Photos by Matthew Coughlin // Shot on location at the Hannah Houses // Makeup by Courtney Matthews // Hair by Makenzie Oates
Olivia MacKinnon whispers a prayer in the stage wings and draws her breath in chorus with the theater’s grand drapes. The platform before her is black, the air around her perfectly silent. Music swells from the orchestra pit, summoning a spotlight and the ballerina to her mark. She surrenders herself to her role and allows her dramatis persona to live through her. Her sauts de chat float on melodies. Notes catch in layers of tulle as she pirouettes. The maestro adopts her ports de bras to direct his ensemble. Little girls, rapt by fouettes and grand jetes, tug at their mothers’ sleeves and plead with them to take ballet lessons. They mimic MacKinnon’s performance with tiny gestures in their seats until she gracefully slips into her final position, and they erupt in applause as the music fades away. They dream of one day filling her pointe shoes, not knowing that she dreams they will too.
MacKinnon was a child herself when she became smitten with ballet, even younger than many of her admirers. “I started doing ballet when I was three years old. I was already drawn to classical music at that age, and I would want to dance in twirly dresses whenever I heard it,” says MacKinnon. “I was very invested in my classes from the beginning, and I signed up for more classes whenever I could.” She enrolled in summer courses at The School of American Ballet when she was a teenager, where she quickly fell in love with the Balanchine techniques for which the New York City Ballet is celebrated. Her poise and charm caught the eyes of her instructors, and she was asked to stay in New York for the company’s year-round program. MacKinnon was overjoyed and conflicted. Joining the New York City Ballet was her deepest desire, but accepting their offer would have meant moving from her home in Mobile to New York when she was only 14 years old. “I just wasn’t ready to leave my family,” she says. “They asked me to stay again the next year, so I left home and trained with the school for two and a half years. I received my full-time apprenticeship contract with the New York City Ballet when I was 17, and I was promoted to soloist in April of 2023. Everything happened so quickly. The hardest part was moving away from my family, but it was such a dream for me. I’m blessed because they were always so supportive of me. They always have been.”
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“Our family never really talked about Olivia being a professional ballerina one day,” says MacKinnon’s mother Dana. “She was so musical and loved to move, and she was so disciplined. It was a natural thing for her to do. It was easy for me to support her in what she loved because I love her. The hardest part was letting her go. But I thought about how Olivia gives so much to everyone and how much she loves what she does, and we saw all these signs and wonders telling us she needed to go. Our little name for her is ‘Rosebud,’ and when we took her to the Lincoln Center in New York where she would be training, we saw that she was supposed to go into the Rose Building. Olivia ascended the stairs and looked back at me and gave me this little wink that she does, and I knew then that my darling little Rosebud was going to be fine.”
Dana’s faith in MacKinnon was well-placed, but The City That Never Sleeps is a striking contrast from a place that considers being unhurried a virtue. “New York is definitely more fast-paced than the South. It was a bit of a culture shock for me at first,” says the ballerina. “The New York City Ballet is that way too. Mondays are our only days off during the week. When we’re in our rehearsal period, we will rehearse from 10:30 in the morning until 7:00 at night. Once we start doing our performances, we might have 12-hour days. We have about two hours before the show to eat and prepare ourselves, but we can do a lot of things during that time like massages and physical therapy. We can sometimes dance three ballets in one performance— I’ve had many triple-bills in my career. When the curtain goes down, I walk home, have a bath, eat a very late dinner and go to bed around midnight. So, I try to take care of my body and be kind to myself, especially during performance time.”
