‘I have the urge to dance wherever I am’

Ballet dynamo Kiril Kulish, 14, is ready to make leap to Broadway in ‘Billy Elliot’

By Valerie Scher
CLASSICAL MUSIC CRITIC

May 11, 2008

When Kiril Kulish was 7 years old and a student at Hillcrest’s Champion Academy Ballroom, a teacher there nicknamed him “Billy Elliot” in honor of the ballet-loving boy in the Oscar-nominated 2000 movie.

“I thought, ‘Why is he calling me that?’ ” remembers Kulish, who hadn’t yet seen the English film. “I kept wondering who Billy Elliot was.”

Now, he not only knows all about Billy Elliot, he’s preparing to turn into him.

Kulish, 14, will portray the character in “Billy Elliot: The Musical,” the movie-based show with music by Elton John that opens on Broadway in November. He’ll share the title role with two other teens – David Alvarez, a New York-based native of Montreal (who’s a former San Diegan), and Trent Kowalik, of Wantagh, N.Y., an alum of the musical’s ongoing London production, which opened in 2005.

It’s an attention-getting milestone for Kulish, a prize-winning young ballet and ballroom dancer who was born in San Diego and grew up in University City. While that’s far from Billy Elliot’s home in a strife-torn mining town in northern England, Kulish and his character have much in common.

“I’m like Billy because I have the urge to dance wherever I am,” he recently said at the rented University City apartment he shares with his Ukrainian-born mother, Raisa. “Ballet’s my most important thing. I just love the music and the movement – the jumps, turns, everything.”

His prowess is apparent on youtube.com, which contains clips of him as a 12-year-old in a solo from “Le Corsaire,” complete with graceful leaps and beautifully centered turns. You can also watch him dance a samba with shoulder-swiveling panache.

At 4-feet-11 and 85 pounds, Kulish is a multitalented dynamo who has also appeared in TV commercials. He’s the youngest of three children – brother Victor, 30, is a singer-songwriter and recording engineer; sister Beata, 27, is a TV/film producer as well as her younger brother’s publicist. Their proud father, Phil Axelrod, is an engineer who lives in Oceanside.

An accomplished pianist, Kulish takes lessons from his mother, a private piano teacher and former concert pianist. He began ballet classes when he was almost 6 and ballroom dancing at age 8, winning competitions in both disciplines.

Yet his devotion to ballet prompted ribbing from elementary school classmates.

“I would always get teased – kids would say ballet’s only for girls, which is wrong,” said the star student at San Diego Academy of Ballet. “If you look at professional male dancers, they have to be strong and athletic.”

Between lessons, rehearsals, competitions and performances as far away as Japan, public school proved impractical and Kulish turned to home-schooling from his mother.

He plans to complete his high school requirements next year, when he’s 15. Then, he can fully dedicate himself to a career as a Broadway performer and perhaps someday, as a member of American Ballet Theatre or London’s Royal Ballet.

A casting director for “Billy Elliot” saw him compete last year in New York’s Youth America Grand Prix, where he took top honors. That led to “Billy Elliot” auditions in Los Angeles and New York, with Kulish selected from a nationwide talent pool of about 1,500 boys.

Yesterday, Kulish and his mother left for a month of intensive coaching in London, where he’ll work on mastering Billy’s working-class accent. Then, after a brief return to San Diego, they’ll move to New York in preparation for the opening.

Though Kulish has never taken voice lessons, he can already sing. And he certainly knows how to dance.

“I’m looking forward to being in front of a Broadway audience,” Kulish said with a smile. “I don’t get stage fright, not at all. Performing gives me a lot of electricity and power.”

All of which he’ll use as Billy Elliot.

Boys and Ballet