Hee Seo

Photo: Gene Schiavone.

Born in Seoul, South Korea, Hee Seo began her ballet training in her hometown at the Sun-hwa Arts Middle School.  She was awarded a three-year full scholarship to continue her training at the Universal Ballet Academy in Washington, D. C.  In 2003, Seo won a scholarship to train at the John Cranko Ballet Academy in Stuttgart.  She is the recipient of the 2003 Prix de Lausanne Award and the 2003 Grand Prix at the Youth American Grand Prix in New York.

Seo joined ABT Studio Company in 2004, became an apprentice with the main Company in May 2005, and joined the corps de ballet in March 2006.  She was promoted to Soloist in August 2010 and to Principal Dancer in July 2012. Her repertoire with the Company includes Terpsichore and Polyhymnia in Apollo, Nikiya, Gamzatti, a Lead D’Jampe, and a Shade in La Bayadère, Cinderella in Frederick Ashton’s Cinderella, Twig in James Kudelka’s Cinderella, Prayer in Coppélia, Medora in Le Corsaire, Kitri, Mercedes, the Dryad Queen, and a flower girl in Don Quixote, The Dying Swan, Glove Seller in Gaîté Parisienne, Giselle and Zulma in Giselle, Queen of Shemakahn in the Golden Cockerel, Pierrette in Alexei Ratmansky’s Harlequinade, Caroline in Jardin aux Lilas, Olympia in Lady of the Camellias, Blanche Ingram in Jane Eyre, the title role in Manon, Natalia Petrovna in A Month in the Country, Clara, the Princess and one of the Nutcracker’s Sisters in Ratmansky’s The Nutcracker, Callirhoe in Of Love and Rage, Tatiana in Onegin, Natalia in On the Dnieper, Other Dances, The Siren in Prodigal Son, Juliet in Romeo and Juliet, The Spirit of the Corn in The Seasons, Princess Aurora, the Lilac Fairy, the Fairy of Sincerity, and Princess Florine in The Sleeping Beauty, Princess Aurora in Ratmansky’s The Sleeping Beauty, Odette-Odile, the pas de trois, the Polish Princess, and a big swan in Swan Lake, the Sylph in La Sylphide, Prelude in Les Sylphides, Sylvia and Ceres in Sylvia, Thaïs Pas de Deux, Princess Tea Flower in Whipped Cream, leading roles in The Brahms-Haydn Variations, Chamber Symphony, Dark Elegies, The Leaves Are Fading, Monotones II, Mozartiana, Raymonda Divertissements, Seven Sonatas, Serenade after Plato’s Symposium, Thirteen Diversions, A Time There Was, and Valse Fantaisie, and featured roles in Ballo della Regina, Birthday Offering, Drink to Me Only With Thine Eyes, Duets, From Here On Out, Overgrown Path, and Sinfonietta.  She created Frost in The Seasons and leading roles in AFTERITE, Garden Blue, I Feel The Earth Move, and With a Chance of Rain.

Seo has appeared as a guest artist with the Mariinsky Ballet dancing the title role in Giselle and Princess Aurora in The Sleeping Beauty.

ABT is grateful to Vicki and Lloyd Goldman for supporting the Dancer Fund in honor of Hee Seo.