The Path to Principal

The career paths of principal dancers at New York City Ballet and American Ballet Theatre

By Ilena Peng

Ballet is not exactly an industry where unconventional career paths are common. Dancers typically start training young — even 13 is considered a late start — and follow a path that looks somewhat like this:

1. Small school: Dancers often start out at their local dance studios and will eventually seek out more opportunities through ballet competitions or at summer programs hosted by more prestigious schools
2. Larger, more prestigious school: Sometimes competitions or summer programs will translate to an offer of full-time study at a larger school, which might be directly affiliated with a company
3. A trainee, second company or apprentice position: Students graduating from a school affiliated with a company might be invited to join one of these programs. Other students might audition or be recruited from competitions. In these positions, dancers are in their final phase of school but begin working in more of a professional capacity (Think “internship,” but for ballet)
4. Corps de ballet member: Dancers are officially part of a professional company and are part of the main ensemble in ballets, though many will also have the opportunity to perform higher-ranked roles
5. Soloist: Soloists will often dance both corps de ballet roles and soloist or principal roles, as the “in-between” position
6. Principal: Those in the highly coveted and respected rank of principal almost always perform lead roles — the absolute dream for many dancers

But different companies still have varied processes. These are the paths that current principal dancers at American Ballet Theatre and New York City Ballet took to arrive at their current position. Both companies are located in New York City and in fact, both share the same home theatre at Lincoln Center. But their dancers have taken somewhat different paths to get there.

Ages at which New York City Ballet’s principal dancers reached each milestone

10

20

Became a principal

All but one principal dancer

attended the School of

American Ballet full-time

Became a soloist

Joined the corps de ballet

Became an apprentice

Principal at another company

Joined a different company

Studied at NYCB's school

Studied at a prestigious school

Started training

Gonzalo Garcia trained at

the San Francisco Ballet

School and eventually

became a principal there

Ages at which New York City Ballet’s principal dancers reached each milestone

10

20

Became a principal

All but one principal dancer

attended the School of

American Ballet full-time

Became a soloist

Joined the corps de ballet

Became an apprentice

Principal at another company

Joined a different company

Studied at NYCB's school

Studied at a prestigious school

Started training

Gonzalo Garcia trained at

the San Francisco Ballet

School and eventually

became a principal there

Ages at which today's NYCB principal dancers

reached each milestone

10

20

Became a principal

Became a soloist

Joined the corps de ballet

Became an apprentice

Principal at another

company

Joined a different

company

Studied at NYCB's

school

Studied at a

prestigious school

Started training

Almost all of NYCB’s dancers join the company through its School of American Ballet. This is largely because NYCB performs using the Balanchine technique, a very specific way of movement created by the company’s co-founder George Balanchine.

As a result, NYCB’s dancers are overwhelmingly American.

Only Gonzalo Garcia, from Spain, began his training oversees. Garcia was later a student at San Francisco Ballet School before joining the company and becoming a principal. He crossed paths with NYCB when he was invited to perform with the company in 2004 and joined as a principal three years later.

(Recently promoted principal Indiana Woodward was born in France, but began her dance training in California).

Most of ABT’s principal dancers never attended ABT’s Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis School, but instead first interacted with ABT through the studio company in their late teenage years. The studio company is meant to bridge the gap between student and professional, and dancers have the opportunity to continue training while also performing in productions alongside the company.

These dancers are sometimes recruited from major competitions, as was the case for principal dancer Joo Won Ahn, who received an invitation to join the studio company after winning the gold medal at Youth America Grand Prix’s New York Finals.

Because of this, ABT has more international diversity than NYCB. Ahn and Hee Seo are from South Korea. Thomas Forster was born in England and completed his training at the esteemed Royal Ballet School before joining ABT. Herman Cornejo was a principal dancer in his native Argentina before joining ABT as a corps de ballet member. Christine Shevchenko began training in Ukraine before moving to train at The Rock School for Dance Education in Philadelphia.

"The name ABT represents America, which is a melting pot,"" Seo said in a 2014 ABT video. "We have dancers from all over the world, from different training, looking different — but we have the energy that brings different trainings, different people together."

The age range at which ABT principals were promoted was also wider. The youngest age at which dancers became principals were similar at both companies — 20 at NYCB and 21 at ABT. But the oldest dancer to be promoted at NYCB was 28, compared to 34 at ABT.

The journey to become a principal dancer is a long and winding one, as pictured here. In other companies, these paths become too complicated to even visualize, as dancers jump between several schools and companies to reach the ultimate goal of being a principal dancer. Even though ballet’s physical demands means that most follow a similar training journey, it is refreshing to see the actual paths of these dancers and delight in their nuances.

• Whiteside and Garcia became principals at these companies despite not having risen through each step of the company’s ranks
• Misty Copeland and Calvin Royal III, both at ABT, began dancing as teenagers
• Thomas Forster became a principal roughly 13 years after he first joined ABT's corps de ballet
• Gillian Murphy danced with Columbia City Ballet before even being in high school
• NYCB’s Tiler Peck and Megan Fairchild, who were both principals at 20 years old, and ABT’s Aran Bell, who was promoted to principal at just 21

Methodological notes