Atlanta-based dancers raised creative heat during the summer months

Credit: Photo courtesy of Terminus Modern Ballet Theatre

Credit: Photo courtesy of Terminus Modern Ballet Theatre

Lenai Wilkerson, Terminus Modern Ballet Theatre

Terminus Modern Ballet Theatre’s newest hire, Lenai Wilkerson, celebrated her identity as a queer Black woman by working with Queer the Ballet in New York.

Queer the Ballet was founded in 2022 to create more inclusive spaces for queer ballet artists; Wilkerson has been involved from the beginning. This summer, she contributed to an evening-length program that was inspired by Adrienne Rich’s poetry collection, “The Dream of a Common Language.” Rich came out as a lesbian in 1976 with her collection “Twenty-One Love Poems.”

“The repertoire highlights lesbian artists, which doesn’t always get a lot of heat,” Wilkerson said recently. “It’s a specific niche within the underrepresented.”

Working with Queer the Ballet felt more like being in community than doing project work, she added. “Choreographing and dancing alongside amazingly talented ballet dancers — it was surreal.”

Her next stop was Italy for the Danza in Arte a Pietrasanta festival, where for two weeks she danced all day and in the evenings attended performances by companies rarely, if ever, seen in the United States.

“I feel like these were places where I was fully valued,” she said. “It wasn’t a summer when I said, ‘At least I’m dancing.’ It was very artistically fulfilling, rare and unique.”

Larissa Dal’Santo and Luiz Fernando Xavier, Atlanta Ballet

For Atlanta Ballet dancers Larissa Dal’Santo and Luiz Fernando Xavier, summer 2024 was about going home. Born and trained in Brazil, they are the founders of @ballet_couple on Instagram, where they share news in Portuguese about their lives as professional dancers living and working outside their home country.

Ballet Couple is well known in Brazil; their Instagram page has more than 22,000 followers, and they have a robust presence on YouTube, as well. Ballet schools in more than 10 Brazilian cities have invited them to give workshops. In June and July, their packed agenda included organizing and teaching two days of classes for 90 participants at their alma mater, Brazil’s Bolshoi Theater School, the only affiliate of Moscow’s famed Bolshoi Theater. Most of the Brazil school’s students come from low-income families.

Xavier said an important aspect of his work with these students is to be an example for boys in ballet. “I know how difficult the path for a boy studying ballet in Brazil can be,” he said.

Their work there wasn’t all about being in the classroom however. Brazil’s Joinville Dance Festival, the largest festival of its kind in Latin America, invited them to coproduce and host the organization’s official podcast. “We recorded 22 episodes over 13 days with renowned dancers, teachers, influencers from ballet, hip-hop, tap, samba, contemporary and more,” Dal’Santo said. “It was a challenging experience, and we loved it.”

Credit: Photo courtesy of Atlanta Ballet

Credit: Photo courtesy of Atlanta Ballet

Anderson Souza, Atlanta Ballet

Also born and trained in Brazil, Anderson Souza joined Atlanta Ballet in 2016 after several years with the Cia Brasileira de Ballet in Rio de Janeiro, where he danced principal and soloist roles and traveled with the company internationally. At Atlanta Ballet, he was one the dancers chosen to create a work for the company during the pandemic. Since then, his passion for choreography has grown.

This year, he was one of four emerging choreographers selected to participate in the University of North Carolina School of the Arts Choreographic Institute.

“Engaging with industry professionals and receiving constructive feedback helped me recognize the nuances of movement and expression in a new light,” he said.

The program not only gave him guidance in creating new work, it offered assistance with essential aspects of the creative process such as costume design, lighting and music rights. It gave him, he said, a renewed sense of purpose and passion. “The experience was truly transformative.”

Now, he said he will return to Atlanta Ballet better equipped to explore innovative concepts and collaborate with others.

Credit: Photo courtesy of Atlanta Ballet

Credit: Photo courtesy of Atlanta Ballet

Paxton Speight, Atlanta Ballet

Atlanta Ballet’s Paxton Speight, recently promoted from Atlanta Ballet 2 to the main company, spent time with family and also danced the lead role of Franz in “Coppelia” with the Pennsylvania Ballet Academy in June.

In March 2025, when Atlanta Ballet will present its first performance of Balanchine’s “Coppelia” in more than 20 years, Paxton will be back in the corps, as a villager watching one of the company principals perform the lead role.

The guesting gig gave him a chance to understand the comedy ballet from a different perspective. It was also an opportunity, he said, to expand his artistic and technical abilities.

“Now I can go into (Atlanta Ballet’s) new season with more confidence about myself and my abilities.”

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Gillian Anne Renault is ArtsATL’s Senior Editor for Music and Dance and has been an ArtsATL contributor since 2012. In the past, she covered dance for the Los Angeles Daily News, Herald Examiner and Ballet News and on radio stations such as KCRW, the NPR affiliate in Santa Monica, California. Many years ago, she was awarded an NEA Fellowship to attend American Dance Festival’s Dance Criticism program.

Credit: ArtsATL

Credit: ArtsATL

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