#Mira Nadon

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Mira Nadon | Davide Riccardo | New York City Ballet | Ravenna Festival 1924 | Photos by Graham Spicer

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At City Ballet, a Once-in-a-Generation Dancer Arrives

Mira Nadon, the rising New York City Ballet principal, is coming off her best season yet. And it’s only the beginning. By Gia Kourlas The New York Times May 29, 2024

Mira Nadon was 5 when she took her first ballet class. It was pre-ballet, which meant running around the studio, maybe getting a shot at fluttering like a butterfly. This was not for her.

When she found out that students began proper training at 6, Nadon laid it on the line: “I told my mom, ‘This isn’t serious,’” she said. “‘I’m just going to wait till I’m 6.’”

Even then Nadon was levelheaded and unflappable. Now, at just 23, she is a principal dancer with New York City Ballet, approaching the close of a momentous season at Lincoln Center, where her versatility, artistry and jaw-dropping abandon have made her seem like a ballerina superhero. This week, she returns to the role of Helena, the rejected young woman determined to win her lover back in George Balanchine’s “A Midsummer Night’s Dream.” An affinity for drama is in her bones, but something else makes Nadon a rarity: humor.

Nadon, the first Asian American female principal dancer at City Ballet, is a special, once-in-a-generation kind of dancer. Nadon can flip among many sides of herself—secretive, seductive, funny, serene. And she lives on the edge, with rapid shifts from romantic elegance to ferocious force. A principal since 2023, Nadon still has raw moments, but so much is starting to click: Her feet are more precise, her partnering more secure.

This photo and the one at the top: Sabrina Santiago for The New York Times

“To watch her grow — and it’s not been very long—has been tremendous,” Wendy Whelan, the company’s associate artistic director, said. “It’s fast and big and just blossoming.”

This spring season, the close of the company’s 75th anniversary year, has been largely dedicated to newer ballets. She has danced in works by living choreographers, including Alexei Ratmansky and Pam Tanowitz, and made debuts in works by George Balanchine and Jerome Robbins. “The range has been astounding,” Whelan said. “She’s been able to hone in on the uniqueness of each of those voices. And she cares about what the intent is of each of those voices, so they’re not all the same. She doesn’t just go out and do great things. She actually carves out the idea.”

The most important debut was in “Errante” (1975), a Balanchine ballet originally called “Tzigane” after its score by Maurice Ravel. Suzanne Farrell, for whom the ballet was made, staged it and coached Nadon. “She’s such an intelligent woman and so dry and funny in the best way in the studio,” Nadon said. “She’s very, very demanding. She’s not just going to say ‘good job’ because you tried and you’re working hard. But I love that.”

The ballet opens with a five-minute solo for Nadon, whose smoldering use of her eyes and face, along with the smooth control of her body, showed a deep command of the stage as she wound her way along its mysterious violin solo. Farrell told her that the solo was a lonely experience. “I think she was excited for me to feel that onstage with the violinist,” Nadon said. Toward the end of the rehearsal process, Farrell told her that she shouldn’t move in a modern way but in a “very stylized older way,” Nadon said. “I think that’s also what makes it such a special world, that it’s unique and different from the way you approach another ballet.”

Above: Nadon in Errante. Photo: Erin Baiano via the NY Times

In Ratmansky’s “Pictures at an Exhibition,” Nadon was electric, fleshing out shapes while stretching bigger, deeper, longer—her arms are as fluid and expressive as her legs. And Nadon, at 5 foot 8 inches, has legs. Working with Ratmansky, who is City Ballet’s artist in residence, is sharpening her technique, she said, just as Tiler Peck did last season when Nadon danced in her ballet, “Concerto for Two Pianos.”

“He’s so funny," Nadon said of Ratmansky’s polite requests. “He’ll be like, ‘Do you think you could turn out the leg a little more?’ ‘Do you think you could hit fifth there?’ I’m like, ‘Yeah, I probably could.’”

This season, she performed in two of Tanowitz’s ballets: “Gustave Le Gray No. 1” and “Law of Mosaics,” which ends with Nadon dancing a solo barefoot. “She doesn’t dance at you, she draws the audience in, and that’s her power,” Tanowitz said. “It’s almost like she’s letting us in on this intimate part of herself.”

How many dancers can be understated and wild? It has much to do with how utterly at ease Nadon is onstage, which dates to her training at the Inland Pacific Ballet Academy in Montclair, Calif., where she had many opportunities to perform. “I think it was really beneficial growing up,” she said, “to not be scared onstage.” This was already apparent in 2017, when she danced the female lead in Balanchine’s “Scotch Symphony” at the School of American Ballet Workshop Performances, the annual year-end display of student talent. She was a fearless rush of power and delicacy that left audience members in disbelief. Recalling it now, Nadon laughed. “I didn’t think about it too much,” she said, “and just did the show and then everyone liked it, and I was like, Oh, I guess you’ve never seen me perform.”

