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The Company

Isabella Boylston

Sun Valley, Idaho

Joined ABT 2006 / Principal since 2014

Biography

Photo: Renata Pavam.

Born in Sun Valley, Idaho, Isabella Boylston began dancing at the age of three. While training at the Academy of Colorado Ballet, she won the gold medal in 2001 at the Youth America Grand Prix Finals in New York City. In 2002, she began training at the Harid Conservatory in Boca Raton, Florida, on a full scholarship.

Boylston joined ABT Studio Company in 2005, the main Company as an apprentice in May 2006, and the corps de ballet in March 2007. She was promoted to Soloist in June 2011 and to Principal Dancer in August 2014.

Her repertory with the Company includes Nikiya and Gamzatti in La Bayadère, the Ballerina in The Bright Stream, Fairy Godmother and the Fairy Summer in Frederick Ashton’s Cinderella, Moss in James Kudelka’s Cinderella, Aurora in Coppélia, Gulnare and an Odalisque in Le Corsaire, Chloe in Daphnis and Chloe, Kitri and a flower girl in Don Quixote, the second girl in Fancy Free, Lise in La Fille mal gardée, the title role in Alexei Ratmansky’s Firebird, Giselle, the peasant pas de deux, and Moyna in Giselle, the title role in Jane Eyre, Manon and Lescaut’s Mistress in Manon, Clara the Princess in The Nutcracker, Olga in OneginOther Dances, Juliet and a Harlot in Romeo and Juliet, Princess Aurora and Princess Florine in Ratmansky’s The Sleeping Beauty, Princess Florine and the Fairy of Fervor in The Sleeping Beauty, Odette/Odile, the pas de trois, and the Polish Princess in Swan Lake, the Mazurka in Les Sylphides, Sylvia and Persephone in SylviaTchaikovsky Pas de Deux, Princess Tea Flower in Whipped Cream, “Becomings” and “Tuesday” in Woolf Works, leading roles in AFTERITE, Bach Partita, Ballet Imperial, Ballo della ReginaThe Brahms-Haydn Variations, Désir, Everything Doesn’t Happen at Once, Her Notes, From Here On Out, Let Me Sing Forevermore, Monotones I, Songs of Bukovina, Symphonie Concertante, Symphony in C, Theme and Variations, With a Chance of Rain, and ZigZag, and featured roles in After You, Birthday Offering, Brief Fling, Deuce Coupe, Drink to Me Only With Thine Eyes, In the Upper Room, Gong, The Leaves Are Fading, and Sinfonietta.

Boylston created Columbine in Ratmansky’s Harlequinade, The Spirit of the Corn in Ratmansky’s The Seasons, the Diamond Fairy in Ratmansky’s The Sleeping Beauty, leading roles in Ratmansky’s Chamber Symphony, James Whiteside’s Danzón No. 2, Alonzo King’s Single Eye, Christopher Wheeldon’s Thirteen Diversions, and Gemma Bond’s A Time There Was, and featured roles in Lauri Stallings’s Citizen, Ratmansky’s Dumbarton, and Demis Volpi’s Private Light.

Boylston won the 2009 Princess Grace Award and was nominated for the 2010 Prix Benois de la Danse. In 2011, she received the Clive Barnes Award. She was the recipient of the 2014 Annenberg Fellowship. In December 2021, Boylston was invited by the administration of President Biden to perform at the White House.

She has appeared as a guest artist with the Paris Opera Ballet, Mariinsky Ballet in St. Petersburg, the National Ballet of China, Rome Opera Ballet, the Ballet Estable del Teatro Colon, and the Royal Danish Ballet.

ABT is grateful to Andrea and Ken Brodlieb for supporting the Dancer Fund in honor of Isabella Boylston.

Repertoire

* created role

"Isabella Boylston dances with a boldness that’s all her own"

-Marina Harss, Dance Magazine

"I am always finding ways to execute my roles with more precision and soul—even performances that I have done in the past, like dancing the role of Odette/Odile in Swan Lake. Dance is a great metaphor for pursuing your life and path to the fullest that requires discipline, passion, grace, and precision."

-Isabella Boylston, The Wall Street Journal

"Ms. Boylston’s musicality and phrasing are exquisite."

-Alastair Macaulay, The New York Times

"For Isabella Boylston, the goal of every performance is to find herself “in the moment” and take us with her."

-Andrew Blackmore-Dobbyn, Huffington Post

Milestones

2001

Won gold medal at the Youth America Grand Prix

2005

Joined ABT Studio Company August 2005

Isabella Boylston

Isabella Boylston in Divertimento No. 15. © The George Balanchine Trust. Photo: Rosalie O'Connor.

2006

Joined ABT as Apprentice May 2006

2007

Joined Corps de Ballet March 2007

Isabella Boylston

Isabella Boylston and Cory Stearns in From Here On Out. Photo: Rosalie O'Connor.

2009

Won Princess Grace Award

Isabella Boylston

Photo courtesy of Isabella Boylston

2011

Promoted to Soloist June 2011

Isabella Boylston

Isabella Boylston in The Bright Stream. Photo: Rosalie O'Connor.

2014

Promoted to Principal Dancer August 2014

Isabella Boylston

Isabella Boylston in Swan Lake. Photo: Gene Schiavone

2017

Became Founding Artistic Director of Ballet Sun Valley