4 ABT dancers have recently risen the ranks of America’s National Ballet Company, most notably Chloe Misseldine whose promotion to Principal Dancer was announced on stage after her New York City debut as Odette/Odile in Swan Lake.
In 2018, Misseldine joined American Ballet Theatre Studio Company and since then has quickly climbed to the top.
Artistic Director Susan Jaffe expressed the following:
“I expected I would promote Chloe at the end of the Met season, but her performance this afternoon was exquisite and flawless, I felt no need to wait. The moment was right.”
Also, effective September 1, 2024 and in time for the ABT 2024 Fall Season, Léa Fleytoux, Patrick Frenette, and Fangqi Li will be the company’s newest Soloists.
4 ABT Dancers Earned Promotions in July
Chloe Misseldine
began her classical training at Orlando Ballet School. She attended ABT Summer
Intensives in Orange County, California, and New York City as a National Training Scholar from 2016-2018, after which she joined ABT Studio Company.
Her repertoire of leading roles with the company includes:
- Myrta in Giselle
- Rosaura in Christopher Wheeldon’s Like Water for Chocolate
- Queen of Babylon in Alexei Ratmansky’s Of Love and Rage
- Tatiana in John Cranko’s Onegin
- Odette/Odile in Swan Lake,
- George Balanchine’s Ballet Imperial
She has also danced featured roles in Bernstein in a Bubble, La Follia Variations, Petite Mort, Songs of Bukovina, and Wayne McGregor’s Woolf Works.
Léa Fleytoux
began studying ballet at the age of four with Nicole Chouret in her classes at the Ranelagh Theater in Paris. Fleytoux continued her training at the Conservatoire Municipal Camille Saint-Saens (2007-2010), École National Danse Marseille (2010-2013) and Conservetoire National Supérieur de Musique et de Danse de Paris (2013-2016).
Fleytoux began training at the American Ballet Theatre Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis School in September 2016 before joining ABT Studio Company in January 2017. She became an apprentice with the main Company in December 2018 and joined the corps de ballet in June 2019.
Her repertoire includes the Grand Pas de Deux and Amour in Don Quixote, the peasant pas de deux in Giselle, Chencha in Like Water for Chocolate, one of the Nutcracker’s Sisters and the Chinese Dance in Alexei Ratmanky’s The Nutcracker, the pas de trois, a little swan, and the Hungarian Princess in Swan Lake, Young Clarissa in Wayne McGregor’s Woolf Works, and a featured role in Songs of Bukovina.
She created a featured role in Collage & Creed.
Patrick Frenette
was born in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. He began his early training at the Goh Ballet Academy and later with former ABT dancer Chris Martin and former Bolshoi Ballet dancer Dmitri Kulev. Frenette began studying full time at School of American Ballet in 2012 and was awarded The Rudolf Nureyev Foundation Scholarship while there.
Frenette joined ABT as an apprentice in 2013 and became a member of the corps de ballet in January 2014.
His repertoire with the company includes one of the Three Ivans in Aurora’s Wedding, Demetrius in The Dream, Cockerel and Notary’s Clerk in La Fille mal gardée, Hilarion and Wilfred in Giselle, the Butler, Majordomo, and Spanish Dance in Alexei Ratmansky’s The Nutcracker, Mithridates in Of Love and Rage, Benvolio in Romeo and Juliet, a Fairy Cavalier, the English Prince, and the Wolf in Alexei Ratmansky’s The Sleeping Beauty, the Act II pas de deux, Benno, and the Spanish Dance in Swan Lake, Evans and “Becomings” in Wayne McGregor’s Woolf Works, and featured roles in After You, Deuce Coupe, and Sinfonietta.
He created featured roles in Bernstein in a Bubble, Collage & Creed, Dream within a Dream (deferred), Praedicere, and Songs of Bukovina.
Fangqi Li
is originally from Zhengzhou, China, where she studied ballet at the Secondary School of the Beijing Dance Academy and with The National Ballet of China and won scholarships for six consecutive years (2010-2016). She participated in summer intensive programs at American Ballet Theatre, Ballet Heritage, and the Beijing IBCC.
Li joined ABT Studio Company in September 2017, became an apprentice with the main Company in January 2018, and joined the corps de ballet in June 2018.
Her repertoire includes Myrta and Moyna in Giselle, Rosaura in Like Water for Chocolate, the Spanish Dance in Alexei Ratmansky’s The Nutcracker, The Swallow in The Seasons, the pas de trois, a big swan, and the Polish Princess in Swan Lake, Young Clarissa and “Becomings” in Wayne McGregor’s Woolf Works, and featured roles in Deuce Coupe, La Follia Variations, Petite Mort, and Sinfonietta.
Featured Photo of newly-promoted American Ballet Theatre Principal Dancer Chloe Misseldine with soon-to-be Soloist Patrick Frenette and Soloist Sung Woo Han in George Balanchine’s Ballet Imperial. Photo by Rosalie O’Connor.
