Leandra Ellis-Gaston: Skillfully transitioning from Beautiful to Tina

AMDA College of the Performing Arts is home to many outstanding artists in every field of the entertainment industry, such as Leandra Ellis-Gaston, the dance captain for Beautiful: The Carole King Musical. Through her performance in Beautiful, she has proven to be a showstopper.

In an interview, Ellis-Gaston shares that she graduated on a Saturday, moved to New York on Tuesday, and by Thursday, booked her first national tour with Hair. And she hasn’t slowed down since. Ellis-Gaston is a skillful mover whose responsibility in Beautiful was to maintain the choreography of the show as the choreographer intended it to be. To do that, she must watch the show four times a week. For Ellis-Gaston, it’s difficult to see her job as something static and lifeless.

An avid believer in the idea that all skin is beautiful skin, Ellis-Gaston says that if one feels different, they must know that different is good. She approaches her new responsibility with the same kind of enthusiasm, having landed a role in Tina: The Tina Turner Musical. Her positive attitude toward hard work speaks of her mastery in her skill.

When asked about the future, she gleefully quotes theatre legend Andre De Shields: “The top of the mountain is the bottom of another, so keep climbing.” Ellis-Gaston is climbing another mountain with her role in Tina. There she shares the stage with another AMDA alumna, Adrienne Warren.AMDA College of the Performing Arts develops industry professionals who don’t just wait for life to happen — they create their own career paths. AMDA graduates take to the world’s stages, film sets and movie screens changing the way the world thinks about performing arts in the 21st century. For more on AMDA’s programs and alumni, visit this page.