From Ballet to the Big Screen

A Journey of Movement and Meaning with luke willis

In this candid and inspiring Q&A, former San Francisco Ballet dancer-turned-filmmaker Luke Willis shares his extraordinary journey from center stage to behind the camera. Read on to discover how ballet—and his collaboration with Lady Camden—shaped Lady Like, a documentary that celebrates resilience, identity, and the power of transformation.

Tell us a bit about your time at SF Ballet:

Luke Willis: I joined SF Ballet in 2007 during the 75th anniversary season. It felt like such an exciting and eventful year. That was the season of a highly anticipated New Works Festival, the year Great Performances filmed Helgi’s new Nutcracker, the North American tour to several major US cities, and the publishing of a commemorative hard cover book on the 75-year history of San Francisco Ballet. It was a thrilling season. I danced with SF Ballet for the next seven years and savored every second of it. I couldn’t imagine anything more inspiring than starting each day in a sun filled room taking class among 70-80 of the most accomplished and most stunningly beautiful dancers in the world. 

I’m from Central Pennsylvania Youth Ballet, the legendary school that gave us Tina and Sherri LeBlanc, Vanessa Zahorian, Kristin Long, Zachary Hench, Madison Keesler, Julia Rowe, Jeremy Rucker and myself. However, I made sure to take full advantage of having an incredible SF Ballet School just one floor below me every day. On slower rehearsal days or in pockets of down time I could be often spotted sneaking into classes with Parrish Maynard or Patrick Armand. A dancer is never done learning and growing. That pursuit of perfection and constant process of achieving alchemy is the thing that makes me love ballet.

Shannon Marie Rugani and Luke Willis rehearse Neumeier’s *The Little Mermaid.* (© Erik Tomasson)

what were your next steps after retiring from the stage?

Well, I should start by pointing out that I had a very unconventional path to ballet. I grew up in a town in the Deep South without much exposure to dance or ballet as a professional pursuit, so instead I was pursuing acting, writing and directing at a local performing arts high school as a teenager. It was when I moved to Boston to attend the acting conservatory at Boston University that I was first exposed to the ballet at Boston Ballet, where I remember watching current SF Ballet School faculty member Larissa Ponomarenko for the first time. It was a near religious experience. I started to go to every ballet I could, and a perfect storm ensued that led me to leave BU for Central Pennsylvania Youth Ballet. Twelve years later I was standing on the other end of a completely unexpected life as a professional ballet dancer yearning to return to my other great passion of writing and directing.

In 2013, as an experiment, I made my first short film during our seasonal layoff. That re-lit the old flame for me and sealed my resolve that the timing was right to move back to writing and directing full-time. I applied to a handful of schools with Helgi’s help and I got into most of them. I chose University of Southern California (USC), because it’s the best and after a life dancing for SFB one comes to enjoy being a part of the “best”. 

San Francisco Ballet in Tomasson’s *Trio* // © Erik Tomasson

How did your career at SF Ballet prepare you for USC School of cinematic arts?

I could wax on for days – anyone who has ever taken a ballet class with me can confirm how ballet is about so much more than technique, athleticism, coordination, music, characters, expression, and what not. It is at its core about pursuing the unattainable, perfection. To start every day at the very beginning, first position, again and again with a goal of deepening and growing yourself into the artform is a journey that teaches us about life and the more universal process of taking on any seemingly unachievable task. Ever hear the saying “how do you east an elephant?” “One step at a time.”? Well, that is ballet. How do you become great at ballet? One tendu at a time. 

Dancers always go on to do incredible things. It is in our DNA to excel. We can’t help it. 

I think many specific skill sets overlap between ballet and filmmaking. I don’t want to be pedantic about it, so I’ll give you a little story about my first semester at film school. USC film school sorts students into trios every semester and we then make 3 films while all cycling through various key roles. On my first assignment was “Editor” of one of these short films. After completing the final cut, the student who was directing the short film took it to the composer- someone I had never met. The composer, who didn’t know me or my background, watched the film – a story about a magician – and turned to the director to say, “Wow, this reminds me of a ballet.” That moment was so meaningful to me. It felt like all the different facets of my creative life – ballet, film, and storytelling – were coming together and shaping my new voice as a filmmaker.

How did your film Lady Like come about?

I first fell in love with Lady Camden before there was any hint of RuPaul’s Drag Race. I met her at a friend’s show that I think was somehow facilitated by Myles Thatcher (that’s a longer story about a delayed flight to JFK, a bloody mary, and an annual science conference). I  was immediately captivated by Lady Camden without putting it together that she was Rex Wheeler one of the new dancers at Smuin Ballet. I immediately knew I wanted to collaborate on something, so we connected and started brainstorming some silly campy fun projects. We did a few small things just for fun, with no intention of anyone seeing them.

Film Stills (courtesy of Attic Box Productions)

Then the pandemic hit. After a couple months we had lost touch, and completely out of the blue, Lady Camden called me to share the exciting news that she had made it onto RuPaul’s Drag Race. I wasn’t surprised – her talent was undeniable. We brainstormed and came up with six short films to highlight key runway looks and challenges from her season. Unlike other queens, who typically do photo shoots for each episode, we wanted to create short films that brought characters, stories, and worlds to life that gave Camden’s moments on the show deeper meaning.

One of the films, I Don’t Need a Reason, was a ballet pas de deux choreographed by Myles Thatcher which premiered on Nowness. It became the platform’s most-watched film of 2022. During the interview with Rex for that project, I was struck by the parallels between his story and my own – how ballet and the arts provided an escape from difficult circumstances growing up. It was then that I realized I should follow Rex’s journey more closely, exploring how his story would unfold from a dancer to an internationally recognized drag queen. This sparked the creation of Lady Like, a project that would document his transformation and his confrontation of the dark past that drove him to the fantasy of the performing arts as a kid.

What is the message of the film?

There are a few messages found within Lady Like and I love hearing all the things people have taken from it. For me it is about resilience and perseverance. Life can be tough but all the blows we take and how we handle them set us up to be the charismatic, uniquely nervy talented queens we are meant to be. It’s at its core a love letter to our younger selves to say keep going, keep fighting, keep being you. 

What advice would you give aspiring filmmakers?

Most importantly I would say, “Live!” Professional pursuits, career advancement, and building a resume are all achievable at any time (more so for filmmakers of course). However, your voice as an artist is shaped by life experience. It is through life’s experiences that your stories emerge, and those experiences aren’t found within the confines of the studio or industry. They are found in life – through love, travel, heartbreak, volunteering, and stepping into the unexpected. If there’s something you’ve always thought, “I’ll do that one day,” take action today! Because without your own personal stories, how can you expect to authentically tell the stories of others?