Leslie Young
Pre-Professional DivisionLeslie Young began her dance career studying at Ballet Arts, under Lynette Stevens DeFazio and then at the San Francisco Ballet School. In 1985, she joined San Francisco Ballet as an apprentice and that same year, she was awarded the Princess Grace Award. During her tenure with SF Ballet, Ms. Young performed and/or created many roles in works by choreographers including, Julia Adam, George Balanchine, Val Caniparoli, Lew Christensen, Nacho Duato, William Forsythe, James Kudelka, Hans van Manen, Mark Morris, Jerome Robbins, Helgi Tomasson, and Stanton Welch. In 2004 she retired as a soloist with the Company.
Immediately after retiring, Leslie Young was chosen by Helgi Tomasson to create and run the SF Ballet School Trainee Program. Ms. Young also became certified in Benesh Notation, graduating with distinction from the Benesh Institute in London. She has worked as a choreographic assistant and ballet mistress, setting works of Julia Adam, Nicolas Blanc, Val Caniparoli, Tom Ruud and Helgi Tomasson. Outside of San Francisco Ballet, she has also staged works on Pittsburgh Ballet Theater, Nevada Ballet Theater, Texas Ballet Theater, Grand Rapids Ballet, Western Michigan University and Diablo Ballet. Leslie is currently the representative and repetiteur for the works of Lew Christensen.
As a dance educator, Ms. Young has taught master classes, given lectures and has modeled and collaborated on projects including an exercise video for Felissimo (1999) and Ballet for Dummies by Evelyn Cisneros (2003).