Profile
Katy Pyle is a choreographer and dancer whose works explore their own complex relationship to ballet.
Pyle graduated summa cum laude from Hollins University with a BA in Multimedia Performance Art in '02, and from the high school conservatory program at North Carolina School of the Arts in '99, majoring in Ballet and Contemporary.
Pyle then moved to New York City and danced in the works of Ivy Baldwin, Faye Driscoll, John Jasperse, Xavier Le Roy, Karinne Keithley, Jennifer Monson, Anna Sperber, Katie Workum, and Young Jean Lee, among many others. Simultaneously, Pyle created their own work alongside collaborators Eleanor Hullihan, Rebecca Brooks and Jules Skloot. Evening length works: “Salute to Ex-Best Friends,”asubtout (Pyle & Eleanor Hullihan), Galapagos, 2005; “The Lady Centaur Show,” asubtout, PS 122, 2007; “THE WAY: You Make Me Feel,” Danspace Project at St. Mark’s Church, 2010; and “COVERS,” The Bushwick Starr, 2012.
In 2011, Pyle founded the Ballez to insert the herstory and lineage of lesbian, queer and transgender people into the ballet canon through the creation of large-scale story ballets, open classes, and public engagement. Major works include “The Firebird, a Ballez,” at Danspace Project in Spring (with a reprise that Fall) 2013, “Variations on Virtuosity, a Gala with the Stars of the Ballez” at American Realness at Abrons Arts Center in January 2015, and “Sleeping Beauty & the Beast,” at La Mama in Spring 2016. Pyle also choreographed “Slavic Goddesses,” at the Kitchen, January 26-28, 2017. "Giselle of Loneliness," Pyle's 3rd story-ballet, premiered June 10, 2021 at The Joyce Theater to a livestream audience.
Ballez Class began at Brooklyn Arts Exchange in 2011, and Pyle has since brought the class to Gibney Dance, Slippery Rock University (Pennsylvania), Stolt Scenkonst and MDT (Stockholm), SCDT (Northampton), LGBTQ Center at BSP (Kingston), Princeton, Yale, Movement Research, Allied Media Conference (Detroit), CounterPULSE (San Francisco), University Musical Society (Ann Arbor), Irreverent Dance (London), Beyond Tolerance Youth Conference (NYC), New York University, Sarah Lawrence College, and Berea College's bell hooks Center.
Pyle has studied ballet with Janet Panetta for a decade and currently teaches technique informed by that lineage, alongside the lens of their own queerness and inclusive politics, at Eugene Lang College at the New School, Marymount Manhattan College, and for professional dancers at Gibney Dance. Pyle has set Ballez work on students through Guest Artist Residencies at Mason Gross at Rutgers, the conservatory at Marymount, Bowdoin College, Whitman College, Eugene Lang and Beloit College.
Pyle has garnered support for the company from the Hodder Fund, United Artists, Foundation for Contemporary Arts, the Jerome Foundation, Mertz Gilmore, Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, Brooklyn Arts Council, Brooklyn Arts Exchange, and over 1000 individual donors. Pyle was a 2013-2015 Artist in Residence at BAX, and has received residencies through Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, Mount Tremper Arts, Rockbridge Artist’s Exchange, the Bushwick Starr, the Dragon’s Egg, Abrons Arts Center, and La Mama, ETC.
Degrees Held
BA Multimedia Performance Art, Hollins University, 2002, summa cum laude
Professional Affiliation
2013-2015 Artist in Residence, Brooklyn Arts Exchange
500 hr RYT
Urban Zen Integrative Therapist
Recent Publications
Vice Magazine: The Future of Ballet is Inclusive and Queer- https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/9kk5k5/the-future-of-ballet-is-inclusive-and-queer
NBC: This LGBTQ Dance Company Wants to Change How We Think About Gender in Ballet: www.nbcnews.com/nightly-news/video/this-lgbtq-dance-company-wants-to-change-how-we-think-about-gender-in-ballet-973261379728
Hyperallergic: The Dances of the Slavic Goddesses: https://hyperallergic.com/355322/the-dances-of-the-slavic-goddesses/
Teen Vogue: How This NYC Dance Troupe Uses Ballet for Queer Activism: http://www.teenvogue.com/story/dance-troupe-ballez-queer-activism
Salon.com: “Here, I feel very alive and like my voice is being heard”: Meet Ballez, a dance company for transgender, lesbian and queer stories" : http://www.salon.com/2016/04/07/here_i_feel_very_alive_and_like_my_voice_is_being_heard_meet_ballez_a_dance_company_for_transgender_lesbian_and_queer_stories/
Performances and Appearances
Ballez-
Paulina Olowska's Slavic Goddesses: The Kitchen, January 26-28, 2017
Sleeping Beauty & the Beast: La Mama ETC, April 29-May 8, 2016
Variations on Virtuosity: American Realness at Abrons Arts Center, January 10-11, 2015
The Firebird, a Ballez: Danspace Project at St. Mark's Church, May 16-18, 2013 and (reprise) October 24-26, 2013
Performance/Collaborative Creation-
Untitled Feminist Show, Young Jean Lee Theater Company, Director/Dance Captain on Tour, 2010-2016
RETROSPECTIVE, Xavier Le Roy: MOMA PS1, Fall 2014
Faye Driscoll: 2006-2013
Ivy Baldwin: 2002-2006
Jennifer Monson/BIRDBRAIN: 2004-2006
John Jasperse: 2003-2005
Research Interests
ballet, queer studies, gender studies
Awards And Honors
Grants:
Jerome Foundation: 2016, 2013
Mertz Gilmore Foundation: 2015, 2016
Brooklyn Arts Council: 2015
Residencies:
La Mama, ETC: 2015-2016
LMCC Process Space at Governor's Island: 2015
Brooklyn Arts Exchange Artist in Residence: 2013-2015
Abrons Arts Center: 2013
Mount Tremper Arts: 2012, 2013
Dragon's Egg: 2010
Portfolio
Ballez
Ballez Videos