Leni Wylliams

Leni Wylliams (born Leonard Morrell Williams; January 15, 1961 – September 13, 1996) was an African-American dancer and choreographer.

Early life and education Leni Wylliams (né Leonard Morrell Williams) was born January 15, 1961 in Denver, Colorado, to Allice Williams and Harold Williams, Jr. His three sisters were Kimberly, Dana, and Rebecca.

Career Wylliams began to pursue dance training at the Denver-based school of Cleo Parker Robinson during his early teens and subsequently advanced to performing in her company – Cleo Parker Robinson Dance Ensemble – until 1982 when at the invitation of Eleo Pomare, he moved to New York City to appear with Eleo Pomare Dance Company. Ultimately, Pomare set all of his solos on Wylliams - entrusting Wylliams to dance all of the roles he - Pomare - had created and performed for himself.

Wylliams choreographed for ballet and modern dance companies around the world. Among dances he choreographed are Ascension, Baharini, Evidence of Souls Not Seen, In the Rain, Minus Him, Quiet City, Shah Tah Tee and Sweet In The Morning. Wylliams taught in Russia, East Germany, Asia, and throughout the United States. He, too, was a visiting professor of dance at the University of Missouri-Kansas City's Conservatory of Music.

Wylliams was assistant choreographer for Martin, a ballet tribute to Martin Luther King Jr. with music and libretto by Gordon Parks, which premiered in Washington, D.C. during 1989 and was screened on national television on King's birthday in 1990. Wylliams also assisted Carmen de Lavallade in choreographing the Metropolitan Opera's 1990 staging of Porgy and Bess . Wednesday, July 3 at the 1996 National Black Arts Festival [NBAF] in Atlanta, GA. That signature solo danced by Wylliams was shown along with a select array of presentations by other NBAF performance artists in a televised documentary of the festival - Ark of the Spirit - with Avery Brooks Wylliams was lauded by Kansas City Star classical-music-editor Scott Cantrell as having danced with “the quality of radium” and moving “with power and fine-tuned precision, but also with a riveting ecstasy”.

The November 1983 performance by Wylliams as "Profit Jones" in Eleo Pomare's Radiance of the Dark during Eleo Pomare Dance Company's 25th anniversary season was reported in a New York Times review as being “show stopping”. A May 1985 NY Times review of dances presented by José Limón Dance Company's Clay Taliaferro cites "the impressive Leni Wylliams". During Fred Benjamin Dance Company's twentieth year celebration in 1989, Wylliams danced the solo Illuminations which Benjamin remarked "just about stopped the show!"

As an instructor, Wyllliams was praised as having the ability to inspire dancers to believe in themselves – to believe the impossible was possible. Summertime Award presented by Coquitlam District Music Festival, Port Coquitlam, BC, Canada : A glass memorial trophy with a willow tree etched into it - inscribed "In memory of Leni Wylliams, an adjudicator, that had soul, artistry, and the incredible ability to make young dancers believe in themselves" - presented with a small bursary during Honour Performance at the end of each Coquitlam District Music Festival.

Wylliams/Henry Danse Theatre The company built by co-artistic directors Leni Wylliams and Mary Pat Henry has been considered an influential contributor to the development of dance in the Midwestern United States. Wylliams/Henry Contemporary Dance Company (formerly Wylliams/Henry Danse Theatre) maintains a repertory of more than 100 works. and for presenting works drawn from a rich archive of American modern dance traditions. The company's repertory contains not only their own works, but also dances by a range of choreographers.