Lauren Lovette to Give Final Performance With New York City Ballet

New York City Ballet announced today that Principal Dancer Lauren Lovette will give her final performance with the Company at the 2pm matinee performance on Saturday, October 9, dancing Jerome Robbins' Opus 19/The Dreamer and Alexei Ratmansky's Namouna, A Grand Divertissement.

Lovette became an apprentice with NYCB in October 2009 and joined the Company as a member of the corps de ballet one year later. She was promoted to Soloist in February 2013 and to Principal Dancer in June 2015.

In addition to dancing with NYCB, Lovette has choreographed three works for the Company: For Clara (2016), Not Our Fate (2017), and The Shaded Line (2019), and as a choreographer she has also received commissions from American Ballet Theatre's Studio Company, Paul Taylor Dance Company, and the Vail International Dance Festival. At the conclusion of her career as Principal Dancer with NYCB, Lovette plans to work exclusively on new choreography and other creative endeavors.

"I've had an incredible career with New York City Ballet. It has been my home and my anchor and I am so grateful to have had the opportunity to perform countless dream roles, work with some of the greatest choreographers of our time, learn from our building filled with earnest and dedicated people, and all while developing my passion for choreography," said Lovette. "During this past year I have had the chance to spend some time thinking about the kind of career I want going forward. I have decided that leaving NYCB now will give me the time to fully explore new creative projects as both a choreographer and dancer and I'm really excited about the future."

"Lauren is a one-of-a-kind artist and will be greatly missed by all of her colleagues at NYCB, as well as our audiences," said NYCB Artistic Director Jonathan Stafford. "I first worked with Lauren when she was a student at SAB and have always been impressed by her work ethic, passion, and artistry. I know that great things are in store for Lauren in this new chapter of her career and I can't wait to see what she does next."

Born in Thousand Oaks, California, Lovette began studying ballet at the age of 11 at California Dance Theatre, and received additional training at the Cary Ballet Conservatory in Cary, North Carolina. She attended summer courses at the School of American Ballet (SAB), the official school of New York City Ballet, during the summers of 2004 and 2005 and enrolled at SAB as a full-time student in 2006. In 2008 while a student at the SAB, Lovette made her first ballet as part of the School's annual student choreographic workshop, and in 2010 she participated in a working session of the New York Choreographic Institute, an affiliate of New York City Ballet.

Since joining NYCB, Lovette has performed featured roles in numerous ballets by George Balanchine, Jerome Robbins, Pontus Lidberg, Peter Martins, Benjamin Millepied, Justin Peck, Alexei Ratmansky, Gianna Reisen, Susan Stroman, and Christopher Wheeldon, among others. Lovette will also be featured in a new work for NYCB by choreographer Kyle Abraham, which was filmed at the David H. Koch Theater last month. The Abraham film will be released on April 8 and will be available online for two weeks, through Thursday, April 22; visit nycballet.com/digitalseason for more information.

In 2012 Lovette was the recipient of both the Janice Levin Award, given to one NYCB's most promising corps de ballet members each year, and the Clive Barnes Award for dance. In 2018 Lovette was the Virginia B. Toulmin Fellow for Women Leaders in Dance at The Center for Ballet and the Arts at New York University.

Subscription tickets for NYCB's 2021-22 season, which is scheduled to open on September 21 at the David H. Koch Theater, are currently available online at www.nycballet.com or by phone at 212-496-0600. Single tickets will go on sale later this year.

Photo credit Erin Baiano