Classical? Ballroom? Film? This young man aspires to them all, writes Jane Albert.
IT WAS a fear of failure that drove Henry Byalikov to dance. Sydney-born but with Russian heritage, it was customary for Byalikov to spend weekends with his family and friends in Russian restaurants. Vodka aside, when Russians get together there is nothing they love more than to dance. It was at one of these restaurants in Sydney’s Bondi that a young Byalikov found himself being coaxed to get up and dance during a friend’s birthday party. “I didn’t want to, so I lied and said I was sick, and my best friend’s mum told my mum and she asked what was wrong with me. I said I didn’t want to get up and look like an idiot, because I didn’t know how to dance. A week later I began learning ballroom dancing,” Byalikov says with a chuckle.
He may laugh about it today but it was a savvy move by Byalikov’s parents. Fast-track 16 years and that shy, self-conscious boy is gone. In his place is a confident, self-assured and motivated 24-year-old who has capitalised on his ballroom prowess by appearing on television shows such as So You Think You Can Dance and the local and US productions of Dancing with the Stars as well as the stage shows Burn the Floor and Suite Synergy. He recently dipped his toes into the film pool with a dancing role on the upcoming Baz Luhrmann extravaganza, The Great Gatsby.
Byalikov learnt competitive ballroom dancing (both Latin and standard) on and off for a decade, ultimately competing and training abroad, until he grew tired of it and decided to give up competitive dancing to focus on his studies. He was mid-way through a Bachelor of Agricultural Economics at the University of Sydney and had secured a future with accounting firm KPMG when he realised he couldn’t shake a general malaise that had been dogging him since he gave up dance. “I got to a point where I was three-and-a-half years into uni and found myself really depressed,” Byalikov says. “Being sedentary isn’t something I naturally enjoy.”
But it wasn’t until he made it onto the Australian debut of So You Think You Can Dance in 2008 that the realisation dawned: he wanted to spend his life in the performing arts. “It was unbelievable, definitely one of the biggest turning points of my life. Being exposed to this whole world of dance, [not just] the narrow world of ballroom, was so exciting. I began to try other things and wasn’t scared,” he says. He made it to the show’s top eight, making an impression with a memorable African dance sequence choreographed by respected ballroom choreographer Jason Gilkison.
More TV followed, including Nigel Lythgoe’s American dance competition Superstars of Dance and the new local dance outfit Mod Dance Company’s production of Graeme Murphy’s Suite Synergy. That show’s Sydney and Melbourne seasons in 2011 received mixed reviews, but Byalikov was singled out for his “powerful intensity of focus and dramatic use of footwork, upper torso and arms”. Along the way Byalikov has been concentrating on expanding his dance vocab, spending six months learning classical ballet, character and contemporary dance alongside much younger students at Tanya Pearson’s Dance Academy in Sydney and ultimately earning his certificate in RAD intermediate classical ballet. “I loved it!” he says. “Ballet was hard, the hardest dance style of all, the most technical, and I loved it.” Determined to hone his skills as a triple threat he has also been brushing up on his singing and acting skills through various short courses.
In mid-September Byalikov returned to Los Angeles for his second series of Dancing with the Stars, which commands a phenomenal 20 million plus viewers, bringing with it a swag of enthusiastic fans who post breathless messages of support on Byalikov’s website, Facebook page and Twitter, all of which Byalikov personally maintains. “I try to be on top of [social media]. I definitely had a really wonderful response from all the things I’ve done, but particularly the American Dancing with the Stars,” he says. “If you don’t have your own connections you’ve got to go your own way.”
Certainly his most exciting assignment to date has been helping out on the set of Gatsby, a gig he secured through choreographer John “Cha Cha” O’Connell, whom Byalikov met during auditions for the as-yet-uncast 2013 musical King Kong. Impressed with Byalikov’s professionalism and technique, O’Connell invited him to audition for a dancing role in Gatsby, which he duly landed. Byalikov ultimately spent three months on set at Fox studios in Sydney, assisting O’Connell in his work with the film’s leads Carey Mulligan, Leonardo DiCaprio, Tobey Maguire and Australian Joel Edgerton. “I danced with Carey, gave her corrections, danced alongside Tobey or Leo and tried to provide corrections – not too many of course because they didn’t need many,” he says. “There’s a reason why these people are superstars, they do their job so well. I was so honoured to work with Baz, and John. How many people can say they’ve worked with them, in that capacity? That was a complete dream.”
Speaking of dreams, Byalikov admits he has too many to realistically achieve in one lifetime. He would love to join a classical ballet company (his partner Teagan Lowe is guesting in the Australian Ballet’s current season of Swan Lake); he’s relished the film and television work he has done and would welcome the opportunity to move into an acting role; and has set his heart on securing a place in Luhrmann’s 2013 stage adaptation of his film, Strictly Ballroom. “I have a lot of dreams, which is kind of an issue for me, because it’s hard to choose one,” he says.
It’s an impressive number of dreams, to be sure, but certainly better than none.
JANE ALBERT
This article appeared in the Dec 2012/Jan 2013 issue of Dance Australia.