Birthplace
Dover, New Hampshire
Dance Training
Portsmouth School of Ballet
Walnut Hill School for the Performing Arts
Houston Ballet Academy
Houston Ballet II
Year Joined
2011
Promotions
Principal - 2025
First Soloist - 2021
Soloist - 2017
Demi Soloist - 2016
Favorite Role
Puck in John Neumeiers's A Midsummer Night's Dream
Favorite Ballet
Ulysses Dove’s Red Angels
The late Albert Evans was in the original cast of the ballet, and his final solo starts with him strutting forward. I was instantly mesmerized and also shocked that, as a ballet dancer, you could have that fierce of a moment onstage. His career and this ballet in particular has always been a driving force that motivates me. It would be a DREAM to dance this ballet.
A Defining Moment
Dancing 'The Shepherd' in Stanton Welch's Sylvia. It was my first three act ballet principal role and to dance it alongside a dancer who I was in HBII with was a full circle moment, and one that I'll never forget.
Bio
Originally from Dover, New Hampshire, Harper Watters trained at Portsmouth School of Ballet, Walnut Hill School for the Performing Arts, Washington Ballet and Houston Ballet Summer intensives. He was a member of Houston Ballet II from 2009 - 2011. In 2011, he competed at the Prix de Lausanne Ballet Competition where he won 6th overall as well as the contemporary dance award. Watters joined Houston Ballet as an apprentice in 2011. He rose through the ranks from corps de ballet in 2012, demi soloist in 2016, soloist in 2017 and first soloist in 2021. Watters was promoted to Principal in spring 2025.
Since then, Watters has danced a variety of roles from some of the world's leading dance choreographers. He has enjoyed dancing roles such as The Shepherd in ‘Sylvia’, Dandini in ‘Cinderella’ by Stanton Welch. Puck in “A Midsummer Nights Dream’ and The Sea Witch in ‘The Little Mermaid’ by John Neumeier, Camille in ‘The Merry Widow’ by Ronald Hynd, Blue Boy in ‘Maninyas’, ‘Divergence’, ‘Clear’, and ‘Velocity’ by Stanton Welch, ‘In the night’ and ‘The Cage’ by Jerome Robbins, ‘Concerto Barocco’, ‘Emeralds’ and ‘Four Temperaments’ by George Balanchine, ‘Petite Mort’, ‘Stepping Stones’ and ‘Overgrown Path’ by Jiri Kylian, “Grosse Fuge’ by Hans Van Manen, ‘One End One’ by Jorma Elo, originated roles in world premiers by choreographers Justin Peck, Aszure Barton, Annabelle Lopez Ochoa, Silas Farley, and Stanton Welch.
Watters has performed in several tours including Stanton Welch’s Swan Lake in Dubai, UAE and Minneapolis, MN (2018); Stanton Welch’s Tapestry and Velocity in Bonn and Ludwigshafen, Germany (2017); and Stanton Welch’s world premiere of Just, Clear, Sons de L'âme and Trey McIntyre’s In Dreams at Jacob’s Pillow in Becket, MA (2018). As part of the Company’s 50th tour in October of 2019, he traveled to New York City’s City Center to reprise his original role in Justin Peck’s Reflections.
Karina González
Connor Walsh