Betsy McBride

Photo: Jiyan Dai.

Betsy McBride is originally from Coppell, Texas.  She began her training at the Ballet Academy of Texas.  At age 14, she continued her training at Texas Ballet Theater’s School. She performed Clara in The Nutcracker with Texas Ballet Theater and joined the company under O.B.E. Ben Stevenson at age 15.

McBride was an American Ballet Theatre National Training Scholar and performed in George Balanchine’s Mozartiana during ABT’s tour of Texas at age 11.  She was awarded the Grand Prix at the 2007 Youth American Grand Prix Regional Competition and was a finalist at the 2012 Helsinki International Ballet Competition.

McBride danced for Texas Ballet Theater from 2007 to 2015, rising through the ranks to principal dancer.  Her principal roles included Ben Stevenson’s Romeo and Juliet, Swan Lake, The Sleeping Beauty, Cinderella, and The Nutcracker, Ronald Hynd’s The Merry Widow, Svetlana in Stevenson’s Dracula, Green Lady and Solveig in Stevenson’s Peer Gynt, Waltz Girl and Dark Angel in George Balanchine’s Serenade, Solo Girl in Balanchine’s Rubies, pas de trois in Glen Tetley’s Voluntaries, and Stevenson’s Sylvia Pas de Deux, as well as roles in Jiří Kylián’s Petite Mort, Val Caniparoli’s Lambarena, Jonathan Watkin’s Crash, Stevenson’s Five Poem, and Kenneth MacMillan’s Gloria.

McBride joined American Ballet Theatre as a member of the corps de ballet in June 2015 and was promoted to Soloist in September 2022. Her repertoire with the Company includes a Flower Girl and the Lead Gypsy in Don Quixote, Helena in The Dream, the peasant pas de deux in Giselle, Let Me Sing Forevermore, Rosaura in Like Water for Chocolate, Columbine and one of the Nutcracker’s Sisters in Alexei Ratmansky’s The Nutcracker, Rosaline and a Harlot in Romeo and Juliet, Snow and The Rose in The Seasons, Fairy Fleur de farine (Wheat flower), Fairy Miettes qui tombent (Breadcrumb), Silver Fairy, and Red Riding Hood in Ratmansky’s The Sleeping Beauty, the pas de trois, a little swan, the Hungarian Princess, and Lead Czardas in Swan Lake, a leading role in Symphonic Variations, and featured roles in AfterEffect, Bernstein in a Bubble, The Brahms-Haydn Variations, Deuce Coupe, Dream within a Dream (deferred), Petite Mort, Songs of Bukovina, and A Time There Was. She created a featured role in Indestructible Light.