Leni Wylliams

Leni Wylliams (born Leonard Morrell Williams, January 15, 1961 – September 13, 1996) was an African-American dancer and choreographer.

Leonard Morrell Williams was born in Denver, Colorado, on January 15, 1961. He later became known as Leni Wylliams. Wylliams was born to Allice Ollie and Harold Williams Jr. He had three sisters: Kimberly, Dana, and Rebecca.

He graduated in 1979 from Thomas Jefferson High School (Denver).

Wylliams began to pursue dance training at the Denver-based school of Cleo Parker Robinson during his early teens and subsequently advanced to performing in her company – Cleo Parker Robinson Dance Ensemble – until 1982 when at the invitation of Eleo Pomare, he moved to New York City to appear with Eleo Pomare Dance Company. Ultimately, Pomare set all of his solos on Wylliams - entrusting Wylliams to dance all of the roles he - Pomare - had created and performed for himself.

Wylliams also danced in the companies of José Limón, Pina Bausch, Paul Sanasardo, Donald Byrd, Fred Benjamin, and Rod Rodgers, as well as with Netherlands Danse Theatre and Forces of Nature Dance Theatre Company.

Wylliams choreographed for ballet and modern dance companies around the world. Among dances he choreographed are Ascension, Baharini, Evidence of Souls Not Seen, In the Rain, Minus Him, Quiet City, Shah Tah Tee and Sweet In The Morning. Wylliams taught in Russia, East Germany, Asia, and throughout the United States. He, too, was a visiting professor of dance at the University of Missouri-Kansas City's Conservatory of Music.

In Boston during the late 1980s, Wylliams was interim-artistic-director of the Danny Sloan Dance Company; was founding artistic director of Wyll Danse Theatre; collaborated with acclaimed television producer Barbara Barrow-Murray; appeared 1989 with Sarah Caldwell’s Opera Company of Boston [OCB]; was assistant choreographer to renown-Broadway-choreographer Patricia Birch for the OCB’s 1989 staging of Leonard Bernstein's Mass, as well as for a 1989 OCB engagement at the Bolshoi in Moscow.

Wylliams was assistant choreographer for Martin, a ballet tribute to Martin Luther King Jr. with music and libretto by Gordon Parks which premiered in Washington, D.C. during 1989 and was screened on national television on King's birthday in 1990. Wylliams, too, assisted Carmen de Lavallade in choreographing the Metropolitan Opera’s 1990 staging of Porgy and Bess .