When I think about why I asked Brandon Avery to be part of Ballet Unboxed, I keep returning to what I experienced in his Hips and Heels intensive at the end of 2023. Yes, the physicality was there: the technique, the execution, the rigor. But Brandon also took the time to verbally and emotionally process what he was expecting of the room and of himself. There were moments where he had us look at ourselves in the mirror and say, "yes, I am sexy, yes, I am beautiful." I felt enormous amounts of anxiety. And I went home that day and thought about why that was so uncomfortable. I came back the next day and felt a little sexier.

The care, the willingness to tend to how people are feeling, not just how they are moving, is something I did not grow up with in a ballet studio. I want to say that perhaps I leaned into that even more so in my own teaching practice because of my experience with Brandon. I am genuinely interested in how the people taking class from me are feeling, because that is going to affect how they are in their bodies.

Brandon kicked of Ballet Unboxed in 2024, and what he brought confirmed everything I already knew. His two classes were led with so much care and most importantly, joy! I sat down with him recently to talk about his reflections from that experience, his relationship with ballet, and what he is bringing to Ballet Unboxed 2026. I am so grateful to have him back!!

Objective Positivity

When I asked Brandon to reflect on the first Ballet Unboxed workshops, he spoke about being more intentional with his language. Even as a teacher who is known as a safe space, he wanted to be more deliberate in how he talked about functional movement and where movement is felt in the body. But the conversation quickly moved toward something deeper: a concept he has been developing that he calls "objective positivity."

Brandon distinguishes this from toxic positivity, which he describes as "throwing words to the wind just to create an air of happiness, but not a true space and environment that continues in joy and truth." Objective positivity starts from a different place. He offers the example of a dancer who keeps receiving the feedback that their details are missing. The instinct is to fixate on what is wrong: "I never get the details; I need to do better." But Brandon asks, “what is working?”

It identifies that there's something right with you, so that we're not focusing on what's wrong with us and how to fix it, but more so realizing this is where my power lies.

If that dancer recognizes that their power lives in connection and performance, that they are willing to sacrifice specificity if it costs them connection to the audience, then the work becomes different. It is not about fixing a deficit. It is about understanding where you live as a mover and sharpening the details so that your connection becomes stronger and clearer.

Brandon applies this directly to ballet. There are so many details — the physics, the artistry. But if you truly love the movement, he says, start there.

Live there and use the details to further the connection that you have with the music, with the storyline, with the people who are coming to observe.

Technique Is Culture

A question I have been asking myself, not just in performance but in teaching is, what is technique? I often see technique and artistry treated as separate things. But something I felt in Brandon's classes, whether he was naming it explicitly or not, is that you cannot have one without the other.

Brandon traces this back to the origins. We tend to attribute the word "technique" to the Eurocentric movements and, in doing so, disconnect it from the culture it came from. He points to the Pas de Basque — literally, the step of the Basque people.

Pas de Basque is the step of the Basque people, who were not in the courts. They were not kicking it with King Henry.

Before institutionalization shaped ballet into what we know it is now, these movements belonged to the people. Brandon sees this same principle across dance forms. He talks about breaking down Caribbean dancehall movement in his classes — the undulation of the hip, how it generates from the body in the same way that a tendu uses the inner thigh as the impetus of rotation. The cultural aspect and the technical aspect are one, because culture is what drives the movement.

There couldn't be robotics to ballet because it originally came from the people.

For Brandon, artistry is not technique plus performance. It is the decision-making inside both, the real understanding of choice. The choice to use a technique, the choice to connect and perform. That is where artistry lives.

Going Steady

I asked Brandon about his current relationship with ballet. He did not hesitate: "I am in love with it. We're going steady for sure."

Brandon is in his fifth season with Hiplet, currently the only full-time male dancer. He has been dancing for over twenty years across forms — jazz, modern, Chicago-style hip hop, yoga, bachata — but he started training in ballet seriously around age 25. That makes him about eleven years into a dedicated ballet regimen. He is deliberate about not hierarchizing ballet above or below his other practices. Putting it above would be contradictory to his personal culture. Putting it below would be contradictory to who he has become.

At 36, the questions at the forefront are personal. What does he have left to give? He knows that standardly, this is the retirement point for many dancers. But his trajectory was not standard.

My age tells me this is it, but my mind and my heart are just like — wait, I still got my splits. Wait, I just understood the tilt. I am now really understanding the Balanchine hand.

There is humor in it, and there is also a real negotiation with the body. Brandon talks about liberties and respect — how to honor the wisdom of 36 years in this body while receiving instruction, while pushing technically. He asks himself: "where have I been taking liberties, and to whom is that a disrespect?" Not just to the teacher or the form, but to himself. The body will remind you, he says. That is the disrespect you need to listen to.

In a recent class he took, there was a focused moment on Balanchine's technique of spotting front during turns that travel on the diagonal — maintaining connection with the audience rather than looking toward where you are going. It is difficult. But Brandon watched his castmates do it and saw how beautiful it is, precisely because it requires you to feel rather than think your way through the movement.

I'm looking towards the people I'm sharing the journey with.

You Don't Come Down

For his upcoming Ballet Unboxed workshops, Brandon is bringing back the floor barre — or barre par terre. These are exercises traditionally done at the barre, adapted to the floor to engage and activate the muscles needed for ballet without relying on the barre itself. Brandon credits this practice to his mentors Homer Hans Bryant and Joel Hall, both masters in creating floor barre work in their own way.

In the context of Ballet Unboxed, the floor barre carries particular significance. When we think about classicism, we want to address what it means to do ballet in spaces that do not have barres, or do not have correct barres — the floor barre answers a practical question: how do I prepare myself effectively so I can perform functionally?

Brandon is also introducing a ten-minute heels barre exercise he has been developing. He is passionate about this because he sees too many heels classes where people receive movement with no preparation — and no framework to understand why or how they are doing what they are doing. The relationship between training on pointe and training in heels is closer than most people realize, but with one crucial difference:

At least with pointe work, you will come down. But if you're in the heel, baby, you don't come down. You are in that three-quarter relevé. Your arch is pressed.

The heels barre is not about being showy. It is about sustaining yourself for the work.

It is to make sure that you're prepared. And that you are comfortable in your preparedness.

From and to the People

When I asked Brandon about the future of ballet, he spoke with clarity. He sees ballet demonstrating African aesthetics, carrying influences from Indian culture, Latin culture— all the cultures in ways that go beyond what has historically been represented on stage. He names Hiplet, Ballethnic, and AMA Ballet as examples of what is already emerging, driven by a desire that he articulates simply:

There's this desire for seeing a world that involves us, not just uses us.

Dance, Brandon believes, is always from and to the people. No matter how much it is given to the upper class, no matter how much it is institutionalized, ballet will stay alive because of the people who are in it. The future he envisions is one where the cultural backgrounds of those dancers are not just present in the room but visible on the stage.

Join Brandon at Visceral

Brandon is returning to Visceral Dance Center for two Elevéted Ballet workshops as part of Ballet Unboxed 2026. As he puts it: "If it can be done flat, it can be done elevated."

Each session runs 7:30 to 9:30pm and is completely free:

• Wednesday, May 21
• Wednesday, May 28

The class structure moves from floor barre to center work to heels phrasework. Brandon is big on building community in his classes. He teaches from a place of love, joy, and staying curious about oneself. He encourages you to come as you are, no matter where you are.

If you are going to come, come to both. In Brandon's words: "If you're going to come to one, it's going to feel cute. But I don't know how much you're going to retain in one, so come to both."

We hope to see you there!