The idea for Safe Haven Ballet came to its founder Lissa Curtis in a dream.
In it, Curtis saw a brick building with white columns. Running across the top was a sign: Safe Haven Ballet. To her, it felt like an omen. Like something supernatural was at work.
“It felt like it was from God, truly,” Curtis said between rehearsals and classes at the Safe Haven Ballet studio inside Portsmouth’s Connect Community Church. “And then I heard the phrase: ‘I have things for you to build, Lissa. You’re not done dancing.’ ”
At the time she had the dream, Curtis felt certain she was done dancing; it was 2014, and she’d recently survived horrendous sexual assaults at the hands of her ballet director during a competition in Romania. Upon her return, Curtis was suicidal, incapacitated, and had recently moved back in with her parents. She casted off the dream as something that would never happen.
But slowly, dance made its way back into Curtis’s life. The things that grounded her, from karate to trauma-sensitive yoga, involved movement. She worked with a counselor and began pursuing justice in the legal system against her perpetrator. Three years in a row, Curtis organized the Be BRAVE Gala, a multi-arts performance event with dancing, music, and martial arts, whose proceeds went back to local crisis centers she’d been working with.
In 2019, Curtis began offering free movement classes for survivors and ultimately decided to go forward with the dream of Safe Haven Ballet. It felt like a major step in her own healing, allowing her to take agency over what happened to her.
“Here I was at the front of the room, leading these other people, knowing they were trusting me and that they were in a safe place. I don’t take it for granted, ever, when a person walks in the door. Leading these classes has helped me so much. I think it’s such an honor,” she said.
While some arts organizations suffered over the pandemic, Safe Haven grew. In 2021, the company moved into the Community Connect Church’s founding sanctuary in Portsmouth, which boasted free parking and cathedral ceilings. Chairs and carpets were taken out, while new floors, windows and mirrors were added in.
These days, Safe Haven comprises nine company dancers and 11 trainees, plus a pre-professional ballet school and separate trauma-sensitive classes for survivors. This December, their rendition of The Nutcracker travels throughout New Hampshire, Maine, and Massachusetts, stopping next at the Capitol Center for the Arts this weekend.
Their take is different from The Nutcracker you might know. Instead of the Nutcracker Prince, it’s Clara who ultimately defeats the Rat Queen, an empowering moment Curtis wanted her dancers to have. In the second half, there’s also a unique variation, “The Brave American,” which is set to a medley of American marches.
Up next for Safe Haven Ballet: an intimate, Valentine’s Day-themed performance at the studio, followed by a tour of Beauty and the Beast, which features Curtis as Belle and stops at The Music Hall and the brand-new Nashua Center for the Arts. In April, they’re participating in a collaborative event commemorating Portsmouth’s 400th anniversary, and in June, there’s the student showcase.
Barb Silk, Curtis’s mother and the Safe Haven Board president, says they’ve actually had to turn down opportunities because there just wasn’t the time.
“We’re seeing a lot more students walk in the door, more adults walk in the door. We’re seeing more professional dancers take interest in working with us. I get messages quite often from people who want to be part of what we’re doing because we’re creating that safe environment for ballet,” Curtis said.
Recently, Curtis was asked to speak at the Dance Teachers’ Club of Boston, Inc., to share Safe Haven’s trauma-informed approach to dance instruction. She hopes to be invited back because that’s how change happens — affecting how teachers teach.
“Ballet is very, very rooted in tradition. And you’re starting to see some changes. But we want to see more,” Curtis said. “We don’t put up with any bullying, any disrespect, any foul language. We have created a truly safe environment, and I’m very protective of that. That’s not normal for the ballet world. Usually, you’re silent. You just listen to whoever’s in charge and do what you’re told.”
The end goal is to prevent other dancers from going through the kind of trauma she did.
“I wasn’t the first victim with my perpetrator. That’s the case often. All I could think was, if the person before me had spoken up, I wouldn’t have gone through what I went through. And that was my motivation. I decided to speak up. Because if I could prevent this from happening to the next person, then I could sleep well at night,” she said.
Silk says they’ve been able to help a lot of survivors, which has been healing for Curtis’s entire family.
“It doesn’t get any easier to keep hearing it, but we want to be that change, and that’s how we keep going: by doing what we’re doing, and by trying to be better ourselves,” Silk said. “It feels good to help other people, and I think that helps you heal.”
Curtis is uncertain whether she’ll perform as the Sugar Plum Fairy this weekend, which was the original plan. At eight weeks postpartum, she says she wants to listen to her body’s needs; but on the other hand, she also danced en pointe until 38 weeks pregnant and was back in the studio three weeks after giving birth. As she’s learned, there’s not much that can keep her away from dance. “I love the stage so much. It’s just part of my DNA,” she said.
Safe Haven Ballet performs The Nutcracker on Saturday, Dec. 17, at 4:30 p.m. (doors open at 3:30 p.m.) at the Capitol Center for the Arts. Tickets cost $34.50-$44.50; visit ccanh.com or safehavenballet.org.