Photo: Sabrina Santiago for The New York Times

Next month, Nadon will make her debut in “Diamonds,” the final section of “Jewels,” set to Tchaikovsky, at the Kennedy Center. “There’s something about the Tchaikovsky—the swells and the grandeur that you just feel in your soul,” she said. “I’m excited to live in that world and see how it feels.”

The part was made for Farrell, and dancing it speaks to Nadon’s future as an integral part of City Ballet. But getting to this point was far from a sure thing. Her father is a professor of government and her mother was a lawyer; neither knew much about ballet aside from the dramatic, dark side that is often shown in films.

When Nadon was accepted to the School of American Ballet, City Ballet’s training ground, she knew her parents weren’t going to want her to go, which would mean leaving home at a young age. She is grateful to Darci Kistler, a former City Ballet principal, who offered her a scholarship for the summer course and convinced her parents that it would be more than OK to let her go.

“Even getting my parents to agree to let me audition was a struggle,” Nadon said. “I was like, ‘I just want to see if I get in’ and they were like, ‘You’re not going to go, but you can audition just for yourself.’”

To Kistler, she said: “‘Oh—my parents aren’t going to let me, but thank you so much.’ And Darci said, ‘Can you go get your mom?’ I was, like, running through the hallways.”

It wasn’t a yes on the spot, but after some conversations, they agreed. “I’ll always be really grateful to her for putting in that extra effort,” Nadon said. “My parents still are, like, Thank God for Darci.”

Nadon’s path through the City Ballet ranks has been swift. She joined the corps de ballet in November 2018 and was promoted to soloist in 2022. Just a year later, she was named principal. “There was a lot of thought that went into—when you start pushing, giving the opportunities—making sure she was ready,” Whelan said. “We don’t want any dancer to fail. We don’t want to just throw them out there and say, let’s see what happens.”

But Nadon was ready—for all of it. “When I think of myself having the title of principal dancer, it does seem kind of crazy and foreign, but on the day to day, I’m just dancing my ballets and going out onstage,” she said with a cheerful shrug. “I guess I’ve tried not to overthink it too much because I think it could be very heavy and a lot of pressure.”

Nadon is self-aware. Her temperament, she realizes, is a blessing. She gets nervous for shows, but she’s never anxious. And she’s there to dance. “My favorite part of the job is just going out onstage and seeing what happens,” she said. “It’s almost like I’m surprised by what my body does. I’m finding out what’s going to happen at the same time as the audience.”

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Mira Nadon as Dewdrop in The Nutcracker with New York City Ballet, photo taken by Erin Baiano in 2021

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Mira Nadon in George Balanchine's Errante (formerly Tzigane), New York City Ballet, 2024

Photos by Erin Baiano

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NYCB All Balanchine IV October 13 2023

So I know I just got done being all dark about Balanchine/the ballet in general, but this was great!

Concerto Barocco was wonderful, and in particular Mira Nadon was breathtakingly graceful, her small gestures and extensions...just gorgeous. Loved the music as well -- Bach concert for 2 violins -- and I thought the dancers expressed it beautifully.

Prodigal Son -- one of the oddest things I've seen at the ballet, but our queen Sarah Mearns rarely disappoints (though I must say I found myself a little concerned she would fall off/over during some of the truly odd lifts in this ballet). The corps, a hulking gang of bald-headed brutes in white make up gave a real Mad Max: Fury Road vibe, down to their head gestures. Weird, acrobatic, and fun, well matched to the Prokofiev score. A little too odd to express pathos, if that was the intent at any point.

Symphony in C -- music by Bizet. This was the audience's favorite, though for me maybe the least memorable. This was a big, beautiful ballet with a big cast, pirouette combinations and crowd favorite Tiler Peck receiving an ovation every time she entered the stage. You can definitely tell why she's a star -- her power and assurance never leave you in doubt about her utter control, and it's hard to look away from her when she's on stage.

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Mira Nadon

Credit…Sabrina Santiago for The New York Times

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Mira Nadon and Adrian Danchig-Waring in Balanchine’s Movements for Piano and Orchestra.

