Cassandra Trenary (born 1993) is an American ballet dancer who is currently a principal dancer with the

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 ...

Early life and training

Cassandra Trenary is from

Lawrenceville, Georgia Lawrenceville is a city in and the county seat of Gwinnett County, Georgia, United States. It is a suburb of Atlanta, located approximately northeast of downtown. It was incorporated on December 15, 1821. As of the 2020 census, the populatio ...

. She started dancing locally at age 3 in multiple dance styles, including ballet at Lawrenceville School of Ballet. She began attending summer intensive at the

at age 11 and was invited to train at the

Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis School The Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis School at American Ballet Theatre (ABT/JKO School) is the associate school of American Ballet Theatre located at 890 Broadway, within the Flatiron District of Manhattan, New York City. The school comprises a children ...

four years later, moving the family to New York City from Georgia full-time. In 2011 she was invited to join ABT Studio Company on their European Tour as an apprentice and was subsequently offered a corps de ballet contract at American Ballet Theatre in the same year. In September 2020 she was promoted to Principal Dancer at American Ballet Theatre.

Career

Trenary began dancing with

Studio Company's European tour in 2011 as an apprentice at age 17, then became an apprentice with the main company in April. She became a full-time corps de ballet member with ABT in November 2011. As a corps dancer, she danced several soloist roles including the Shades in ''

La Bayadère ''La Bayadère'' ("the temple dancer") ( ru. «Баядерка», ''Bayaderka'') is an 1877 ballet, originally staged in four acts and seven tableaux by the French choreographer Marius Petipa to music by Ludwig Minkus and libretto by . The ba ...

'' and Princess Florine in '' The Sleeping Beauty''. She was promoted to soloist in 2015. The following year, she made her debut as Princess Aurora in ''The Sleeping Beauty'', and represented ABT at the Erik Bruhn Prize. In 2020, though some of her major debuts, including as Juliet in ''

Romeo and Juliet ''The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet'', often shortened to ''Romeo and Juliet'', is a Shakespearean tragedy, tragedy written by William Shakespeare about the romance between two young Italians from feuding families. It was among Shakespeare's ...

'', were delayed due to the

coronavirus pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

, she was made principal dancer in September, at age 27. Trenary had also performed with

Daniil Simkin Daniil Dmitrievich Simkin (; born 12 October 1987 in Novosibirsk, Russia), known as Daniil Simkin, is a ballet dancer and entrepreneur. He was formerly a principal dancer with both American Ballet Theatre and Berlin State Ballet. Simkin is ba ...

's side project, Intensio.

Personal life

Trenary has an Instagram account dedicated to her photography featuring her ABT colleagues offering a behind-the-scenes look at professional dancers.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Trenary, Cassandra Living people 1993 births People from Lawrenceville, Georgia American ballerinas American Ballet Theatre principal dancers Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis School alumni 21st-century American ballet dancers Dancers from Georgia (U.S. state) 21st-century American women