Julie Kent

Julie Kent began her dance training with Hortensia Fonseca at the Academy of the Maryland Youth Ballet. She attended the American Ballet Theatre II summer session and the School of American Ballet before joining ABT as an apprentice in 1985 and the corps de ballet in 1986. In 1985, Miss Kent won first place in the regional finals of the National Society of Arts and Letters at the Kennedy Center. In 1986, she was the only American to win a medal at the Prix de Lausanne International Ballet Competition. In March, 1993, Miss Kent won the Erik Bruhn Prize in Toronto, Canada. Miss Kent's roles with the Company include the leading role in Ballet Imperial, Nikiya in La Bayadere, Prayer in Coppelia, the Queen of the Driads in Don Quixote, a leading role in Echoing of Trumpets, Giselle and the peasant pas de deux in Giselle, Caroline in Jardin Aux Lilas, Manon in Manon, the Sugar Plum Fairy in The Nutcracker, The Maiden in The Other, the leading role in Paquita, the Ranch Owner's Daughter in Rodeo, Juliet in Romeo and Juliet, the third movement in Sinfonietta, the Lilac Fairy and Princess Florine in The Sleeping Beauty, Odette-Odile in Swan Lake, the Prelude in Les Sylphides, leading roles in Symphonic Variations, Symphonie Concertante, and Theme and Variations, and the pas de trois in Voluntaries. She created leading roles in Americans We and States of Grace, and featured roles in Rigaudon and Cruel World. In 1987, Miss Kent starred in the Herbert Ross film, Dancers. She was appointed Soloist in 1990 and Principal Dancer in 1993.