Brett Leigh

As a ballet instructor, I thrive on passing down knowledge from the Royal Ballet curriculum and guiding students to becoming professional working artists.  

Brett Leigh joined the Conservatory in 2024 and teaches in the ballet program, focusing on the anatomy of the body, technical precision, and alignment. He builds his class based on Royal Ballet curriculum and French styles.   

Leigh began his career studying ballet, barre technique, and technical precision under the Royal Ballet curriculum by Wayne Stewarte. He also studied alongside Stephanie Moy of the Boston Ballet before leaving for the international Broadway tour of West Side Story. He played Action and then Riff for a period of seven years in major opera houses around the world. While performing on tour, he honed his voice and ballet technique, studying in Tokyo, Singapore, China, Europe, New York City, and Los Angeles.  

While performing abroad, Leigh returned to the states to work with director David Fincher in the Academy Award–winning films The Social Network and Gone Girl, playing small speaking roles in these films. He then costarred on The Young and the Restless and I-Carly, and played a supporting role in The Spirit of Christmas on Netflix.   

In between these roles, Leigh wrote and directed his first feature film, Festival, which won several awards in Boston, Switzerland, and France, and was available on Amazon for rental. He also wrote and directed a film entitled Shadow, which premiered at the Guggenheim Museum in New York City for the exhibit White Box. His other films, centering around dance, have garnered attention at the ECU in Paris, France, where he now sits on the jury of the short films department.    

Leigh continued his dance career across the United States, playing the Jury in Chicago, Mungojerrie in Cats, Dream Curly in Oklahoma!, and both Bobby and Mike in several different productions of A Chorus Line. He is a member of both Actors’ Equity Association and the Screen Actors Guild. He is currently working on two feature films, The Nutcracker and Giselle.

Awards and Recognition

• Guggenheim Museum, White Box showcasing filmmaker, Shadow
• Best Director, AIFF 
• ScreenCraft quarterfinalist, Giselle, 2022
• Audience Choice Award, Lucerne International Film Festival, Festival

Recent Notable Work

•  The Nutcracker (pre-production), writer/director
• Giselle (pre-production), writer/director