Leni Wylliams

[11] Among dances he choreographed are Ascension, Baharini,[12][13] Evidence of Souls Not Seen, In the Rain, Minus Him, Quiet City, Shah Tah Tee and Sweet In The Morning.

During 1992, Wylliams choreographed, in collaboration with Heather White, what was to become his signature solo - Sweet In The Mornimg - with vocals by Bobby McFerrin.

[5] Wylliams performed his Sweet In The Morning during Dance “Masters Night” (curated by Dianne McIntyre)[8][9][10] Wednesday, July 3 at the 1996 National Black Arts Festival [NBAF] in Atlanta, GA. That signature solo danced by Wylliams was shown along with a select array of presentations by other NBAF performance artists in a televised documentary of the festival - Ark of the Spirit - with Avery Brooks[16][8][9][10] produced by Turner Broadcasting System.

[16] The morning of Friday, September 13, 1996, Wylliams was found murdered – bludgeoned, doused with a flammable substance, and set on fire – inside the bedroom of his Kansas City home.

[2] On September 17, 1996, suspect Timothy O. Evans - 26 years old - was apprehended and charged with first-degree murder and armed criminal action.

[7] Wylliams was lauded by Kansas City Star classical-music-editor Scott Cantrell as having danced with “the quality of radium” and moving “with power and fine-tuned precision, but also with a riveting ecstasy”.

[8][9][10] While creating choreography, Wylliams was seen being “almost trance-like” as though “he had a channel to The Devine” with material pouring out “fast and so furiously” generating “beautiful ballets in a short period of time”.

At question-and-answer sessions following end-of-residencies performances during which Wylliams “wowed” student audiences, he was often begged to sing Summertime, as he had so often done while he taught.

The company's repertory[26] - ranging from the lyric to the avant garde - contains not only their own works, but dances by an array of internationally acclaimed choreographers.