Rice Student Shines in Double Life of Ballet, Academia

CONTACT: David Kaplan

PHONE: (713)
831-4791

E-MAIL: dkaplan@rice.edu

RICE STUDENT SHINES IN DOUBLE LIFE OF BALLET,
ACADEMIA

When Rice University student Ayisha
McMillan learned that she landed her first big role with the Houston Ballet, she
was so thrilled that she could barely settle down enough to prepare for her
performances.

She discovered that the best way to relax was to listen to her
favorite rock singer Ani Difranco. One of her favorite Difranco songs is “Joyful
Girl” (“I do it for the joy it brings/ ‘Cause I’m a joyful girl”).

The song describes McMillan and relates to her part in “Rapture,” which she says is about “heaven and being in heaven. My role was
very, very happy” and, she says, her character was “pure and grateful.”

McMillan, a 20-year-old African-American who hails from the Oak
Park suburb of Chicago, has been a happy and grateful member of the Houston
Ballet since May of ’96, the same year in which she began attending
Rice.

She had one of the featured roles in Lila York’s exciting new
work “Rapture,” which the Houston Ballet performed in Houston’s Wortham Theater,
May 21-31.

The ever-exuberant McMillan has been studying ballet since age
2. At 15 she moved to Houston, after being accepted into the Houston Ballet
Academy. She became a member of the Houston Ballet Company in May of
’96.

Her demanding work schedule at the ballet does not allow her to
have a full course load at Rice, but she has been able to immerse herself in a
rich variety of courses, most of them in the humanities. She finds the exchanges
in class among classmates and teachers to be “really exciting.”

After her ballet career ends, and she earns her degree,
McMillan would like to work as a museum curator. She says her dream job would be
curating at the Art Institute of Chicago. Her mother is Connie Van Brunt, the
executive director of Chicago’s Community Youth Creative Learning Experience
(CYCLE), a program for Chicago inner-city children.

McMillan may very well have more great ballet roles in her
future. Houston Ballet Academy principal Clara Cravey says that McMillan is an
exceptionally versatile dancer who can shine in both classical and contemporary
genres. Ones of the reasons Cravey says she loves watching McMillan perform is
that “she has such a wonderful personality which she is able to project on
stage.” Cravey also describes McMillan as “an idealistic student, in class as
well as in person.”

For an interview with Ayisha McMillan or for more information
please call David Kaplan at (713) 831-4791, or e-mail at <dkaplan@rice.edu>.

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