Gilles Delellio, from Brussels, Belgium, is a professional dancer with The Washington Ballet. Prior to becoming an apprentice with TWB, he was a part of the trainee program and the studio company of The Washington Ballet. Gilles is also a talented photographer, who uses his skilled eye to take beautiful dance photos; follow him on Instagram @gdelellio.pic
1. To get off to an unconventional start, please write a haiku about anything that comes to mind at the moment. The weirder, funnier, or more random the better!
Dinosaurs are weird Me, looking out the window With me and myself
2. How did you get into dancing?
I wanted to do hip-hop, so my mum took me to a dance school. When I went to see the hip-hop classes, I passed by tap dance class, which got me wondering if I could do that as well. My mum told me that if I wanted, we could come back later and look into the tap dancing. Afterwards, we did go to that tap dance class, and I was so thrilled to try it! My mum asked if I wanted to see ballet too, since it was open, but I refused because I thought ballet was only for girls. So, I began with tap dance and hip-hop at the age of 9. I did start wondering what ballet was, and at the age of 10, I started taking ballet for an hour a week. I really began loving it and started doing more hours of ballet per week the following year, while continuing to tap dance on the side for two more years. I was accepted to the Royal Ballet School of Antwerp in Belgium and spent two years there, before going back to a small school in order to compete in some big ballet competitions all around the world. At one of these competitions in Bulgaria, I received a scholarship to be a trainee at The Washington Ballet. As soon as I got the award, I packed up all my stuff and moved to Washington, D.C. After dancing in the trainee program and the studio company at The Washington Ballet, I became an apprentice in the main company.
3. Did dancing help you through anything difficult in your life?
It helped me a lot in difficult times when I had to leave my family to go to America. It was hard, but ballet just made me forget everything that was difficult and get through it. Being alone without your family around isn’t easy but doing what you love makes everything easier.
4. What adversities have you had to overcome to continue pursuing your profession?
Keep pushing. At first, in my academic school, my friends weren’t understanding of the fact that I was doing ballet, and I lost a lot of friends because of it. Now, being in the dance world is much easier, but it’s still hard sometimes because ballet is such a hard discipline. The key to persevering is to keep pushing and to get inspired by the best dancers in the world.
5. In your time as a dancer, what’s the craziest thing you’ve ever had to do?
The craziest thing that I had to do was go straight to a performance after a 4-hour long flight because the flight got delayed. I was traveling from Brussels to Italy, with a connection in France. We were supposed to take off in the plane around 12 pm, but the flight got delayed to 3 pm; the show was at 7 pm. Luckily, I knew everything that I had to do on stage. All the steps were in my body, and we had already worked on the pas de deux I was dancing before leaving Belgium. My dance partner was also in the plane with me, so we were both trying to focus and be as professional as we could. It was really stressful, but also a very good experience to have to relax and try to focus as much as possible for the performance!
6. What would you say to someone who is hesitant to go see a ballet performance?
To be honest, watching a ballet could help you think differently. It’s really nice to see how people onstage are reacting, acting, and getting emotional. It’s like watching a movie live!
7. If you had a slogan what would it be?
Art is Infinity. It’s my activity.
Responses edited by Adelaide Clauss
Dancers Are 