Gemma Bond

Photo: Jade Young.

Born in Bedfordshire, England, Gemma Bond trained with Sylvia Bebbs and at The Royal Ballet School. In 2000, she danced Zulme in Giselle in the school’s annual performance.

Bond joined The Royal Ballet in 2000 and was promoted to first artist in 2003. Her repertory included Olga in Onegin, Princess Stephanie in Mayerling, Clara in The Nutcracker, the Fairy of the Song Bird in The Sleeping Beauty, a cygnet in Swan Lake, Marie in Anastasia, and a sylphide in La Sylphide.  She created a role in Poppy Ben David’s Siren Song (2000), which was part of The Royal Ballet’s “The New Works.”

Bond joined American Ballet Theatre as a member of the corps de ballet in January 2008.  Her repertory with the Company include a Porcelain Princess in Aurora’s Wedding, Galya in The Bright Stream, Step-Sister and Spring Fairy in Cinderella, Mazurka Lady in Coppélia, an Odalisque in Le Corsaire, Amour in Don Quixote, Helena in The Dream, Mrs. Fairfax in Jane Eyre, Vera in A Month in the Country, the Chinese Dance in Alexei Ratmansky’s The Nutcracker, Olga in Onegin, Sergei’s Mother in On the Dnipro, the Fairy of Charity in The Sleeping Beauty, Miettes qui tombent (Breadcrumb) and the Sapphire Fairy in Ratmansky’s The Sleeping Beauty, a little swan and the Italian Princess in Swan Lake, Effie in La Sylphide, and roles in Black Tuesday, The Brahms-Haydn Variations, Company B, Drink to Me Only With Thine Eyes, Dumbarton, and In the Upper Room.

She created Columbine in Ratmansky’s The Nutcracker, Cinderella in Ratmansky’s The Sleeping Beauty, a leading role in Liam Scarlett’s With a Chance of Rain, and featured roles in After You and Everything Doesn’t Happen at Once.

Bond got her first taste of choreography at age 13 when she competed in The Royal Ballet’s Kenneth MacMillan Emerging Choreographer. Since 2010, she has created three new ballets for ABT’s choreographic workshop, ABT Incubator, as well as works for ABT Studio Company, Atlanta Ballet, New York Theater Ballet, Intermezzo Ballet Company, the Hartt School, the Joyce Theater, Ballet Sun Valley, and the Washington Ballet. Her choreography has been performed at the prestigious Erik Bruhn Competition, the Youth America Grand Prix Gala, the 92nd Street Y, The Joyce, Jacob’s Pillow, and she has worked on commercial projects with 1stAveMachine.

Bond has received grants from the Virginia B. Toulmin Foundation and in 2014 was awarded the fellowship grant from the New York Choreographic Institute, an affiliate of New York City Ballet. Bond was a 2017-2018 New York City Center Choreography Fellow, the recipient of a 2017 Princess Grace Choreography Fellowship, and the winner of the 2018 Clive Barnes Award for Choreography.

For American Ballet Theatre, Bond has created Depuis le Jour (Competition for the Erik Bruhn Prize, 2012), A Time There Was (2019), Convivium (2020), and La Boutique (2024).