ABT announces major promotions!

Promotions have been announced today at American Ballet Theatre! Stella Abrera and Misty Copeland have been promoted to the rank of Principal Dancer and Skylar Brandt, Thomas Forster, Luciana Paris, Arron Scott and Cassandra Trenary have been promoted to Soloists. Maria Kochetkova and Alban Lendorf also join the company as Principal Dancers, and ABT welcomes Jeffrey Cirio as a Soloist.

The stunning Stella Abrera has been a Soloist with the company since 2001 and has created the roles of His Memory and His Experiences in HereAfter, the Spanish Dance in Alexei Ratmansky’s The Nutcracker, the Fairy Violente (Temperament) in Ratmansky’s The Sleeping Beauty, His Mistress in Weren’t We Fools? and leading roles in Pièce d’Occasion with Herbie Hancock, Pretty Good Year and Seven Sonatas. After a total of 19 seasons with the company (she joined the corps in 1996), she reaches the top rank! She will next perform in Cinderella at tomorrow’s matinee and this weekend on July 4.

Misty Copeland’s promotion comes after much anticipation! With this promotion, she becomes the first African American woman to reach the company’s top rank – a major milestone in a world of predominately white swans! This award-winning ballerina was a late bloomer, only beginning ballet lessons at the age of 13. Since then, she has worked hard to make it, eventually gaining scholarships to prestigious schools and then a spot in ABT’s Studio Company in September 2000. After joining the main company as a member of the corps de ballet in April 2001, she was later appointed a Soloist in August 2007. Copeland has performed many noteworthy roles and has even created the roles of the Fairy Fleur de farine (Wheat flower) in Ratmansky’s The Sleeping Beauty and leading roles in C. to C. (Close to Chuck), Dumbarton, Glow – Stop, One of Three and With a Chance of Rain. She recently debuted as Odette/Odile in ABT’s Swan Lake.

Until now Maria Kochetkova has only been a Guest Artist at ABT, dancing fulltime at San Francisco Ballet since 2007 as a Principal Dancer. She also regularly performs as a guest artist with the Bolshoi and Stanislavsky Theaters in Moscow, the Mariinsky and Mikhailovsky Theaters in St. Petersburg and the Tokyo Ballet in Japan.

Alban Lendorf, who also joins the company as a Principal Dancer, was a Principal with The Royal Danish Ballet. Born in Copenhagen, Denmark in 1989, he has recently been a guest artist with the English National Ballet as of May 2014.

Jeffrey Cirio, on the other hand, comes from another prestigious American ballet company – Boston Ballet, where he has been performing since 2009. An award-winning dancer, he was named a Principal at Boston Ballet in 2012. A Princess Grace Fellowship recipient, he has also recently taken the dive into choreography, creating works for numerous competitions and for Boston Ballet II, the Boston Ballet Ball and Ballet Academy East. He joins ABT as a Soloist.