New York City Ballet (NYCB) Principal Dancer Ashley Bouder will give her farewell performance on Thursday, February 13, 2025, capping an illustrious 25-year career with the company, including 20 years as a Principal Dancer. Her farewell performance will feature her in the title role of George Balanchine’s Firebird, a role she first danced in 2001, just a year after joining the company.
Bouder’s final performance coincides with the 120th anniversary of the birth of NYCB co-founder George Balanchine, who promoted Bouder’s hallmark style with his iconic works.
Born in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, Bouder began her ballet training at age six under Marcia Dale Weary at Central Pennsylvania Youth Ballet. She joined the School of American Ballet in 1999 and became an apprentice with NYCB in 2000. Bouder advanced rapidly, joining the corps de ballet later that year and earning promotions to Soloist in 2004 and Principal Dancer in January 2005.
Throughout her career, Bouder has been a standout performer in works by legendary choreographers including Balanchine, Jerome Robbins, Justin Peck, and Alexei Ratmansky. She also originated roles in ballets by Kyle Abraham, Wayne McGregor, and Susan Stroman, among others.
Bouder is a recipient of the prestigious 2019 Benois de la Danse award for Best Female Dancer and was recognized with the Mae L. Wien Award for Outstanding Promise in 2000. In 2003, she received the Janice Levin Award, which honors promising NYCB dancers.
Her performances have been featured in numerous televised productions, including PBS’s Live from Lincoln Center. Notably, Bouder danced in Christopher Wheeldon’s Mercurial Manoeuvres in 2002 and as Dewdrop in Balanchine’s The Nutcracker in 2011, which was broadcast globally.
As she prepares for this milestone, Bouder’s farewell performance promises to celebrate her exceptional artistry and enduring impact on NYCB and the dance world.
