Lauren Anderson, poised and beautiful as she was in her stage days, is sitting at a chair in her office at the Houston Ballet with its view of the sprawling skyscrapers along Buffalo Bayou. Anderson has no brag wall here—nor in her home. Old programs, souvenirs of her long career, are tucked inside a crate she keeps only because fans, monied patrons of the arts, and tiny girls in her dance classes sometimes request autographs. A graceful woman with trailing locks and flashing eyes, Anderson remains immediately recognizable as the woman who for years starred as the Sugar Plum Fairy in the Nutcracker and in many other roles as one the first Black principal ballerinas of any major ballet company in the United States.
For decades, Anderson, a Houston native, has been a trailblazer and a model to little girls—and to bold women—everywhere. But now she has another role: The inspiration for and collaborator of Plumshuga: The Rise of Lauren Anderson, a play (and a memoir in progress) debuting at Stages Houston written in collaboration with Houston writer and former poet laureate Deborah D.E.E.P. Mouton. Through what Mouton calls a “choreopoem,” Anderson is telling, for the first time, the story of the struggle behind her success, of her addiction and recovery. She was, on the day of the interview, celebrating 13 years, two months, and three days of sobriety. (But who’s counting?)
