A different kind of barre: Monike Cristina plays the role of Chocolate in the new ballet Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, based on Roald Dahl’s book, which is on at the Joburg Theatre. Photo: Lauge Sorensen
Whoever cast Monike Cristina in the role of “Chocolate” is a genius. It does help that she is a superb ballerina who will undoubtedly blow audiences away this month at the Joburg Theatre with the world premiere of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, the major full-length ballet inspired by Roald Dahl’s 1964 children’s novel.
But there is more that has made this an inspiring choice.
The bubbly Brazilian-born principal ballerina is any interviewer’s dream — engaged, witty and refreshingly honest.
We are chatting in a small office, upstairs from Joburg Theatre’s ballet studio during her lunch break between rehearsals. She is wearing dark track pants over a purple leotard, a white shawl on her shoulders — plus a tiara and matching gold lipstick.
Does “Chocolate” by any chance like chocolate?
“I loooove chocolate!” she giggles. “I eat it every day! Yes, I eat a lot!”
Oh good, what’s your favourite chocolate?
“I like Ferrero, Raffaello, Lindt, ooh, I love all of them, mmmmm.”
Dark chocolate?
“Dark chocolate, milk, whatever, if it is chocolate, I’ll eat it” — a lusty, throaty laugh — “I love it!”
And are you allowed to eat it?
“Yes, I am …”
I hear a morsel of guilt but maybe I’m projecting. I’m just glad we are on the same page, or to be more precise, from the same wrapper. Chocoholics are us.
The difference is glaringly obvious, though. The 34-year-old Cristina is slim, lithe and when you watch her perform on stage, feather light, seeming to defy gravity.
The less said about my physique, the better, except that Ferrero, Raffaello, Lindt — all of them — have a tendency to form a tube around my waist.
On the opening night on 4 October Revil Yon and Cristina will dance the leading roles of Willy Wonka and Chocolate, while Jayden Samuels, a student at the National School of the Arts, will be Charlie.
Choreographed by Mario Gaglione, with an original music score composed by Mark Cheyne, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory is the first classical-based full-length ballet to be created for Joburg Ballet since 2017.
Cheyne’s score, performed live by the Johannesburg Philharmonic Orchestra, will accompany Dahl’s immortal story of Charlie’s adventures in Willy Wonka’s incredible chocolate factory.
Cristina was born in São Paulo and started dancing at the age of six, which is when she “really fell in love with ballet”.
“I think it’s also a little bit my grandfather’s fault. Since I was a baby, he let me sleep with classical music on. Beethoven, Mozart …”
Her grandmother was a lyrical singer with a beautiful voice.
“Then, I imagined my whole life [would be] of hearing those types of music.”
Cristina’s mom noticed that she had rhythm and took her to a school offering ballet, jazz, tap and contemporary dance.
“I said, ‘I like the tutu and I love the tiaras,’” she laughs. “My mom said, ‘Now, you sure? Look at the tap dance — so cute — the shoes on the floor, tap, tap.’ I said, ‘I want pointe shoes, a tiara and tutu.’”
By the age of 13 Cristina had decided, “This is what I want for my life.” But being a ballerina in Brazil isn’t easy because there are not enough companies to support all the dancers. Despite the great potential, many Brazilians go abroad to pursue ballet careers.
Cristina was awarded a scholarship to the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater in New York, went to Germany and did tours in Ukraine, Moldova and Russia.
A friend who was with her in the Bolshoi youth company (the only Bolshoi outside of Russia) suggested that she apply to Joburg Ballet.
“They have a great repertoire, it’s a good company, it’s a nice country,” he told her.
She joined in 2016.
“I have become a South African, to be honest, because it’s been like eight years here, and when I go back home, I feel like, ‘Oh, this is not my house anymore because sometimes I’m like, ‘Mom, where is the plate?’” she laughs. “‘Mom, where is my towel?’, ‘Mom, where is the …?’
“You know, it’s not my house anymore! And then when I walk down the street, new restaurants, new shops, new this and that, so when I come here to South Africa, it’s, ‘Oh, okay, now here’s my house.’”
Watching Cristina and the rest of the Charlie and the Chocolate Factory performers earlier in rehearsal, words such as “flair”, “beauty”, “magnificence”, but above all “incredibly hard work”, came to mind.
“I think it’s one of the hardest careers in the world, because you have to have everything in control,” she tells me, “so you have to really work in all the places, body-wise, mentally and emotionally.”
There is no room for improvisation.
“Of course, we’re not machines, things can happen but we work for … where everything can be perfect.
“Yes, that’s why we practise so many times, from 10 to 6. Every day we start with ballet class, pliés, tombés, pirouettes, jetés, all those exercises, every single day, and then people are like, ‘But you do this every day!?’ and you say, ‘Yes!’
“And one day we miss, we can feel that on our body. The body gets lazy very easily.”
What gives you mental strength?
“I think it’s all the time when I look back and then I see the younger Monike has a dream to become the Monike I am today.
“So this makes me feel, ‘Okay, I’m in a good place.’ I know we have some days where everything goes so well, then other days, ‘Oh, not that great.’
“But then I say, ‘No, Monike, look who you are now. Look all the battles you have already won in your life.’”
Cristina pauses for a moment.
“So, I think this helps me to say, ‘Okay, I can do this, it’s just a bad day. But it’s not the end!’”
Despite the fun, humour and upbeat jazziness, Charlie is also a highly technical ballet, as I saw just before lunch with Cristina and her colleagues performing the last scene.
“We have to do those turns on one leg — we call them fouetté — 32 turns, and then your leg is already asking for you to stop but you have to carry on to the end, so it’s very hard, it’s not easy.”
And it is a new ballet.
“That’s why we have it to be like 100% in each rehearsal, because we don’t have a video to all go over again and see … because it’s a premiere, we never did this ballet before, and not in other companies as well, it’s brand-new ballet, brand-new steps, musicality, counts.”
She met her fiancé, fellow Brazilian Ivan Domiciano, when they were 13 and danced together in São Paulo. But they only started dating just before they came to South Africa — he is a senior soloist at Joburg Ballet.
And, almost on cue, Domiciano walks in with lunch for his beloved.
“He asked about you!” Cristina bubbles, to which Domiciano blushes.
“Hello, nice to meet you,” to me.
“Enjoy your lunch,” to her and he is off.
All that earlier talk about chocolate has made me peckish and I help Cristina with some of her hot chips.
“He’s very funny,” she gushes. “He has a sweet heart.”
They are getting married in Brazil in January during the company’s festive season break.
Cristina has “a few fans, people who always come to watch me, and I really appreciate it”.
She says it is especially the children. “They are so sweet, and you can see in their eyes, they want to be you in the future …”
Talking about the future, where do you see yourself in 10 years’ time?
“I think I still want to dance.” She laughs. “I don’t know if I will be able to, but I think I still want to be dancing, and maybe have a baby.
“But I want to carry on my career a little bit more.”
We say our goodbyes and I’m off into the quiet Heritage Day afternoon.
My near future is much simpler. It is a stop at the local Woolies for a Lindt dark chocolate bar — you know those with the hazelnuts inside, the ones that go straight to one’s midriff.
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory opens at the Joburg Theatre on 4 October with nine performances through to 13 October.