Photo credit: The Riker Brothers
Tiler Peck ‘in conversation’ with Leanne Benjamin
20th February 2023
The Chair of the London Ballet Circle, Susan Dalgetty Ezra, welcomed both Tiler Peck and Leanne Benjamin to the evening’s conversation. Tiler is a Principal Dancer with the New York City Ballet, who will in March bring ‘Turn It Out with Tiler Peck & Friends’ to Sadler’s Wells. Leanne is a former Principal, now a coach, with the Royal Ballet. Susan noted that the two were old friends; she also congratulated Leanne on recently being chosen as this year’s Australian of the Year in the UK.
Leanne commenced by explaining how the two of them had met. Many years ago they had both been in Vail, Colorado, dancing in Morphoses with Christopher Wheeldon’s small company. Tiler had been the youngest member of the company, ‘starstruck’ as she put it by the presence of Leanne. On learning that Tiler was about to appear in Giselle for the first time Leanne danced the ballet for her – a masterclass in the lobby of their hotel…..
Tiler’s visit to London, bringing her show to Sadler’s Wells, was eagerly anticipated and creating a real ‘buzz’, said Leanne. She then asked Tiler to describe how she had started on her incredible career.
Tiler had started to dance at the age of two, at her mother’s dance studio in California. The studio taught all kinds of dance and ballet had not been Tiler’s favourite, preferring jazz, probably because ballet seemed the hardest discipline. However, her mother, who was the ballet teacher, had insisted she persist with it. In 2000 at the age of eleven she was cast in The Music Man which took her to New York and on to Broadway. While there she auditioned for, and was accepted by, the School of American Ballet.
She spent the next year training at the School during the day and appearing in The Music Man in the evenings. She then found that she loved ballet; perhaps it was the Balanchine style which really attracted her. Leanne interjected that Tiler was the quintessential Balanchine dancer – quick, full of energy, with very fast footwork. She had also studied with Patricia and Coleen Neary, stars of New York City Ballet who had worked very closely with Balanchine. It had been Patricia who suggested she audition with the School of American Ballet.
Although her grandmother had been with her in New York, Tiler missed her family. She was still only twelve when the musical closed after a year and so she went home to California. Tiler had enjoyed her time at the School and it was arranged that she would come back for the Summer courses, which she did for the next three years. She then stayed on for a year after which she was accepted into the company as an apprentice – very much more quickly than she expected.
Leanne expressed surprise that Tiler had been taken on at fifteen, saying that companies now recruit dancers who are somewhat older. She herself had been at the Royal Ballet School for just two years, but the Upper School programme was now three years. In her day ‘dancing’ had been everything; now, and quite properly, the education provided was wider ranging. Tiler also noted that the younger dancers tended to sustain injuries rather more frequently.
Tiler was then asked about her progression through the hierarchy of New York City Ballet in which, Leanne said, she appeared to have been fast tracked. With hindsight Tiler did not think it was entirely to her benefit to have joined the company at such a young age. It was exciting but she had been too young to realise the significance of being at the same barre as so many great individuals.
She was capable of learning a role quickly and so was often called on to take a part if another dancer had fallen out. Accordingly she quickly obtained a corps contract which in those days was awarded automatically after performance in about seven ballets. She was promoted to Soloist in a year and then to Principal some four or five years later. It had been, she admitted, a rapid rise through the ranks.
At that point a video clip was shown of Tiler dancing in Swan Lake. “What I love” said Leanne, “is that you’re so free with your dancing”. She had heard that Tiler had just been dancing Aurora and noted that these ballets are the top of the ladder for every dancer to achieve. They are the bread and butter; they define a dancer. Performance in them can allow other projects to be much more free and potentially enjoyable. And Tiler seems to be involved in so many other activities, for instance, films, books, even a clothing range. How do you juggle your time?
Tiler said that she always wants to keep moving. She did not want to wait until the end of something before deciding on what to do next, rather she would try to pave the way for the next project as soon as she could. She cited her project to design a new leotard. Dancers live in leotards, she explained, so let’s try to make a better design. One that fits better and is more comfortable. She was just trying to fix a problem. Leanne very much agreed, she had never bought a leotard without having to adjust it in some way.
She had just come back after a traumatic neck injury, for which she had nine months off, when Covid struck and the pandemic forced the closure of theatres and company classes. Tiler felt that she couldn’t spend another year without dancing. Accordingly, she had started an online class – “lovely and relaxed” said Leanne.
Her other pandemic project had been to collaborate with William (‘Bill’) Forsythe to create the Barre Project. When asked if there was any other choreographer she would like to work with Tiler always cited Bill Forsythe. Although she had seen his work she had not so far met him. She had been in Paris, on tour with New York City Ballet, at the same time as he was there with Blake Works 1. Tiler’s friend Justin Peck told her that Forsythe had been watching her Theme and Variations every day while creating his ballet. So she went to the Paris Opera and met Bill for the first time. She watched him work with his dancers and thought “Wow”. It was great to meet him and they then stayed in contact.
Leanne commented that his work is always so full of movement, just as Tiler’s is – in that sense they were a match made in heaven. The dancer in a Forsythe piece was full of energy; never rigid. You were allowed to be as big as you wanted to be, with the more stretch the better. Exceptional choreography for the sort of dancer who liked to work in this way, as indeed, Leanne also did.
