and the many opportunities there are for engaging with performing arts.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://swbtballet.org/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/swballett/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/southwestballettheatre

Image Credits
Lawrence Fung (Nutcracker images), Emma Speight (Alice in Wonderland images)