A truly creative soul lives to take part in their craft. It’s the engine that propels them and gives them purpose. Australian dancer Kahlia Greksa provides continual evidence of this. You’ve seen her in Oscar-winning feature films like The Great Gatsby and Moulin Rouge as well as those of Bollywood. You’ll also glimpse her in videos as with Kahlia’s performance in The Veronica’s “You Ruin Me” Music Video. Whether the production is hours long or minutes long, starring the biggest names in Hollywood or the most exciting musical duos, there’s something special about Greksa’s graceful movements that cause these artists to enlist her. The path of dance is one Kahlia has been on for some time and the level of success she is achieving indicates that this will continue for much longer. Australia, Europe, India, Hollywood; everyone seems to beckon her to display her talents for the betterment of their creations.
Kahlia Greksa and her sister Karinna Greksa are two of Australia’s leading dancers. Working on an award-winning music video for The Veronicas (“You Ruin Me won the ARIA Music Award for Best Video) gave Kahlia a chance to repeat the experience of working with one of her favorite choreographers. She relates, “Caitlin Gray contacted my agent directly. We had worked together previously on The Great Gatsby [Oscar-winning film starring Leonardo DiCaprio in which Kahlia was a featured dancer in three major scenes] after party and red carpet event. Caitlin loved my work ethic, versatility, and technique which was very much needed for this particular job.”
Directed by Matt Sharp and Tapehead, “You Ruin Me”, the visuals of this music video are inspired by Darren Aronofskyy’s 2010 film Black Swan. Kahlia was cast as a Ballerina Dancer rehearsing and taking class in a ballet studio as well as dancing around The Veronicas in additional scenes. The sad feelings and darkness of the song are emoted through her dance movements. Greksa describes the intuitive nature of this for her relating, “The routine was a classical ballet piece. It’s a style of dance I usually find it easiest to emote feelings. I was able to use personal past experiences where I have been sad, felt lonely, or vulnerable and was able to use that to emote my feelings through my body and dance. Being sad makes your body move in a different way; it creates a heaviness to the body and a sense of helplessness. I portrayed this through movements that are resisting. It almost ends up feeling like I’m trying to move through jelly.”
In addition to being awarded Best Video at the Aria awards (Australia’s version of the Grammys), “You Ruin Me’ was nominated for the ARIA Music Award for Song of the Year. Music videos were created to be an extension of the songs they represent while adding their own creative complement to the music. With views numbering in the tens of millions now, “You Ruin Me” has proven to be the ideal congruent artistic statement to this deeply somber and introspective song. For her part, Kahlia Greksa gives every performance her deepest efforts. She states, “As a dancer you perform in all kinds of different mediums including stage, theatre, and television. I have danced alongside Olivia Newtown-John at the AACTA awards (the Australian Oscars), at the Helpmann awards with Hugh Jackman, and next to Leonardo DiCaprio in The Great Gatsby; they’ve all been special and so was my experience on ‘You Ruin Me.’ Because The Veronicas are twins like my sister and I, this may have been even extra special to me.”