Kylie
is a happy woman,
and she has the wit to recognize it.
She is also a beautiful and sensual dancer.
An extremely impulsive person, she says, she got to Seattle on impulse. She’d been thinking of venturing out into new territory, when she met Ty Cheng at a photo shoot in LA, when she was on leave because of back injuries.
Ty’s tales of Seattle, an interesting, artsy city with the amazing Spectrum Dance Theater, intrigued her.
So did he.
They met in October and by January she had packed up the car and moved.
It was hard to leave her whole family in LA,
but she’s never regretted the change.
“It felt right.”
In Seattle, Kylie helped out in the studio in exchange for class at Spectrum for the season. When a dancer sprained a foot and had to back out of a tour to Florida, Kylie was chosen to replace her. It was a kind of one-the-road audition. She fell in love with the intensity of Spectrum, the way you get pushed beyond what you ever thought possible.
Kylie sings too, and at one point took a year off dance to pursue it,
but decided she wasn’t really ready. So back to dancing.
“Go for it!” she thought. “Dance won’t last for ever.”
And the experience helps her singing, which she hasn’t given up.
I hope we can give some of that to the audience. ”
Asked about the disparate backgrounds of the Whim W’Him dancers, Kylie says, “The dancers are all of high caliber in their own field. We feed on each other—the details in the steps, how they are approached. Everyone is open minded.” There are also connections. Dance is a smallish world. Different circles come together.
Kylie trained in pointe shoes, though not a lot. She has done Nutcracker performances in LA, some in honor of her ballet teacher from when she was 8, who had passed away. But the relevé that Donald Byrd uses continually in his work, has given her very strong ankles, which helps a lot.
For more of Kylie’s professional bio,
go to https://www.whimwhim.org