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christopher grant and mira nadon photographed performing an excerpt of who cares? from balanchine’s who cares? at the 2021 vail dance festival by christopher duggan

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Mira Nadon in Rubies (NYCB, 2019)

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Four Dancers Promoted to Principal at New York City Ballet

by Gia Kourlas The New York Times

Early Sunday evening, just after New York City Ballet’s final performance of the season, four soloists received the kind of postseason gift every dancer dreams of: Emilie Gerrity, Isabella LaFreniere, Roman Mejia and Mira Nadon were elevated to the rank of principal dancer. They learned of their promotions onstage after the curtain fell on “The Sleeping Beauty,” receiving the news from Jonathan Stafford, the company’s artistic director, and Wendy Whelan, its associate artistic director. During that ballet’s two-week run, and throughout the winter season, they had all made important debuts, including originating roles in the premiere of Justin Peck’s evening-length “Copland Dance Episodes.”

Mira Nadon in The Sleeping Beauty. Photo by Erin Baiano.

Nadon, the youngest at 21, is newsworthy beyond her shimmering technique and overall radiance. She is also the company’s first Asian American female principal. (Her mother is South Asian.) “I had no idea,” she said, adding that the news was “really amazing and quite an honor.”

As for the promotion itself? Nadon, usually composed, sounded shaky. “I still haven’t quite processed it, but it’s just a whole new height that you have to hold yourself to,” she said. “To be in the top rank in the company is a big responsibility. I feel like I have a lot of work to grow into that title, but I’m really excited to start.”

During the winter season, Nadon, who was born in Boston and began her training at the Inland Pacific Ballet Academy in Montclair, Calif., was especially busy: She made debuts in George Balanchine’s “Stravinsky Violin Concerto” and “Episodes,” Jerome Robbins’s “Rondo”—opposite LaFreniere—and as the Lilac Fairy and Diamond in Peter Martins’s “The Sleeping Beauty.”

Isabella LaFreniere as Princess Aurora in The Sleeping Beauty. Photo by Erin Baiano.

Both she and LaFreniere, from Lambertville, Mich., were promoted to soloist in 2022. LaFreniere, 26, who danced Aurora in “Beauty” for the first time last week, joined the company in 2014. Injuries have curtailed her progress, but she emerged from the pandemic refreshed and recharged, making important debuts in two vintage gems: Balanchine’s “Chaconne” and Balanchine and Robbins’s “Firebird,” which she reprised this season with mystery and mastery.

Roman Mejia in Allegro Brillante. Photo by Erin Baiano.

Mejia, 23, who made “Beauty” debuts as Bluebird and Gold, has in recent seasons shown his athletic virtuosity as Oberon in “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” and in “Rubies” from “Jewels.” Born in Fort Worth, Texas, he has ballet in his blood. Starting at age 3, he began training with his parents, Maria Terezia Balogh and Paul Mejia, a former dancer with City Ballet. Mejia, too, was transformed after the pandemic; his brashness took on a new refinement, while retaining its ebullient power. In 2021, he was promoted to soloist.

Emilie Gerrity in Agon. Photo by Paul Kolnik.

Gerrity, at 32, has long been an integral, versatile member of the company, joining in 2010 and becoming a soloist in 2017. That kind of longevity can stunt a dancer, but Gerrity, who possesses a voluptuous strength, has seemingly used the time to develop her own artistic voice. This season, she made debuts as the Lilac Fairy in “Sleeping Beauty,” as well as in Balanchine’s “Walpurgisnacht Ballet.”

Born in Danbury, Conn., Gerrity began training at 5 and went onto study at the New Paltz School of Ballet and before joining City Ballet, studied at the company’s affiliated School of American Ballet, along with all the new principals. “I’m freaking out,” she said. “I feel crazy in all ways. I’ve worked my entire life to get here.”

Gerrity has been in the company the longest of the four. “I remember being like, I don’t know if it’s going to happen—because you really do never know,” she said. “But I was like, I’m getting these amazing opportunities, and why am I going to sit here and think maybe it’s not going to happen versus just applying myself and trying to be better each time?”

She added, “Of course, tears were shed.”

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Mira Nadon in a Midsummer Night’s Dream with the NYCB

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The New York City Ballet's Mira Nadon and Christopher Grant, wearing Virgil Abloh of Off-White

Photo by Pari Dukovic

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New York City Ballet | New Works Festival: pixelation in a wave (Within Wires) 

Sidra Bell's first work created for NYCB, pixelation in a wave (Within Wires), opens our digital New Works Festival. Directed by Ezra Hurwitz, the film features dancers Ghaleb Kayali, Emily Kikta, Mira Nadon, and Peter Walker, dancing to a score composed by the choreographer's father, Dennis Bell.

The film is immediately followed by a panel discussion on the creation of this work with Sidra Bell and Mira Nadon, moderated by NYCB's Associate Artistic Director Wendy Whelan.

Choreography by Sidra Bell

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Mira Nadon

Photo Credit…Erin Baiano