From Saskatoon to the National Ballet and Back Again: Keaton Leier Comes Home
by Scott Roos
photo credits in captions
For Keaton Leier, returning to the TCU Place stage on Saturday, Sept. 19, for the Saskatoon Symphony Orchestra’s At the Ballet is going to be about more than just ballet. It’s a homecoming.
The Saskatoon-born dancer, now entering his fifth season with the National Ballet of Canada, will return to the city where his dance journey began as part of Sharing the Stage, a special collaboration between the National Ballet and the Saskatoon Symphony Orchestra celebrating the National Ballet’s 75th anniversary season.
Backed by the SSO and conductor Judith Yan, Leier and fellow National Ballet dancers will perform excerpts from some of the most celebrated works in the classical ballet repertoire, including Sleeping Beauty and Prokofiev’s Romeo and Juliet. But Leier will also be bringing something entirely his own to the stage. The program will feature the world premiere of Atmosphere, a new 25-minute work choreographed by Leier and set to an original score by Emmy-nominated composer Paul Leonard-Morgan. For Leier, the opportunity is almost impossibly full-circle.
“I think the idea of how full circle it is from being just basically dancing for fun in the city and figuring myself out as a kid to, you know, returning to dance in the city on that stage, however many years later,” he says.
That stage, of course, is a familiar one. TCU Place is also home to The Performer, one of the dance competitions Leier participated in as a young Saskatoon dancer.
“I definitely have danced on the TCU Place stage before as a little competition kid,” he says. “It’s a beautiful theatre.”
This time, however, the circumstances will be somewhat different.
“It’s going to feel really special to step on that stage in the position that I’m in now, in my life, and feel that difference, and kind of, I don’t know, reflect on all I’ve done and accomplished since then.”
Leier’s route from Saskatoon dance studios to one of the world’s most prestigious ballet companies was hardly a conventional one. His dance education began with hip-hop. He was taking classes casually once a week before branching into jazz and contemporary dance. Ballet came later.
“I didn’t start doing ballet until I was around 15,” he says.
Even then, it took some convincing. Teachers at Brenda’s School of Dance encouraged him to explore other styles. Eventually, a ballet teacher at the school began suggesting that he might have a future in ballet. At first, Leier wasn’t particularly interested. There was even a deal involved. It turns out Leier was needed as a dance partner to some of the girls when they did their ballet routines. Leier had participated as a partner in other styles in the past, but never ballet. The deal initially was that Leier would be a willing partner as long as tights weren't in the equation.
“I didn’t want to wear tights,” he says with a laugh.
Eventually, though, something clicked.
“I just realized how much I loved the intensity of it, the attention to detail it requires to be good at, the depth of, I guess, the curriculum and all of that stuff too.”
Ballet became less something he was trying and more something he couldn't stop thinking about.
“I just found ballet really interesting and kind of addictive.”
From Saskatoon, Leier headed to the Royal Winnipeg Ballet School, initially attending one of its summer programs. He was accepted into the school's professional division, although he waited an additional year before leaving home. At 17, he finally moved to Winnipeg for Grade 12. His path eventually took him to Houston Ballet, followed by five years with Atlanta Ballet and finally to the National Ballet of Canada, where he joined after auditioning for its artistic director. It is a remarkable trajectory for someone who began ballet at an age when many professional dancers have already spent years training in the discipline.
“I was considered very late to the game when it came to that,” Leier says.
That meant catching up.
“I had a lot of hard work I had to put in to kind of catch up. But I eventually did and graduated, and was very happy.”
Now, after more than a decade away from Saskatoon, Leier gets to bring some of that experience home. And perhaps more importantly, he gets to show young dancers watching from the audience what is possible. Leier understands that the path from a Saskatchewan dance studio to an international professional career can seem impossibly distant. He hopes his own story can help make that distance feel a little smaller. His return is not simply about demonstrating how far one dancer has travelled. It is also about reminding the next generation that where they begin does not necessarily determine where they end up. That idea of using art to reach beyond the stage is central to Leier's identity as an artist.
“I try to really merge all of those things into one and find overlap,” he says, describing the relationship between being a dancer, an artist and a human being.
A particular passion of his is environmentalism and the natural world.
“One of my goals is to use art to spark inspiration for people to think differently or think more about the climate crisis and how we approach it as humanity.”
That philosophy is woven directly into Atmosphere. The title has a double meaning. There is the everyday understanding of atmosphere - the feeling, energy or “vibe” created in a particular space - but there is also the scientific definition: the layers of gases surrounding Earth. Leier used the five layers of Earth's atmosphere as the conceptual framework for the five movements of his new work. Each layer has its own characteristics, and those characteristics became inspiration for both the choreography and Morgan's score. There is the mesosphere, where meteors burn up. There is the thermosphere, associated with phenomena such as the northern lights. Temperature, density, lightness, heaviness and weather patterns all became part of Leier's creative vocabulary. The result is a work that Leier hopes will be both visually and emotionally immersive.
“I want to create an atmosphere that’s very particular to what it is in it being kind of serene and peaceful,” he explains, giving the audience an opportunity to “really sit back and just let the night transform into what they’re seeing.”
And there is another important ingredient in that transformation: a live orchestra.
The collaboration with the Saskatoon Symphony Orchestra means Leier and the National Ballet dancers will perform alongside live musicians rather than to recorded accompaniment.
For Leier, that makes an enormous difference.
“It’s so much of a major difference when you do versus don’t dance alongside a live orchestra,” he says.
That connection between musicians and dancers will be particularly significant during Atmosphere, where a brand-new orchestral score will come to life alongside choreography that was created specifically for the performance.
“I’m so grateful to the symphony, as well as Paul, for kind of going through this creation process with me,” Leier says. “It’s been quite special making something so specific to something that’s so close to my heart, and making it specifically for this moment has been really, really cool.”
Ultimately, however, Leier believes the reason to experience ballet, or any live performing art, is surprisingly simple. It moves people. There are those moments after a performance when an audience member approaches and explains that something they witnessed changed them.
“That’s when things are really—”
“Powerful?” I suggest.
“Yeah,” Leier replies. “It’s just really special.” Because, he says, “it moves people.”
That fleeting quality is part of what makes live performance so great. The dancers will walk onto the TCU Place stage, the orchestra will begin to play, and for a little while a group of artists and an audience will share something that cannot be completely replicated.
Then it will be gone.
For Leier, though, the moment will carry the weight of everything that came before it: the Saskatoon kid taking hip-hop classes, the reluctant ballet student who didn't want to wear tights, the teenager who eventually left home to pursue dance, and the professional dancer who has now spent years performing on some pretty epic stages.
“I hold Saskatoon very dear to my heart,” he says.
And now he gets to bring a little bit of the world he found back home. For a dancer who once stood on the TCU Place stage as a competition kid, there could hardly be a more fitting return.
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