Meet Charlie Bartley of The Bartley Bros.

Today we’d like to introduce you to Charlie Bartley.

Charlie, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
Started dancing officially when I was 7, although I’d argue I was a dancer at heart way before that. Literally wore out the rug in living room before Mum offered a selection of Tap, Ballet or Jazz to get me out of the house and into a proper studio. I picked Tap. Loved watching the Tap Dogs and Riverdance but after peeking my head into the other studios at my school, I branched out into almost every style.

I would dance 5-6 days after school until the end of my school years where I built up the courage to tell my parents that I wanted to move on to further training, we call it Full-Time in Australia, but it’s pretty much the same as a scholarship year in LA. My family and extended family are very academic, not one artist amongst them, at least 70 percent are lawyers. My parents were very supportive but had no idea where to start. Neither did I.

I moved to Sydney, living in a boarding house with 20 other guys from rural areas. That was definitely a character building experience, I’m an introvert at heart so finding quiet time was not always easy. I danced Monday through Friday and whenever I could after the official day had ended. This was whilst managing a couple of shifts at a DVD rental store nearby. At the end of that year, I landed a huge break.

Little did I know I was scouted as a potential So You Think You Can Dance contestant in Australia’s second season. I put in the hard yards auditioning, making sure I kept up with their expectations but ultimately landed in the Top 20 in 2009.

I went on to become runner-up or as I like to call it ‘Australias favourite male dancer’. I was beaten by a loveable ballerina. Sometimes I think it was a blessing not to be offered that title so young. It fuelled a fire within me for years to come and I was blessed to work with pretty much all of the working choreographers in Australia on SYTYCD.

After the show wrapped those connections came in handy. I booked FAME the Musical Tour that same year and started working commercially a lot. My career really started to build.

For the years after that a friend of mine from the show became a successful music artist and I toured with him. Worked on The Great Gatsby by Baz Luhrmann, scored another musical King Kong and danced on all the Aussie versions of your favourite reality shows. The Voice, X Factor, Australia’s Got Talent and more.

It was in 2015 that things took a left turn. I was working on Dirty Dancing the Musical and one Sunday matinee threw my left shoulder out of its socket. I did it two more times after that over the coming months but I had not idea the damage was already done. I remember the moment the doctor told me I needed surgery. It’s not a fun thing to hear. Nine months was the recovery time for a shoulder surgery like that.

Not ten days later, I was in the operating room, I moved home with my arm in a sling for six weeks. Mum had to help me butter my toast. It took just under nine months over grueling rehab to be able to get complete motion back. That was a far cry from when the sling came off and my muscles had atrophied so much I couldn’t lift it higher than my belly button.

It was during that time I realized I should be really chasing what I want because it can be taken away without notice. So I put in the motions to organize a visa for the US. Everyone has a different experience with this. Some whip it all together easily, have great connections and resources. Mine took longer. I spent months over in LA taking class trying to build enough reports with people just to ask for help.

It wasn’t until Kenny Wormald came to Australia that it all fell into place. I call it serendipity. I used to watch him on Youtube when Youtube was just a new thing. Those videos of him in 360p I watch hundreds of times.

When all of that came together, I moved to LA. Mattress on the floor, two suitcases with my entire life belongings I didn’t really know where to start. Kenny to the rescue again. He dragged me into the Playground to assistant and mess about with steps. Thats how I ended up subbing my first Beg/Int Hip Hop class there.

My first class had two people. Count em two! Every week though as the class developed and the PGLA grew I would get more and more eventually building to capacity at about 80 people at times. Even while doing all of this, I was out auditioning and hustling like everyone in LA.

Halfway through 2018, I auditioned for Usher. He was looking for new recruits. I got cut. They offered to bring people in for training opportunities which I was more than happy to snatch up. I went in and worked hard and eventually they offered me a spot on the job. For the next 18 months, I worked in that camp, it was one of the toughest and greatest experiences I have ever had.

Before this pandemic started I was gearing up to lead the boys in the Australian tour of Magic Mike Live. It’s postponed for now, but that’ll be my next big adventure. After that, you’ll find me back around the LA streets.

Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
I don’t feel like it’s ever easy for any artist. My shoulder surgery in 2015 put me in a predicament. Nine months of recovery really forced me to think about what my goals and values are not just as a dancer but personally as well. I remember asking myself ‘do I do this because I’ve got some talent, or do I really love doing this?’ The fact that I’m still going today should tell you the answer to that…. and I love it more than ever.

There was a time I had been offered my dream job and then I walked into what should’ve been rehearsals on the first day to find an impromptu audition had been set up. I ended up being let go that first day, cause I wasn’t the right height.

Moving across the world is a rough experience too. It teaches you to grow and mature like no other experience. Even though the US has some similarities to Australia, there are many differences. The dance culture in LA is dog eat dog sometimes and it can mess with your self-confidence. Smart and resilient people make the best dancers because they approach difficulty in adaptable ways. Everyone feels the pinch when you get through to the end of auditions and then never hear anything more. When that happens again and again, you have to find a way to roll with the punches or you’ll find yourself drifting.

The Bartley Bros. – what should we know? What do you do best? What sets you apart from the competition?
The Bartley Bros. is a newly formed creative duo which involves myself and my brother Anthony. He’s younger but he’s bigger than me. So I can’t talk smack, although I still try. We specialize in creative direction and dance education.

Our ability to work together stems from years of supporting each other. We understand how each of us ticks creatively. We meld perfectly to help create an awesome aesthetic for whatever project we’re on from stage to screen and everything in between.

We like to accommodate for new age, cool, indie crowd but have the range to go wherever the creative brief needs.

We are proud that we can offer our knowledge an expertise across the board. Two brains are better than one, but being brothers we already have that bond which act likes a storage cloud of creativity. That sort of connection is only built with family.

What moment in your career do you look back most fondly on?
The proudest moment of my career is performing on stage for Usher at RNB Fridays festival in 2018. It toured Australia in the summer and the biggest show was in Sydney for over 50,000 people. Five of them being my family. It’s such a vivid memory and those really clear memories are because of how emotionally impacting it was.

It was also a culmination of everything I had been through to get there. Not just rehearsals for the six weeks prior but the years of struggle and challenges that built to that moment.

Contact Info:

• Email: [email protected]
• Instagram: @charlie_bartley @thebartleybros @anthonybartley

Image Credit:
BeMore Media

Suggest a story: VoyageLA is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you or someone you know deserves recognition please let us know here.