After years as a principal dancer at Houston Ballet, Beckanne Sisk is onto a new stage of her career, fulfilling a dream by joining The National Ballet of Canada. Although she has been moving from one company to another since her teenage years, moving to Toronto felt less daunting than usual. She and her husband, Chase O’Connell, who is also a newly admitted principal dancer, describe their transition both in and out of the dance studio as surprisingly smooth. “Everything just happened to click and work out for us,” Sisk says.

Now, fully adjusted to the 6ix, the dancer is ready to make her performance debut, taking on the role of Perdita, the lost princess in the ballet adaptation of Shakespeare’s The Winter’s Tale, running from November 14-21 at the Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts. With choreography by two-time Tony Award winner Christopher Wheeldon, this production recounts the story of two kings, whose long-standing friendship crumbles when jealousy and suspicions of infidelity arise.

Perdita is the key to reestablishing the peace, and Sisk is thrilled to bring the Shakespearean heroine to the stage on November 19 and 21, while Tirion Law, Tina Pereira, and Emerson Dayton play the character in the other performance dates. 

“I’ve never worked with Christopher Wheeldon before. It’s always been a dream to dance one of his ballets, so this is like checking off my bucket list,” she says. Sisk even tells SheDoesTheCity that she was particularly drawn to how this production is a modern classic, not only blending classical ballet technique with contemporary movement, but also bringing a fresh perspective to one of Shakespeare’s more underrated plays.

She credits Joby Talbot’s sweeping score as her source of inspiration when getting into character. “The music drives Act II for me, especially with the part that I’m dancing. The music tells you how to do the steps. And I’ve really enjoyed trying to explore that more.” 

With the production traversing between comedy, tragedy, and fantasy, the music and choreography work in unison to capture both the intensity of Polixenes and Leontes’ rift in Act I, as the latter begins to wonder if there is an affair happening between his wife and his best friend, and the levity of Act II, as Leontes’ abandoned daughter falls in love with Polixenes’ son. 

It would be instinctive to assume that Sisk’s husband would play Florizel, Perdita’s suitor of noble birth, but they won’t perform as a pair in this ballet. O’Connell will instead take on the role of Leontes, Perdita’s father who she only meets in Act III. This is a new dynamic for the two of them, especially considering their power couple status in the dance world.

Sisk is instead partnered with Shaakir Muhammad, another principal dancer joining the National Ballet of Canada this season. She shares that before dancing with him in The Winter’s Tale, they already had a connection. “I worked with his twin brother in Houston,” she says while singing praises about now getting to share the stage with the other twin. “We talk to each other well and communicate. He’s very nice and open to hearing what I have to say and vice versa. I feel like it’s been a great journey for us both.”

Although Sisk has participated in several productions as a principal dancer both during her time at Houston Ballet and at Ballet West before that, she still finds excitement in getting to share the stage with new people and use dance as a storytelling vehicle. “There’s nothing like performing,” she says. “That feeling of performing, I love it so much. The kinds of dance you can do and create are endless.”

With her debut drawing near, Sisk still gets the pre-show jitters. Yet, her enthusiasm for performing to a Toronto crowd is what keeps her at ease. To the dancer, putting on a performance that people are invested in from start to finish is her ultimate goal. “I’m just trying to tell the story and enjoy the dance. I feel like when you enjoy it, the audience tends to enjoy it too,” she says. 

Catch The Winter’s Tale at the Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts from November 14-21.