Next week on February 13, after a quarter of a century with New York City Ballet, Ashley Bouder will take her final bow with the company in the title role of George Balanchine‘s Firebird which she debuted in her first year with the company.
Bouder has spent the last twenty years as a Principal Dancer with NYCB, rising through the ranks quickly as soon as she joined the School of American Ballet’s Summer Program in 1999. After being invited to train for the Winter Season, Bouder left Central Pennsylvania Youth Ballet in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, and went on to perform featured roles in Balanchine’s Danses Concertantes and Stars and Stripes in SAB’s 2000 workshop performances.
In June of that year, she became an apprentice with the company and just four month laters, joined the corps de ballet. In early 2004, she was promoted to Soloist, a title she held for only eleven months; in January of 2005, she was elevated to Principal Dancer of New York City Ballet.
Ashley Bouder at NYCB
During her twenty-five years with New York City Ballet, Bouder has been featured in works by Balanchine, Jerome Robbins, Mauro Bigonzetti, Christopher d’Amboise, Jorma Elo, Justin Peck, Alexei Ratmansky, and Christopher Wheeldon.
She has also had ballets created on her by some of the 20th and 21st centuries’ most recognized dance makers such as Kyle Abraham, Warren Carlyle, Albert Evans, Douglas Lee, Edwaard Liang, Wayne McGregor, Susan Stroman, Richard Tanner, and Troy Schumacher, among others.
Twice, Bouder has appeared on PBS’ Live From Lincoln Center broadcast; in 2002 dancing Wheeldon’s Mercurial Movements in “New York City Ballet’s Diamond Project: Ten Years of New Choreography” and in 2011 as Dewdrop in Balanchine’s The Nutcracker.
Featured Photo of New York City Ballet‘s Ashley Bouder in George Balanchine’s Firebird. Photo by Erin Baiano.
