Alum Kele Roberson returns to the School to share how contemporary dance feeds his creative curiosity
Alum Kele Roberson recently returned to the School on 7 November 2026 to host a contemporary workshop with our Pre-professional students. Kele, who performed in Figures in Extinction with Nederlands Dans Theater (NDT) at Sadler’s Wells earlier this month, taught the students a solo he performs in part three of the show.
Kele also reflected on his dance journey, which began at age 11 back home in the United States.
‘Movement and music were always around me growing up. My dad was a performer, and he was in many on-and-off-Broadway shows. When I was age 11 or 12, he was in the touring production of The Lion King, and I remember the total magic of it, being mesmerised by the show and just wanting to be able to do what I saw. I was also just always dancing around at home, making little dances for myself or my mom and I, creating or choreographing theatrical movement situations – so I guess dance classes felt like a natural progression.’
Born and raised in New York City, Kele later moved to Austin, Texas to begin his formal dance training at Dance Institute Performance Academy and the Austin School for the Performing and Visual Arts, where he studied several dance styles. He accepted a place at The Juilliard School in New York City, but after a mentor suggested he apply for the Summer Intensive course at the School, he was curious to explore a new path across the world. At the summer programme, he was offered a place at Upper School and decided to move to London in 2017, which was a significant transition in his training and lifestyle.
‘It was a big shift to focus exclusively on ballet at a really high level. It was a very challenging environment to step into, and there was definitely a lot of learning to do. There were some growing pains, but I think they were good ones. I had amazing teachers and classmates who helped me a great deal. I learned immensely from everyone I was surrounded by. It was definitely a big shift moving away from home, leaving my mum and making new friends. I also joined in 2nd Year, so a lot of my colleagues already knew each other – I think I was the only new student to join that year. But my frame of mind was to throw myself into the deep end, in a place where I knew I would have to struggle a little bit, in order to grow.
Being able to cross the Bridge of Aspiration and see the Company rehearse and perform so much was definitely incredibly inspiring and propelling for me at the time. It was such a privilege.Thinking of the friends that I made while I was here and the memories of living in the dorms bring an immediate smile to my face. I remember so much of it quite fondly, and some of the bonds made last to this day. Two of my best friends from then are actually in The Royal Ballet now, and I’m still quite close with them.’
Just two months after moving to London, Kele won first place in the School’s Lynn Seymour Award for Expressive Dance in October 2017, marking the first of many successes he achieved as a student. In January 2018, Kele won The Ursula Moreton Choreographic Award for Introspection, which he choreographed with classmate Damen Axtens.
In his Pre-professional Year, Kele self-choreographed a solo titled Start Again for an NDT audition and performed it during the student Solos Evenings in March 2019. Start Again was also selected to be performed on the Royal Opera House’s Main Stage during our 2019 Summer Performance and received critical acclaim. ‘That was a nerve-wracking but quite exciting and special experience,’ he recalled. He joined NDT after graduating that summer.
Kele talked about returning to his multidisciplinary dance roots when he pursued contemporary dance rather than classical ballet in his professional career.
‘My studies before coming to the School were contemporary in their variety, and there was a part of me that missed other influences, or the kind of range in mindset that many styles provided. I also wanted to discover – and perhaps eventually pursue – creating work, to figure out what I wanted to make and how to create it. There were certain choreographers that I also admired and hoped to eventually work with who were more often coming through the doors of contemporary dance companies.
I definitely felt drawn to NDT. It’s a company with dancers and makers that have inspired me for a long time. I felt a pull in that direction to be placed in a new ‘deep end’ of sorts – to learn from and hopefully eventually work with those people. I was also drawn to the element of the unknown in physical research and improvisation – elements that don’t have an established right, wrong or real boundaries – and wanted to explore that further.’
Kele in Start Again during Solos Evenings at the School in 2019.
Kele drew inspiration from artists across classical and contemporary genres as he developed his own performance and choreographic style:
‘While I was at the School, I was so struck by Marianela Núñez. There was something about the way she danced and performed, in her ability to bend time and her quality of transition that I found to be almost “contemporary” in some ways – I feel like it gave me another way into approaching ballet and dance in general that I still carry with me today.
A big highlight of joining NDT was that all these people who you’ve admired from afar suddenly became your colleagues. Getting to work with and learn from people who I’ve always looked up to has been truly special. To be in the same room as William Forsythe is to experience ‘contemporary’ as something that is tangible. Watching him breathe new life into his pieces that are decades old, simply by speaking about them – it’s incredible.’
Working with Crystal Pite has been a huge privilege and honour. It’s a bit of a full circle moment. I first saw her work live at Sadler’s Wells back during my first year at the School, and to be back now, performing her work in the same theatre, is quite a special feeling.
Recently, we also collaborated with Sharon Eyal and her company, SED, that I deeply enjoyed. We expanded a piece that she had already made. It was such a rich sharing experience to learn and experience her language from her own dancers and be part of creating the version of the work as she had intended it to be.
There are choreographers I’ve worked with in a repertory capacity – learning a piece that they’ve already made – but have yet to be part of the making of a new work with them and would love to experience their creative process: William Forsythe, Gabriella Carrizo, Hofesh Schechter and Jermaine Spivey to name a few. There are also creators whose works or processes I have not yet had the chance to encounter at all, and some day really hope to: Pina Bausch, Trisha Brown and Roy Assaf, among others.’
Kele shared advice that he would give his younger self:
‘I think I would give myself more grace, more room for – and maybe even encouragement towards – error. To move forward with less fear. Trying to control things less and care a little bit less about how I’m being perceived.
My relationship to and definition of success has definitely shifted a lot in the last few years. I think I’m realizing it’s about finding what success looks like from the inside-out rather than the other way around, perhaps defining it for oneself in comparison or juxtaposed to any expected external ideas of success. Not to diminish expectation by those around you – I believe external motivation can fuel growth and be a big help in learning what is and isn’t yours when striving for something.
But perhaps it’s the stripping away, sifting down and listening for and to real and driving personal essence that is or paves a way to success. It’s definitely an ongoing process. The attempt of finding what feeds you, committing to seeking what gives a sense of richness and of true internal satisfaction, is an active state. What satiates curiosity and sparks joy, renders a sense of pride, but also peace – that, for me, is success.’
