G Profile: Anita Sun Pacylowski-Justo

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Anita Sun Pacylowski–Justo

Anita Sun Pacylowski-Justo
• Born: Columbia, Maryland
• Family: Husband, Hernan Justo, artistic director of Carolina Ballet Theatre; three children
• Position: Principal Dancer, Carolina Ballet Theatre
• Awards: Princess Grace Award and the Nancy Reagan Award in dance; Presidential Scholar in the Arts
• On Success: “I always met people that made me feel that I could take risks.”Dance is thought made visual,” says Anita Sun Pacylowski-Justo. And to demonstrate this, the lithe, thirty-eight-year-old principal dancer with Carolina Ballet Theatre (CBT) raises her arms into a curving arc over her head and gazes up at her fingers. She lowers them with a soft whoosh and looks at her students.

Today, she’s using these movements to teach an adult ballet class. Several of these students are moms of children in the School of Carolina Ballet Theatre (SCBT) and hung up their pointe shoes years ago. But Anita’s skill as a teacher is on par with her extraordinary technical ability as a dancer. Able to coax rhythmic movement as easily from fifth-grade boys—which she’s done as an artist-in-residence in Greenville County schools—as from her company dancers, she pauses and smiles, then asks them all to think behind the gesture—what it might mimic in nature. The lifting and lowering of arms then becomes the wind, a wave, the rising sun. And just like that, they are dancing.

After class, she spends time talking to each woman. Hugging a shoulder here, offering a reassuring pat to a sore muscle there, her expressive face displays concern, delight, and care. With each small gesture, Anita is thoroughly animated and completely engaged. Seeing her perform onstage is a similar experience, albeit amplified. One raised eyebrow can convey emotion right up to an individual in the balcony’s last row. Whether she’s in front of a class or onstage, Anita gives her all, all the time.

For this she credits her parents, former teachers, her husband, Hernan Justo—CBT’s artistic director—choreographers such as Alonso King, even her three children, for showing her how to give generously through her art. “I always met people that made me feel that I could take risks,” she says, noting that some artists rise to greatness on the power of their generosity. “I’m willing to give that moment,” she explains, “not intellectualize and cut it short, because ultimately it is the audience who doesn’t get it.”

The audience does get it. They can’t get enough of her impeccable technique, combined with an agility to embody roles as diverse as a seductive Carmen or the girlish ingénue, Princess Aurora.

This intuitive talent emerged when the Columbia, Maryland, native was still a child. As the eldest of three whose parents urged their children to try all kinds of extracurricular activities, Anita embraced ballet with fervor.

After graduation from college, she joined the Washington Ballet Company, quickly rose to the rank of principal dancer, and spent five years performing at home and abroad before joining the North Carolina Dance Theatre. There, she was partnered with a dashing young Argentinean dancer, Hernan Justo. A whirlwind courtship followed, culminating in an onstage proposal after a performance. They married in 2000.

In 2002, Anita graced the cover of Dance Magazine as one of its “Twenty-Five to Watch.” Ironically, it was a time she was keeping a relatively low profile. She and Hernan had just come to Greenville, after he was asked to take CBT’s artistic reigns from Barbara Selvy, who was retiring.

It was a startling career move to many in the ballet world: to leave the respected North Carolina Dance Theatre directed by former New York City Ballet principal Jean-Pierre Bonnefoux and his wife—a Balanchine favorite—Patricia McBride, to transform a local troupe into a professional company.
But Anita was both excited and resolute. She immersed herself in the community and set the stage of the Peace Center ablaze in a varied repertoire that included classical works and new material that she and her husband choreographed.

She and Hernan stretched the boundaries of classical ballet to incorporate modern, Latin, and jazz while growing the company beyond the two of them to support a group of talented young dancers. And the accolades just keep coming. This year she was nominated for the prestigious Benois de la Danse, an international recognition that Anita likens to the Oscars.
Still, she’s aware that her time onstage is limited, and has emerged as a capable teacher since she came to Greenville, first for the dancers at SCBT, then for Greenville County public-school students—as both an artist-in-residence and through the Metropolitan Arts Council’s SmartArts program.
Integrating creative movement—not ballet-specific—into the school curriculum requires homework. Anita says she can spend hours learning a particular unit of science or math before she enters the classroom with a plan for getting the kids to learn while they’re moving. “I don’t want to lose a second of time getting those children learning.”

As with her dancing, Anita makes teaching look easy. By telling the students that she’ll be taking them on a journey where there is no one right way to move, she builds a foundation of trust that allows them to take risks without being judged: “A child will learn as long as they are given the opportunity to be engaged and feel like they are equally treated.”

As she speaks, she takes off her Dansko clogs and rubs her toes with a rueful smile. “I have problems with my back. These shoes help me stand and move all day,” she admits. After all, every day she spends teaching is a day spent performing for a small audience. It’s another opportunity for a young person to absorb her endurable style, and renew it for the future.

“I want to create a setting of learning and art, of spatial awareness and understanding who you are among a bunch of people. My goal is to give students a sense of responsibility to help others, and open a part of themselves they didn’t know they had.” After a thoughtful pause she says, with no small measure of determination, “That goal is higher than art; it is to create generations of sensitive human beings.”