Katie Kelley is a storyteller, but instead of words she uses movement. There are many things that Kelley loves about ballet, but her favorite is the chance to portray a character and connect with an audience through dance. While ballet showcases the grace and physicality of the dancers, ultimately, when done right, it is about telling a story.
Kelley started dancing at age 4. Like most children, she started with the combo classes where she would get to try a bit of everything. While she had fun with all her classes, ballet was always her favorite. She connected with it differently than other forms of dance. By age 9, she made the choice to focus on classical ballet.
Her focus paid off, and by 13 she was studying at Elite Classical Coaching in Dallas, Texas, under founder Catherine Lewellen. “She helped lay the foundation of my technique while fostering the love of ballet,” Kelley said. Elite Classical Coaching helped Kelley appreciate the discipline that was required to achieve the artistry she yearned for.
Kelley’s drive and focus earned her numerous awards and scholarships, and she also had the chance to study at many prestigious institutions, including the Bolshoi Ballet Academy’s summer intensive in New York City, The Royal Ballet School in Covent Garden, London, Ballet West Academy and Oklahoma City Ballet’s Yvonne Chouteau School.
When Kelley was 18, she moved from Dallas to Oklahoma City when she was accepted as a trainee in the Oklahoma City Ballet. Two years later, she was promoted to their second company, which functions as a bridge between a school and a company. They would have their own performances and do outreach yet still have the opportunity to take classes with the main company and perform corps roles — as opposed to leading roles — to gain experience.
Now, at 22, Kelley is moving beyond trainee or second company to an apprentice contract with Ballet Texas. Her dedication to her craft has earned her a spot within the main company of a professional ballet, and her 9-year-old dreams are coming true.
It hasn’t always been easy, but some of the things others might view as sacrifices were obvious choices for Kelley. For instance, she completed her junior and senior years of high school online so she could focus on training. She didn’t have the typical high school experience many people enjoy, but Kelley has no regrets; she would have much rather been in the studio or on the stage than at the prom or a football game.
In addition to dedicating her time to her studies, Kelley also must stay in peak physical condition. She is always training and cross-training.
“You have to push your body to the limit while still taking care of your body and not hurting yourself,” Kelley said. “It is a difficult thing to learn and to control. I have to put my body to extreme lengths to be able to perform at a high level.”
While this is a challenge, it is also one of the things Kelley appreciates about ballet.
“I very much like the technique and how specific it is when you’re driving for perfection and how, within those parameters, you can expand on artistry while still staying true to classical technique,” she said.
The physicality of the technique, which is meant to look effortless, allows the artistry to shine through.
“The whole goal is to hide the effort and make everything seem easy, even when you feel like you’re going to die,” Kelley said.
Once the effort is hidden, though, Kelley gets to revel in her greatest joy: storytelling. She loves fully immersing herself in her characters.
“Every ballet is choreographed with an intention of a story behind it. The steps aren’t there to be like, ‘Oh! Look at this really cool thing I can do. Or look at this really neat trick,’” Kelley said. “It is thinking about what is behind those steps. As a specific character you aren’t going to do something that the character wouldn’t do. There is so much intention that goes into ballet from both the choreographer and the dancers that are performing it.”
One of Kelley’s favorite storytelling experiences so far was her role of “Snake” in “Spider Brings Fire,” the first Chickasaw ballet, composed by Jerod Impichcha'achaaha' Tate and choreographed by Racheal Nye. She had the chance to perform the role at the Five Moons Festival at the University of Oklahoma. During the premiere hosted at the First Americans Museum, she performed as water, which was a corps role. This was a transformational experience for Kelley as she was able to bring the arts and her Chickasaw heritage together.
As she was growing up, her father, Tom Kelley, who is a Chickasaw citizen, would always tell her that her Chickasaw heritage was a part of who she was, but she didn’t know that much about it; she wasn’t raised with the stories or the culture. However, when she moved to Oklahoma, she saw an opportunity to learn more about her heritage. She started asking her aunt and uncle more about her family. She started to hear the stories and learn more about Chickasaw culture for herself.
When she started working on “Spider Brings Fire,” though, it opened Chickasaw culture to her in a substantial way.
“It was such a cool opportunity to bring both the arts and Chickasaw heritage together and bring an important part of culture to life,” Kelley said.
In addition to the experience of dancing in the first Chickasaw ballet, Kelley also learned more about Chickasaw culture and heritage by working with Tate, who introduced her to other types of Chickasaw artists and culture.
“It was great getting to share so much with someone who did have more of that connection to the culture,” she said. “I was welcomed in and was able to learn more about where I come from.”
A little girl’s love of ballet has taken her on a journey she could never have expected — and it is a journey that is just beginning. Through her hard work and dedication, Kelley earned a spot in a professional ballet company as well as bringing her closer to her own Chickasaw culture and heritage, as she develops her own form of storytelling.