Performance Garage presents Charles Askegard’s Live, Life, Love

From dancer to choreographer

Askegard started his climb in the dance world at the school of Minnesota Dance Theater, founded by Loyce Houlton. “She studied in New York with George Balanchine and Martha Graham,” he told me, which gave him a strong background in modern and neoclassical ballet. Summer intensive classes had him on the move from coast to coast from the age of 12, and by 18, he had found a home at American Ballet Theater. There he grew into the great leading roles, like Siegfried, in Swan Lake, and Romeo in Romeo and Juliet, he honed his skills in male technical dancing, “the pyrotechnical things, like the turns, the jumps, the partnering.” But he was dying to dance the Balanchine repertoire at New York City Ballet. Famed choreographer “Jerry Robbins was still alive,” he said. So he made the leap.

New York City Ballet gave him speed, quickness, and articulation, and it took his partnering to a whole new level. It was all about the details: “Just the way that you took the woman’s wrist, and you held up the woman with your middle finger and your thumb, not your hand. And that was like, wow. It was just understanding the dance in a whole new way.”

Coming to Philadelphia

A dancing career doesn’t last forever, but after a brief foray with his own company, Askegard’s journey made rehearsal director for the Philadelphia Ballet the perfect next step. The company was founded on the Balanchine technique, and new artistic director Angel Corella was adding more of the classic story ballets both men had danced at ABT. They were at different points in their careers then, but Askegard made his own contribution to Corella’s first bravura performance. “It was his first show with the company and he did like a thousand pirouettes, and his shoe just exploded. So I stuffed the leather back in as best I could, grabbed some duct tape and pushed him back out on stage!” Later, Askegard was a guest dancer in Corella’s company in Spain.

Throughout his career as a dancer and a rehearsal director, however, Askegard has choreographed, creating his first piece 20 years ago. He guest teaches at Ballet Academy East in New York, where he created a new piece, On Parade, in February 2026. It was during a class at the school that he landed his strangest gig of all, though: casting directors were looking for some dancers and a ballet teacher for a scene in a movie. (They found out later that it was for John Wick III.) “I was in the studio, so they said, do you want to do it? I said sure, I’d love to.” Alas, his own scenes landed on the cutting room floor, though a little bit of his choreography remained. And, he says, he now has a movie credit in the John Wick universe!

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