Arts Alive San Antonio

By JASMINA WELLINGHOFF, Editor

Lucy Hassmann was only four years old when her parents took her to see “The Nutcracker,” performed by the Moscow International Ballet, at the Majestic Theater. At intermission, Mom and Dad wanted to leave but their young daughter protested. The dancing captivated her.

“I stood up throughout the first act, and they could not get me to go. So, we stayed,” said the now grown-up ballerina.

That love at first sight, motivated her parents to sign her up for ballet lessons. And she has been immersed in the ballet world ever since. At the age of seven, young Lucy started studying with Vanessa Bessler of the Children Ballet of San Antonio, and never looked back.

Today, at 19, she’s an ambitious ballerina on the brink of a professional career in what is probably one of the most demanding careers in the world. When we met for this interview in an empty studio at CBSA, she talked about her time in Moscow, where she perfected her skills at the famous Bolshoi Theater Dance Academy, a place where rising new dancers refine technique and style. This is a school that trained seemingly all the great Russian ballet dancers of recent times, such as Natalia Osipova, Alexei Ratmansky, Polina Semionova, and many others.

So, what appealed to her so strongly about ballet?

“What stood out for me from the beginning was the music,” she said. “I remember taking ballet technique class at the barre a while back, and tears would well in my eyes. The music has always affected me. It’s a big part of why I am still doing it today, because the music and the movement bring up emotions.”

She also credits Bessler for nurturing and encouraging her and keeping her enthusiasm alive.
“A big part of my success is training with Mrs. Bessler,” she noted. “She just continued to help me and keep me motivated whenever things were hard, or when I did not win a competition, and things didn’t go as I thought they would. She would say, ‘It’s OK, let’s get back up and keep going.’”

Fortunately, the young dancer has had more successes than failures. At 13, she danced the role of the Sugar Plum Fairy in CBSA’s “Nutcracker,” tearing up on stage at every performance. The first time she took part in the Youth America Grand Prix competition she was only 11. Her ballet bio lists quite a few awards and recognitions, including being the youngest Texan ever selected to compete in the International Ballet Competition, known as the “Olympics of Ballet.” That event takes place every four years in Jackson, Mississippi. The young dancer also received 36 scholarships to train in the U.S. and Europe the age of 18. Today, she is a member of the National Honors Society of Dance Arts.

One moment that sticks in her mind happened while she was portraying Odette, the White Swan, in “Swan Lake.”

“I just felt I wanted to do this role again, and do it with a professional company. I was about 14 or 15; it was a big turning point for me.”

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Now 19, she toyed with the idea of trying to get into the Bolshoi Academy program just as the COVID-19 pandemic was retreating. She sent a video of her dancing but did not think that she would be admitted. The competition usually huge. But a few weeks later good news arrived – she was in! “I was so excited, I started crying, ‘she said. But going to Russia was delayed by a year because of COVID. She finally left for Moscow in September 2021 and stayed through March 2022.

During her stay in Moscow, Hassmann studied Russian language and culture in addition to ballet. Though apprehensive at first, she ended up enjoying her time in Moscow.

“The training was amazing! We had dance classes in ballet, contemporary, character, pointe and folk dance. We danced 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.,” she recalled. “We also learned the history of dance and ballet. And we got 3 hours of language classes a day. I learned Russian pretty well. On the whole, I learned a lot.”

As a Texan, she was not prepared for Moscow’s winter, with heavy snow falls all the way through March. Program participants from various countries stayed in special dorms supervised by dorm mothers, she said. Some girls were as young as nine.

So how has the session impacted her dancing?

“I have always been Russian-trained,” noted Hassmann. “It was really cool to be in Russia, learning more about Russian ballet techniques and improving every day. It was truly awesome. As a person, I feel I matured a bit since I was on my own and forced to be independent. We could go into the city, we just had to sign in and out. The city was a bit gloomy but it was still beautiful. One thing that I noticed -people weren’t smiling at each other as we do here (casually smiling at strangers). Over there it seemed like everyone was in their own world. Everyone seemed very serious.”

She also had the opportunity to visit the historic Bolshoi Theater and see a performance of, “Spartacus,” there, which she described as “a spectacular performance; my eyes were wide-open all the time.”

And the famed building impressed her as well.

“You could feel how much history was in that building. They had pictures of the great ballerinas who performed there, and other famous people. It’s really, really cool, and so beautiful. I was in awe,” she noted.

But Hassmann is not done with international travel and top ballet experiences. She will soon embark on another trip across the Atlantic, this time to London, to continue her residency at the English National Ballet, while she is looking at potential jobs with a professional ballet company.

“I am getting validation from the ballet world. I know this is something I should be doing,” said the ballerina.