WIM VANLESSEN

If you’ve ever had a favorite performer — whether it’s an actor, singer, or dancer, — you’ll understand that a successful career in the arts can be defined by many things.

The big, breakthrough moment. The illustrious award. The signature role. The critical acclaim. The performance that brings the house down.

Join The TwentyFour Six as we chat with Wim about the pivotal roles that brought him international recognition, what inspires him in the current phase of life, and how he's supporting the next generation of dancers to achieve their dreams.

Wim's charm, charismatic smile, beautiful brown curls, and joy for life are captured perfectly in our collaboration: a unisex bracelet that embodies the spirit of dance.

At a very young age, I was very aware of my body. I wanted to do something with my body, and I started out with gymnastics.

At the age of six is the first time that I went to the theater, and then I got to see those red velvet curtains, the dancers preparing for their performance, and that's the first time that I think I was inspired by dance.

I started to do ballet after gymnastics. It was a ballet school from a college, and it was only men. At the time it might be special that boys were dancing, but for me it has never been special, or that I felt as if I was an exception. That was really nice.

When I was 12 years old, I did the audition for the Royal Ballet School, and luckily, I got in. I moved from Limburg at this very young age, and coming to the ballet school, we were with 14 boys in the class, it really felt like ‘this is it’. I had my friends.

We all shared the same passion, and my lack of concentration in the classroom became my focus point in the ballet class. So I became really focused on becoming a good dancer.

In the beginning years of your career you're hungry for success. You try to build up and to establish yourself in a company, because, you know, there are many dancers.

Then you have the middle section where you're a grown-up man. Physically, you're strong. You have the experience. You can dance beautiful parts.

And then you have the, I call it, ‘the winter of my career’. You're getting older, and the young people come in, but you have the experience. The older you get, you have a certain maturity that you don't have when you're 18. And I'm really happy and lucky that I experienced that stage of my career, because there's a way that you can communicate with your public and I still felt like I had something to offer.

From when I started to dance, and you build up, and you become good at it, and people recognize you for that, and then to say, ‘Okay, now I'm not going to do it anymore.’ It's awkward, and some people have an identity crisis because of that. But for me, I was like, ‘Okay, I've done everything that I could.’ I squeezed the lemon, and I was ready to say goodbye.

And I also think it's nice when you're able to stop and it brings you new opportunities. It's time for your second career, it's time you have to start over. And it's also healthy.

After a few weeks, I realized you need some structure as a human being. I function the best when there is a structure in my life. I started to reconnect with my colleagues. During a career, you meet people from abroad, and I thought, 'Okay, it's time to travel and to let them know that I quit, and that I'm ready for my next career.'

I went to New York, it's a city that inspires me a lot, and there's so much happening with performing arts. So I went to New York for a few months. I reconnected, and I thought I might stay there, but then covid happened.

I came back just before covid, and as I stayed in Belgium I thought about how I was going to reinvent mysel. So sporadically, things came on my path, and I wrote a children's book, I did some TV work, which was always linked to being a dancer. So everything that I did has always been in function of promoting the profession of a dancer.

Yes. During my trips and with my colleagues, Stephen Galloway is an ex dancer from William Forsyth. We realized that we have the same vision of what we like. The way that we experience dance was the same way and the same aesthetic.

We started to get the idea of Time to Dance, but also movement direction, because I love fashion, I love photography, I love aesthetics, I love interior, I love architecture.

So with the movement direction, you combine a little bit of everything. You have fashion, you have dancers or models that have to pose, and they have to move in front of the camera. Sometimes people don't give enough attention to that. You have to make sure the picture is not dead. That there's life, it becomes real. I always say dance is something so universal because it's something for everybody.

It's a language that everybody speaks at the end of the day. I've always danced as a professional dancer, but some people dance in a disco, somepeople dance under the shower, some people dance in the kitchen, you know. It's a nice language. It's a connecting thing.

At this point, it's an ongoing process for me. I'm at a different stage in my life as a dancer. I was very focused. I wanted to dance that role. I went from performance to performance, and it was very easy to go from one target to the other.

When I stopped dancing, I experienced my life completely different. I'm letting things happen in an organic way, and it's new for me. Sometimes it's very uncomfortable because I'm at peace.

What's next? I want to create. I want to produce. I want to go to the next level of my career. But the fact that I have the freedom to let people come to me, and that I can go and connect with other people, it's something that I never had.

This collaboration for example, with you, for me, it's a next step in creating something together with other people. And that's what I like. I want to meet people that inspire me. I want to meet people that are giving me extra fuel to go further. And career wise, dance will always be part of my life. But I think the Time to Dance project, I've done it now in Belgium, I definitely would like to bring it International. Collaborate with other dancers and show the public what the dance world has to offer. That can be from the show, this can be film, can be photography, it can be from the ballet world, to see where I can bring it.

That's a good one. On my day off, I definitely want to have a nice breakfast. I want to go somewhere, have a coffee, maybe eggs and bacon. Do something very chill, and again, meet the people that I want to hang out with. Have a good conversation. Talk about life, the normal things you know. We live in a world where we always feel like we need to build a career, but we sometimes forget the daily life. And for me, reconnecting with my friends and say, ‘Oh my God, this just happened, and last week I was there.’ These kind of conversations are giving me fuel and are also putting me back to Earth and to say, ‘yes, there is a normal life as well.’

So that is something that I really like. And then I think traveling, I think go around, see other cities, see the architecture, see other people. It's inspiring me. I think that's what we need, especially in the world where we live in today, to also enjoy the moment. To say, ‘Listen, this is a moment. This is what I enjoy.’ This is what I want to do, talking with you about my life, about my work, about my career, what inspires you? You putting your life out there. You know, I think that is what brings joy to my life.