Amanda McKerrow (born 1964) is an American ballet dancer. She was a principal dancer with

American Ballet Theatre American Ballet Theatre (ABT) is a classical ballet company based in New York City. Founded in 1939 by Lucia Chase and Richard Pleasant. Through 2019, it had an annual eight-week season at the Metropolitan Opera House (Lincoln Center) in the spr ...

(ABT) where she currently teaches. In 1981 she became the first American to win a gold medal at the Moscow International Ballet Competition when she was 17 years old."Amanda McKerrow Succeeded Where Other Americans Failed: She Disarmed the Soviets"
''People'', August 31, 1981 Vol. 16 No. 9.

Early life and education

McKerrow was born in

Albuquerque Albuquerque ( ; ), also known as ABQ, Burque, the Duke City, and in the past 'the Q', is the List of municipalities in New Mexico, most populous city in the U.S. state of New Mexico, and the county seat of Bernalillo County, New Mexico, Bernal ...

New Mexico New Mexico is a state in the Southwestern United States, Southwestern region of the United States. It is one of the Mountain States of the southern Rocky Mountains, sharing the Four Corners region with Utah, Colorado, and Arizona. It also ...

, the youngest child of a retired administrator at the National Institutes of Health. Her mother was a stay-at-home mom. She began taking ballet lessons at age seven and five years later won a scholarship to the Metropolitan Academy of Ballet in

Bethesda, Maryland Bethesda () is an unincorporated, census-designated place in southern Montgomery County, Maryland, United States. Located just northwest of Washington, D.C., it is a major business and government center of the Washington metropolitan region ...

. After her sophomore year she dropped out of high school and joined The Washington Ballet (TWB).

Career

McKerrow danced with The Washington Ballet for two years from 1980 to 1982. She joined American Ballet Theatre under the direction of

Mikhail Baryshnikov Mikhail Nikolayevich Baryshnikov ( rus, Михаил Николаевич Барышников, p=mʲɪxɐˈil bɐ'rɨʂnʲɪkəf; ; born January 27, 1948) is a Latvian and American dancer, choreographer, and actor. He was the preeminent male ...

in 1982. She was appointed Soloist in 1983 and Principal Dancer in 1987. She retired from performing in 2005. In 2014 McKerrow began teaching and staging performances at ABT. She also teaches at Washington University and at dance festivals. In addition to her ballet career, she has appeared in several films: ‘’Variety and Virtuosity: American Ballet Theatre Now (1998),’’ ‘’American Ballet Theatre at the Met (1984)’’ and ‘’Dancers (1987).’’

Awards

McKerrow is the first American to receive a gold medal at the International Ballet Competition in Moscow which she won in 1981. McKerrow has also been the recipient of the

Princess Grace Foundation The Princess Grace Foundation – USA is a charity organization named after Princess Grace of Monaco, which supports emerging performers in theater, dance, and film in the form of awards, grants, scholarships, and fellowships. The Foundation ho ...

Dance Fellowship in 1986, the Deane Sherman Award of Excellence in the Field of Dance, and the New York Woman Award for Dance.

Personal

She is married to fellow ballet dancer, John Gardner, whom she met when they were both performing with ABT."Ballet Theatre Minus Baryshnikov" ''LA Times'', March 04, 1990, WILLIAM HUCK
/ref>

References

External links

American Ballet Theatre
* {{DEFAULTSORT:McKerrow, Amanda American ballerinas Living people 1964 births 21st-century American women