Choreographer Wil McKnight puts down roots in Fort Worth with his Texas Dance Theatre

By MANUEL MENDOZA / Special Contributor to The Dallas Morning News
Manuel Mendoza is a Dallas freelance writer.

Before settling down in Fort Worth, choreographer Wil McKnight was like a confirmed bachelor who couldn't stop moving from relationship to relationship. Training in New York, San Francisco and Houston. Performing with professional companies in Dallas, Long Island and Colorado.

"I kept going from place to place because I was so curious," McKnight says while preparing for opening night of his contemporary ballet troupe's first season.

His attitude changed during April's debut of the company, Texas Dance Theatre, which he calls "my wedding gig." "I thought, 'I'm marrying this company.' When you get to a certain age, I guess the instinct for stability kicks in."

Friday's program includes McKnight's Eight Lines, ballet mistress Emily Hunter's Marimba x 4, Western Oklahoma Ballet Theatre artistic director Penny Askew's Vigil and a premiere by celebrated Fort Worth choreographer Bruce Wood, A Prayer for Mary Catherine.

"I will support anyone who is making a serious attempt to enlarge our dance repertory and consequently broaden our overall audience and the support that that garners," says Wood, who hadn't made a dance since folding his own company in 2006.

McKnight was born in the small town of Clinton, La., and couldn't wait to get out. He never really wanted to be a dancer. Searching for an acting school for her son, McKnight's mother was advised that ballet would be a good foundation and enrolled him in classes at Baton Rouge Ballet Theatre. He was 10.

"I didn't know what ballet was," McKnight recalls. "They said I refused to wear tights. They had to get these pants for me made of plastic."

A year later, he was discovered at a Boston Ballet audition in New Orleans. By the time he was 15, McKnight was living in New York and attending the prestigious School of American Ballet. But restlessness set in.

He eventually wound up in the dance program at Texas Christian University – for a semester. He never graduated, and started teaching in local studios. Then two years ago, he and a friend formed a company, Push Comes to Shove, which evolved into Texas Dance Theatre.

McKnight is artistic director of the nonprofit company. So far, it is receiving support from the Amon G. Carter Foundation and makes money putting on lecture-demonstrations for the Fort Worth school district. McKnight is shooting for an annual budget of $500,000, similar to what Bruce Wood Dance Company was spending.

It's early, though. TDT rehearses at two different studios, offices at a third location, performs at a fourth. "One day, I'm going to have my own building," McKnight says. "I'm not playing around. I'm in this for the long haul."