An Interview with Ballet Hispanico Dancer Nicholas Villeneuve

Yesterday afternoon, I had the pleasure of interviewing veteran Ballet Hispanico Dancer Nicholas Villeneuve.

Mr. Villeneuve was born in Montreal and raised in Jamaica. He has studied at the Alvin Ailey school and Juillard. He has worked with master choreographers such as Agnes de Mille and has performed with celebrities like Patti Labelle. Mr. Villeneuve has made several appearances on Broadway, including Toronto's production of The Lion King. Currently in his fifth season with Ballet Hispanico not only is Mr. Villeneuve an established dancer he's also a choreographer and teacher.

I was fortunate enough to get a-last-minute telephone interview with the dancer from his hotel. Here are some are the responses I received...

• How did you become involved in dance?
• I was born in Montreal and raised in Jamaica. I was apprenticing with a local dance company in Jamaica and I went on a trip to New York, with the company, and got lost trying to find the train and found the Juilliard School. I filled out an application and eventually auditioned and got in on a scholarship.

• Where you dancing before then?
• No, I was a musical theatre major. I was asked to join the company because they recognized my potential as a dancer. They were more of a folkloric dance company.

• What do you most enjoy about dance?
• Across-the-board, what I like about dance is the fact that it’s not like a regular job. It allows me to be creative and expressive, allows me to share my talent to the rest of the world. It allows me to travel and learn about new cultures.

• What styles/genres of dance are you trained in?
• Ballet, Modern and Jazz

• What’s your favorite style and why?
• Modern because it draws in all the elements of ballet and jazz, its more expressive and allows you to have more of an abstract expression.

• Can you describe what it was like attending the Alvin Ailey School & Julliard?
• I was very intimidated because it was one of the very first dance schools I attended. I knew at the time I was lacking in technique but the Ailey school prepared me for Juilliard and when I arrived to Juilliard I was still intimidated but was a better dancer.

• You were dance captain/swing for Toronto’s production of the Lion King, What did that involve? How did you get that position?
• I was required to teach all the male parts on the show, I worked as a stand in when someone was sick, injured or went on vacation. I was also required to send weekly reports to Disney telling them how the show was going. I also ran rehearsals. I auditioned for the position.

• How long have you been teaching dance?
• I started teaching dance once I left college, I’ve been teaching since 2001.

• How long have you been choreographing dances? How many works would you say you’ve produced? Could you please describe the process involved in choreographing? What types of things inspire you?
• I started choreographing in 2000; I’ve been doing it for about 10 years. I’ve produced 12 ballets. The process varies... it depends ... sometimes I’ll go into the studio and make a movement phrase then the rest of the work will come, or I’ll be inspired by a song and try to come up with several movements, or it could be story driven where I’m inspired by a common story and I’ll want to tell that story through movement, then I put the phrases together in the studio with dancers. It takes about 2-3 weeks to come up with a 20-25 minute performance

• How did you get started with Ballet Hispanico?
• After I finished up with Lion King the former Artistic Director, Tina Ramirez, invited me to join in 2005

• Could you please describe a typical day working with Ballet Hispanico?
• We start the day off at 10am we hold ballet technique class until 11:15, we have a break, and then at 11:30 we hold rehearsal until 6 with 5 min breaks after every hour. We rehearse all repertory that’s going to be on the tour or that we’re going to be doing in the fall.

• What advice do you have for aspiring dancers?
• Take class everyday, work hard, never give up, it’s about perseverance and dedication.

• If you were not a dancer, choreographer and teacher what other profession would you like to try? Why?
• I would want to be a pilot, I’m interested in aviation I think its quite amazing. I would like to add that I’m working on getting my private pilots license.

• If you could address Detroit audiences what would you say?
• I would like to say that our Artistic Director, Eduardo Vilaro, has put together an eclectic group of dancers and that they should come out and see us and be inspired.

You can learn more about Nicholas Villeneuve and the other dancers of Ballet Hispanico by following this link Dancers' Biographies.