Tiler and Bill tried time after time to get together with things going wrong at the last moment – such as ‘flu – until finally during the pandemic she got in touch with Bill to say that our schedules are free so could we get together? She wasn’t really expecting any response but he came back at once asking if they could start on the collaboration the very next day! She thought that Bill had been watching the online classes over the months of the pandemic and was already creating the Barre Project in his mind. This was to form the second part of the London show.
When the original video project was being made the performers involved could obviously stop, for instance to alter a sequence or to change wardrobe. Mounting it on the stage in real time involved a number of changes. In fact, Forsythe might make changes right up until just before the curtain was to go up. Leanne responded that he was not alone in this respect, citing Wayne McGregor as another choreographer well known for last minute changes.
Leanne went on to ask about other choreographers with whom Tiler had worked. She noted that Alexei Ratmansky was due to work with New York City Ballet, and inquired whether Tiler had worked with him. She replied that she had tried to do so but kept being frustrated by injury. She has managed to do just the one ballet with him called Pictures at an Exhibition in which he created for her the most amazing solo.
Recently he had been trying to create another solo for her when she was just returning from her serious neck injury and was strictly limited in the moves she could make. So Alexei said he would take that limitation into account when creating the role. Tiler, however, felt that once she got in the room with Alexei she would force herself to move more than was good for her at that time. Accordingly she declined the offer of the new work. However, she was delighted that he would be working with New York City ballet.
The discussion then turned to Directors such as Wendy Whelan, a wonderful dancer with whom they had both worked in Morphoses. Tiler was asked what it was like having her in front of the studio. She liked it especially because being female Wendy had danced all of the roles herself. What worked for Wendy didn’t necessarily work for Tiler, but it was so good to listen and learn from her.
Now Tiler is choreographing as well? Leanne was surprised that she had the time to do this while a very active ballerina. She replied that at her mother’s dance studio when young she had been choreographing dances but had not done so professionally until she was asked to do a piece for a festival. It seemed a daunting prospect; however, having just gone through a difficult personal trauma she thought it couldn’t possibly be worse than that and agreed to try.
It was a short classical piece for just one woman and two men, and in the event she had to dance the role herself due to injury. The piece seemed to work! She had no mentoring of any sort, but the music she used had been a gift from a composer who had drawn on themes from roles she had danced previously.
The following year she was again asked to choreograph something and eventually was persuaded – and that’s where Thousandth Orange comes from. There are six dancers and she had to create it without moving much herself because of her neck injury. She feared that would prove too difficult but actually found that giving direction, while leaving the dancers to interpret the moves, was quite successful. It was good for her too, in that she wanted to dance but couldn’t, and instead watched these wonderful dancers creating something of value.
Leanne compared her situation to that of Kenneth MacMillan, who in his latter days mostly just sat at the front of the studio and gave corrections. What he got out of the dancers, however, was quite incredible. It was sometimes important to sit back and let the dancers try various things.
The format of the Sadler’s Wells show was then discussed. There will be three performances, on the 9th, 10th, and 11th March. Thousandth Orange will open the show. Through Bill Forsythe, Tiler had got in touch with Alonzo King, a choreographer with a rather different approach to dance, and he has created a pas de deux for her. She would then perform an exciting piece with Michelle Dorrance, one of the world’s best tap dancers, who she first met when she was sixteen and whose career she had always followed with interest. They had also brought in Jillian Myers, a contemporary dancer and choreographer well known in the commercial world. Overall therefore, a range of different dance styles will be on display.
So where else would Tiler like to take the show? She indicated that she was in talks to tour in the US as well as to places such as Japan and Australia. Immediately after her London show she would return to New York to rehearse for the New York City Ballet tour to Spain, where they would be performing in Madrid. This was her 18th year as a member of New York City Ballet; she asserted that such membership grounds you as a dancer, and she loves daily class and the work schedule.
Did she have ambitions? She enjoyed acting; that’s why she likes the ‘story’ ballets. She admitted that part of her misses the buzz of a Broadway show. She might want to put together more shows; she believes she now has the experience necessary to stand at the front of the studio.
Susan came back into the conversation to ask about the benefits of cross-cultural work, such as musical theatre. Tiler said that dancers with a broader range of experience may have greater opportunities. They tend to fit in more easily when new choreographers, who might have wildly different ideas, come along.
Her own background had been very varied and when asked to put on a tutu she has to remind herself that this is classical ballet, and that she has to find a way of dancing it while still remaining herself. Somewhat surprisingly, however, she now finds herself wanting new works that are more firmly based in the classical tradition.
Leanne broke in to agree with Tiler. Coming from a small school in Queensland, she had also been brought up on a varied dance diet, such that she had not danced a classical solo from a traditional ballet until she came to London at age sixteen. So her own particular comfort zone did not involve wearing a tutu. She tries to emphasise to those she coaches that while classical ballet implies perfection, it was always important that dancers remain true to themselves.
Finally, Tiler was asked which dancers she admired most? Wendy Whelan, of course, because she had been there the longest time. She thought that Miranda Weese was very like her and Tiler wanted to dance in the way she did. And Heather Watts, a Principal with New York City Ballet for many years who had mentored Tiler throughout her career.
Susan, as Chair of the London Ballet Circle, thanked both Tiler and Leanne most sincerely for giving up their evenings. They were both pleased to be able to get together again and that had been obvious from their conversation, which had been most enjoyable for everyone.
Written by Trevor Rothwell, and edited/approved by Tiler Peck and Leanne Benjamin.
© Copyright LBC