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The key to MacKinnon sustaining her performance standards is her commitment to self-care and bodily awareness. “Ballet seems so light and airy — and it is — but it does take a toll on the body,” she says. “Over the years, I’ve become more health conscious. Mondays are my days to get my body back in order and prepare for the week.” For a ballerina, tending to the body requires a balance of medical care and lifestyle management. MacKinnon frequently meets with physical therapists, massage therapists and chiropractors provided by the company, and she prepares healthy meals at home with fresh ingredients from her local farmers market. “Dancing can be grueling work, but I think being a ballerina teaches you how to be your best self — how to be healthy and stay disciplined. I learned to listen to what my body is telling me and how to take better care of myself. It helped me mature quickly, but I see that as a gift.”
Though MacKinnon’s accomplishments stem from her persistence and devotion to her art, it took a village to help her bloom into a renowned ballerina. “My family has been with me every step of the way on this journey, and I am so thankful for them, but I also had some wonderful instructors that really helped me flourish,” she says. “Suki Schorer, Susan Pilarre, Jock Soto and Darci Kistler taught me throughout my training at the School of American Ballet and led my workshop performance, which is somewhat like an end-of-year recital. They made me a more confident and refined dancer and provided me with the breath of Balanchine. Even today, I receive messages offering advice for certain roles or just words of encouragement. Katrina Killian has been incredibly influential as well. She plucked me from my first audition for the School of American Ballet’s summer course in New Orleans, which ultimately led me to where I am now. I’m honored to now have her guide me as a new faculty member at SAB. It feels like a true full-circle moment. I also have a strong faith, and I feel like the Lord has carried me through a lot of hardships and helped me persevere. I definitely rely on him, and I attribute that to my family helping me grow in my faith.”
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Just as MacKinnon’s friends and family fostered her talents, she hopes to nurture the gifts of aspiring ballerinas in Mobile. “Classical Ballet of Mobile invited me to teach master classes a few years ago, and I have loved working with the students there,” she says. “It’s felt like a safe space, and I’ve been really thankful for the opportunity to help students fulfill their potential. I’d been thinking about how much more I could integrate myself into Classical Ballet of Mobile, and at the beginning of this year, I was approached by the board and offered a role as the ballet and artistic advisor. I’m just giving guidance whenever I can and am helping them restructure and organize the school. Whenever I’m home, I try to get to know all the students. I always see new faces and it’s so exciting to see the little ones. I can’t wait to see how the school grows and how all the students blossom.”
Classical Ballet of Mobile is delighted to be leaping into a partnership with MacKinnon. “There is something truly special about Olivia,” says Board Director Haley Van Antwerp. “She embodies the values that are most important to Classical Ballet of Mobile, including a strong faith, technical capacity, poise, experience, dogged determination, curiosity and ability to connect with dancers of all backgrounds. She has the sweet demeanor of a lady raised in the South, but with the determination, efficiency and professionalism of a seasoned New Yorker. Truly, we could not have a better role model for our students. I saw four petite dancers playing ‘Miss Olivia’ in the lobby a couple weeks ago. It warmed my heart to know that our young dancers have such a wonderful role model to emulate.”
Beyond her advisory role, MacKinnon is excited for the opportunity to enhance her teaching abilities. “I love passing on what I’ve been taught throughout my years of ballet. It’s become a bigger part of my life when I’m not rehearsing and performing myself,” she says. “My love of teaching actually stems from the pandemic. I couldn’t do the other thing I loved during that time, so I invested myself in teaching. Now I’m on the faculty for The School of American Ballet where I trained. It’s a newer role that I only took on this past year, and I’ve very much enjoyed it and hope to continue doing it in the future. Whenever I teach, I feel like I learn how to be a better dancer as well. It’s been a wonderful tool for me.”
Along with teaching core ballet techniques, MacKinnon shares her personal trials and triumphs to inspire her students. “My first major role in ‘The Nutcracker’ for the New York City Ballet was Marzipan Lead, which is the pink shepherdess with a flute,” she says. “There’s a part when you’re up on your toes performing little hops on pointe, and I was very nervous about doing them. I stumbled a little during my debut, and it wasn’t my best show. After that, I was determined that I was going to be very confident in that role. Rehearsals would be fine, and I’d say a little prayer before performances. Now, Marzipan is my favorite role in ‘The Nutcracker.’ Whenever I’m working with students, I like to tell them that story because I think they think professionals never get nervous or get shaky. So, I try to pull out different sides of myself with my students and give them different stories and different imagery for them to think about, because that has helped me so much within.”
