BalletMet dancer channels first love into newfound passion: choreography
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Each time he sets foot onstage, BalletMet dancer Leiland Charles performs a series of carefully choreographed moves. Each is precise, and none are left to chance.
Charles’ own side career as a choreographer has been far less planned.
“I honestly never thought about choreography in my life, at least growing up as a dancer,” Charles said.
That changed when he needed to create a short solo dance to be used at auditions for prospective colleges. Then, while a student at the Juilliard School in New York, Charles found he enjoyed expressing himself not only through performing on stage but making dances for others.
“By the time I graduated, I actually had two or three different works get something called Choreographic Honors,” said Charles, now 30. “I thought, ‘This is really fun, and I love to do it.’”
Ever since — first at the Alberta Ballet in Canada and for the past six seasons at BalletMet — Charles has balanced his full-time job as a professional dancer with a side gig as a choreographer on the rise.
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Beginning Friday and continuing through March 18 at the Riffe Center’s Davidson Theatre, Charles’ latest choreographed piece — a 24-minute work titled “Decisions, Decisions” — will be performed as part of BalletMet’s program “A Celebration of New Works.”“New works, I believe, are the breath and life of the company,” said Artistic Director Edwaard Liang, referring to the company’s commitment to presenting newly choreographed dances.
“This type of inspiration and creativity not only feeds the whole organization but our dancers,” Liang said. “When my dancers get inspired, then our audience gets more inspired. It’s a beautiful cycle.”
Also on the bill are world-premiere creations by acclaimed choreographers Dana Genshaft and Amy Seiwert.
“They all have very unique, signature voices, whether it’s already developed or they’re just emerging in their career,” Liang said.
'The butterfly effect'
In the latter category is Charles, whose path to choreographing “Decisions, Decisions” — his fourth dance created for either BalletMet or BalletMet 2, the company’s troupe of promising young dancers — was anything but straightforward.
Because Charles suffered an injury a year and a half ago that necessitated surgery — and has not himself appeared in a BalletMet production since — he was unable to physically involve himself in the creation of the ballet as he normally might.
“Since I’m a dancer, I want to try the steps myself to be able to see if it’s something potentially too difficult,” he said. “So this process, more so early on, was very challenging. I had to be able to step back and not really physically do steps in order to create.”
Once some of the movement for the ballet had been established, Charles began incorporating larger themes, including chaos theory and the butterfly effect. Rather randomly, he had been thinking about the Ashton Kutcher movie “The Butterfly Effect,” which he had never seen but had heard of, and then did a deep dive into the concept, which explains that the smallest of events can have far-reaching impact.
“I started to think about ... how small movements that one person can make can then affect a larger group later on," he said.
As it turned out, those themes reflected Charles’ own recent journey.
“I kept thinking back to what one thing potentially could have caused my injury and then caused all of this to then turn into my life at this point,” he said.
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The music itself was subject to change and chance.
Charles first settled on a score consisting of pieces by Belgian composer Wim Mertens, but when he found that he had tired of the music, he decided to use works by Antonio Vivaldi — a favorite of the choreographer’s.
“I spent so much time listening to (Mertens’ music) that it started to lose its value to me,” Charles said. “A month before I started choreographing, I decided, I’m scrapping it. I’m just going to go to my go-to — I’m going to go back to Vivaldi.”
The end result is praised by Liang, who himself made the leap from dancer to choreographer years ago.
“What I really appreciate about Leiland is that he’s been able to translate his dynamic movement in dancing to his choreography,” Liang said. “He’s always been a consummate professional, whether he is a dancer or a choreographer. He is very organized, he is always thinking and always exploring movement.”
And, Charles said, that is likely to continue. He wants to continue to choreograph, and he’s grateful to BalletMet for helping give him a head start on that future career.
“A lot of dancers do transition to choreography, (but) sometimes they don’t do that until after their career is already over,” he said. “I feel lucky that, while I was dancing, I was able to still have that voice and figure out that I do love doing it so much.”
At a glance
BalletMet will perform “A Celebration of New Works” at 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday; 2 p.m. Sunday; 7:30 p.m. March 16; and 8 p.m. March 17-18 at the Riffe Center’s Davidson Theatre, 77 S. High St. A senior dress rehearsal will take place at 11 a.m. Friday. Tickets start at $36.60, or $34.50 for the dress rehearsal. For more information, visit balletmet.org.
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: BalletMet to perform A Celebration of New Works March 10-18
