Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Leigh Purtill. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Hi Leigh, thanks for joining us today. How did you get your first job in the field that you practice in today?

When I graduated from college, I moved back to my hometown and hoped to buy a local dance studio that a woman I knew was selling. Unfortunately it didn’t work out and I ended up asking the woman who did purchase it for a job. At the time I had been teaching jazz to children and teens so naturally I applied to be a jazz instructor. My interview consisted of me teaching a jazz class to the new owner. She was very well-known in our area, having owned a popular dance school in a nearby town for over twenty years. It was more than a little intimidating to teach her a class!

Nevertheless, I did my best and at the end, she looked at me and said she wanted to hire me but there was a catch.

“You’re going to be my ballet instructor.”

What?! No way! I was not a ballet dancer and only took ballet classes because i was considered a foundational genre (this is not true, of course, but for years and certainly when I was initially training, this was the prevailing practice). I could even recall running out of a class in college in tears because I felt so uncomfortable in class.

However, I really wanted to teach. So I said yes. I basically retrained myself as a ballet dancer: I went back to class and I studied and I found that, when I was focused on what was necessary to teach ballet, it was a lot more enjoyable. It didn’t take long for me to completely reinvent myself as a ballet dancer (although I still love jazz).

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

I have been a ballet instructor in the Los Angeles area since 2007 but long before that I danced and taught on the east coast: in Connecticut, Boston and New York City. I’ve always loved teaching and using dance to tell stories (I am also a published author of four young adult novels with Penguin Random House and HarperCollins) but it wasn’t until 2017 that I decided to form a 501(c)(3) non profit adult ballet company of my own to create a full length version of my zombie ballet, “Sweet Sorrow.” A sequel to “Romeo & Juliet,” it was based on a novel I wrote that was never published. To this day, I think it would make an amazing novel but now I would want to rewrite it to base it on my ballet!

The concept behind zombie ballet is to make dance accessible to anyone. Most of the well-known story ballets are not of particular interest to a broad audience and many people think of ballet as an exclusive art form. I don’t agree: I think ballet should be open and available to anyone, whether they are in my class, on my stage or in my audience. The more people who see what my company is doing, the more we will spread the message of “Ballet for Everyone” which is my company’s mission statement.

The company has expanded far beyond that one ballet and far beyond the confines of Los Angeles. I have dancers in Canada and across the United States! We are a hybrid ballet company and have remote members who participate as well.

Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?

Pivoting is a key dance term! We pivot all the time. I would have to point to the pandemic as a major shift in my mindset. Suddenly I went from teaching and rehearsing in person to doing everything online. The day after I shut the studio classes, I began doing live YouTube classes. Although I couldn’t see my students, they communicated in the chat: with me and with each other. It was a terrific way to maintain the community connection.

I taught a live class on YouTube every single day for 5 months. Every day. Once I learned about Zoom, I moved classes to Zoom and then I could actually see my students. I also rehearsed on Zoom! That was a major turning point. I could record myself doing the choreography, send it to my company dancers and then watch them rehearse in their living rooms! It was amazing. Suddenly I had a remote dance company! I had always wanted to have students in other parts of the country but I had no idea how to do it. The pandemic taught me how. I still teach hybrid classes and have remote dancers all over.

How’d you build such a strong reputation within your market?

I have been very consistent in my messaging: I believe ballet should be available to all and I encourage everyone. I think I’m respectful of my students and I ask others to be respectful of each other. We are all on a different journey but we all love ballet. We each have a different reason to love this art form but that is our commonality. Especially with adult ballet dancers who are brand new: they all have had lives before they came into the studio and we need to respect that and appreciate it. I ask each new student what brought them to class because it helps me understand what their journey could be. I also want to be able to help them achieve their goals and the only way to do that is by listening mindfully.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.leighpurtillballet.com
• Instagram: @leighpurtill
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LeighPurtillBallet/
• Linkedin: @LeighPurtill
• Youtube: @LeighPurtillBallet

Image Credits
Vic Mendoza, Katie Ging, Rawl Paredes, Kathleen Lantos