Whether she’s nurturing the gifts of budding ballerinas or enchanting audiences on the grand stage, MacKinnon finds bliss and gratitude in every step she takes. “It’s a special thing to do what I do,” she says. “Sometimes I feel like I live in a fairytale. I get to dress up for a living, and I love it when I get to transform into different personas. When I perform, I listen to music and let it carry me, and it’s this spiritual, heavenly feeling. And when I teach, I’m able to bring out all this magic and these beautiful qualities in my students. It’s a blessing to be able to do what brings me such joy.”
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Shot on location at Nos. 157 and 159 North Conception Street — the “Hannah” Houses
History By Cartledge Blackwell
The Robinson, or “Hannah” Houses as they are sometimes known, preside over the southwest corner of North Conception and Saint Anthony streets. These twin houses, which are now joined by a connector, are contributing or historic buildings in the DeTonti Square Historic District. They are also two of only five extant three-story brick townhouses in Mobile dating from the first half of the 1800s. Just as significant as the architectural rarity of the two dwellings is the fascinating history of their realization and naming.
Between 1833 and 1852, nine individuals or families owned the roughly 75’ x 135’ site now occupied by the houses. Between 1833 and 1835, James and Hannah Roberts held the title to the large lot, one nestled in an increasingly fashionable residential area. The Roberts were the third owners of the property. Though they did not build the twin houses, their name would be linked to them generations down the road. Five more changes of ownership inform the property’s pre-1850 chain of title. In 1852, Cornelius and Martha Robinson purchased the site. Chancery court litigation from 1860 proves that the Robinsons began construction on the two houses the very year they acquired the prominent corner lot.
As initially constructed, the three-story dwellings did not feature their characteristic galleries. From planar facades front doors opened into long halls, with staircases that then and now rise to the third floors. Two-large rooms connected by pocket doors are to the side of the halls of both houses. Two large rooms to the side of halls comprised the second and third floor plans. Rear service wings located behind the rear walls shared a common party. Two-story in construction, the service wings held laundry, serving, kitchen, and additional residential space. Carriage houses with stabling for horses stood along the rear lot line.
The two properties went into separate ownership in 1861. Multiple changes in ownership informed the late 19th and early 20th century histories of the houses. Galleries — wooden on 157 and cast iron on 159 — were added in the late 1890s. During the 1930s, both buildings were reunited into the same parcel under the ownership of Cowan-Irvine Company. In 1963, Cowan-Irvine engaged architects Arch Winter and T. Howard Ellis to renovate the buildings. The connector uniting the main parts of the houses was built and the cast iron gallery found on 159 was replicated on 157. Nicholas H. Holmes, Jr., was later engaged to conduct further restoration efforts.
Prior to the restoration campaigns, there was confusion as to the exact date of construction. Either the owners or a consulting party placed construction in the 1830s. In recognition of the third owner, the Roberts, the houses were named the Hannah Houses after Mrs. Hannah Roberts.
The restoration of the houses was an early outreach effort of the newly founded Mobile Historic Development Commission (MHDC). A few years after the restoration, the MHDC was among several partners involved in the publication of 19th Century Mobile Architecture. By no means an exhaustive account of Mobile’s environment from the 1800s, the small paperbound booklet nonetheless highlighted some of the Port City’s most important edifices. Countless hours of diligent research went into the creation of the book. Research into the Robinson Houses revealed the 1850s date of construction of the houses and the names of the original owners. Today, extensively rehabilitated, the Robinson or Hannah Houses stand as testaments to Mobile’s fascinating past and character for its present and future.
