Leiland Charles

Leiland first stepped into a dance studio at the age of three with The Howard County Ballet in Ellicott City, Maryland under the direction of Kathi Ferguson. 

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Leiland furthered his artistic training at The Juilliard School under the direction of Lawrence Rhodes where he received his BFA in the spring of 2014. While at Juilliard, he performed works by Nacho Duato, William Forsythe, Twyla Tharp, Alexander Ekman and many others.

Upon graduation, Mr. Charles joined Alberta Ballet in Calgary, Canada, where he worked for three seasons dancing many roles including Benvolio in Jean Grand-Maïtre’s “Romeo and Juliet” and Red Couple in Jiri Kylían’s “Forgotten Land.” 

 

Leiland joined BalletMet as a Company Artist in 2017. Some of his favorite works with the company include “In Creases” by Justin Peck and “Cacti” by Alexander Ekman. Leiland is also an up-and-coming choreographer and has created works including “Passages” for Alberta Ballet and most recently “Figurines” for BalletMet and “Togetherness” for BalletMet2. He was recently invited to choreograph at the National Choreographers Initiative (NCI) in Irvine, CA this summer.