Dancing one of the fairies in The Sleeping Beauty is a highlight in any dancer’s career. But when Staatsballett Berlin artist Leroy Mokgatle debuted as the Fairy of Wisdom last December, she made waves around the world. With her soaring jumps, sensitive phrasing, and captivating charisma, the then first-year corps member announced herself as a star on the rise. Her Fairy of Wisdom performance went viral not only for her artistry but also for her identity as nonbinary.
A dancer of remarkable self-possession, Mokgatle has remained steadfastly true to herself. Throughout her professional life, she has aspired to the full range of ballet repertoire, including female roles and pointe work. Though she is dazzling in neoclassical works—like William Forsythe’s Approximate Sonata 2016 and Blake Works I, two more of her first-season debuts at Staatsballett—earlier in her career, she wasn’t given chances to perform traditionally female classical parts. Now, at 25 and recently promoted to demi-soloist, she has found an artistic home where she feels fully liberated, challenged, and inspired.
Leroy Mokgatle (in pointe shoes) with Shaked Heller in William Forsythe’s Approximate Sonata 2016. Photo by Yan Revazov, courtesy Staatsballett Berlin.
“Never in my life did I think I would be in such a classical-based company, but it was my best decision to come to Berlin,” she says of joining Staatsballett in 2023. “I’m very fortunate to be in a city where people are super-open-minded. When I go onstage, I don’t feel I’m out of place.”
Early Successes
Mokgatle’s innate gifts were obvious as a young, male-gendered dancer in South Africa. He started ballet by accident, at 8 years old—offered a list of activities in grade school, he chose ballet because he didn’t know what it was—and took to it immediately. (Mokgatle uses he/him pronouns when referring to her childhood.) At 14 he won bronze at the 2014 Youth America Grand Prix finals; a year later, he won gold and the Margot Fonteyn Audience Choice award at the 2015 Genée International Ballet Competition.
Leroy Mokgatle and Shaked Heller rehearsing William Forsythe’s Approximate Sonata 2016. Photo by Yan Revazov, courtesy Staatsballett Berlin.
Video of his performance of Solo for Diego at the 2016 Prix de Lausanne, aged just 16, reveals an artist of astonishing musicality and expressiveness, who needs only seasoning to gain control over his powers. At the Prix, Mokgatle earned the Audience Choice Award and a scholarship to the Dutch National Ballet Academy. There, she developed the nuances that now balance her exhilarating jumps and turns.
A Winding Path
Already, though, the ballet landscape was complicated for Mokgatle. “In South Africa, it was very hard for us to look to the future,” she reflects. “At that time, many dancers were trying to get out (of the country) and having to come home; I don’t think people of color were considered in the field.” She also was criticized for being petite—just 5′ 2″ as a teen, she is now 5′ 4 1/2″—and not typically masculine. “Earlier in my training, they didn’t necessarily see my potential,” she recalls. “Always being told you’re too feminine—it was a phrase that kept repeating in my head. I had a lot of self-doubt, being in a classical institution where this is male, this is female.”
Leroy Mokgatle rehearsing William Forsythe’s Approximate Sonata 2016. Photo by Yan Revazov, courtesy Staatsballett Berlin.
To stay the course, Mokgatle drew strength from the extended family who raised Mokgatle from age 7 on, after the death of Mokgatle’s mother. “It was a household full of women, and I have their support all the time,” she says. “It definitely comes from there—being yourself, not regretting, and being unapologetic.”
Mokgatle joined Béjart Ballet Lausanne in 2019. She started practicing pointe technique and learning traditionally female-gendered choreography, but “it was something I was sort of hiding,” she recalls. Gil Roman, the artistic director at the time, took notice, and during the pandemic he cast her in an online revival of La Porte, a solo choreographed by Maurice Béjart for Maïna Gielgud in 1970. After that, “whenever they needed me to fill in on the ladies’ side, they would call on me.”
Leroy Mokgatle in Christian Spuck’s Bovary. Photo by Serghei Gherciu, courtesy Staatsballett Berlin.
Still, Mokgatle wanted a home where she could lead with her authentic self. She contacted Christian Spuck, then artistic director of Zürich Ballet, on social media. “She asked if I would be interested in being in dialog about nonbinary dancers,” recalls Spuck. He invited her for an interview, and “it was a very open conversation about her life, what it means to be nonbinary.” Spuck asked Mokgatle to audition twice—once doing male technique and once performing female technique on pointe. “She blew everybody away,” he says.
In 2022 Spuck gave Mokgatle a contract at Zürich, but she hungered for more classical opportunities. A year later, when Spuck took the helm in BerlinMokgatle was one of several dancers who followed him there.
Freedom and Groove
Prior to joining Staatsballett, “I couldn’t really express my artistry at its fullest in classical ballet, since it’s very gendered,” Mokgatle says. “In contemporary, it was easier for me to tap into that side where I could play around with tempos, sharper movement, or make things more fluid.”
She has continued to explore contemporary ballet at Staatsballett, making even Forsythe’s devilish technical challenges look effortless. “I feel like I don’t have to constrict myself,” she says. “I can extend further, use the full limits of my body. There is so much freedom and so much groove in it.”
Leroy Mokgatle and Shaked Heller rehearsing William Forsythe’s Approximate Sonata 2016. Photo by Yan Revazov, courtesy Staatsballett Berlin.
Mokgatle became close friends with fellow Staatsballett demi-soloist Shaked Heller rehearsing and performing Forsythe’s Approximate Sonata 2016 together. “Her being speaks for itself,” Heller says. “You have incredible, and you have interesting—you put them together, and you get Leroy.”
Spuck and the Staatsballett staff are committed to helping Mokgatle develop her classical technique. “It’s only been a year (at Staatsballett), and it’s insane how much progress I’ve made in pointe shoes,” Mokgatle says. “The ballet masters here really know how to coach.” Her next debut will be in the Swan Lake pas de trois this month.
An Artist Among Artists
Spuck sees limitless horizons for Mokgatle. “Every choreographer who has been here chooses her,” he says. “She makes something new of everything—she finds ways of phrasing, how she works with her partner, that makes it different from other people.” But he is also protective of her humanity. “I want Leroy to get famous for her art and her personality,” he says. “With Leroy, we see how colorful, how positive, how full of energy life can be, and that’s just beautiful. My wish is that the world sees Leroy as Leroy is.”
Leroy Mokgatle with Jan Casier in Nocturne, by Christian Spuck. Photo by Admill Kuyler, courtesy Staatsballett Berlin.
Now that Mokgatle’s faith in herself has come to fruition, she finally feels free to move forward as an artist among artists. “I can dial back and focus on myself the way I’ve wanted to,” she says. “For me, it’s so satisfying to know that I can prove somebody wrong without even saying anything to them. I had a dream, you didn’t believe in it, and I am living it right now.”
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