UpClose: Artist-In-Residence Calvin Royal III

Calvin Royal III

Calvin Royal III is an acclaimed internationally recognized Principal classical ballet dancer. He began his ballet training at fourteen and a half, and received a scholarship from ABT’s Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis School of ballet in 2007. Despite his unprecedented late start, he was promoted to the American Ballet Theatre’s Main Company in 2010, achieved Soloist in 2017, and Principal Dancer in 2020. This makes him the third African-American artist to achieve this honor in the history of the iconic Company – following in the footsteps of Desmond Richardson and Misty Copeland.  

Calvin has performed star turns throughout ABT’s global tours, and at the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts in New York City – as the title role in George Balanchine’s Apollo, Prince Siegfried in Swan Lake, Romeo in Romeo and Juliet, The Prince in Alexei Ratmansky’s The Nutcracker, Count Albrecht in Giselle, and has worked with notable choreographers such as Twyla Tharp, Justin Peck, Benjamin Millepied, Alonzo King, Mark Morris, Wayne McGreggor, Kyle Abraham, Michelle Dorrance, Jamar Roberts, and many more.  

Calvin was a finalist at the Clive Barnes Awards, the winner of the Leonore Annenberg Fellowship, a cover star of Dance Magazine in July 2020, and was the 2020/21 Artist in Residence at the Vail Dance Festival in Vail, Colorado. He is represented by IMG Models and has been featured in global campaigns for GAP, Tommy Hilfiger, Calvin Klein, Target, Ralph Lauren, Mavi Jeans, Canali, and has partnered with Deckers Brands, HOKA, Johnnie Walker and The Luxury Collection hotels. Follow Calvin on Instagram & TikTok @calvinroyaliii

Isabella Boylston

Melissa Toogood

Melissa Toogood is a Sydney and New York based Dancer, Master Teacher, Stager, Coach, Contributor, Mother, and sometimes Choreographer. She is a New York and Performance Award (Bessie) winning Performer. Melissa is both Dancer and Rehearsal Director for Pam Tanowitz Dance. She has assisted Tanowitz on new creations for the Australian Ballet, L.A. Dance Project, Martha Graham Dance Company, Paul Taylor Dance Company, The Royal Ballet, and others. She was a member of the Merce Cunningham Dance Company, is a 2013 & 2015 Merce Cunningham fellow, has taught Cunningham Technique since 2007, and is a licensed Stager of Merce Cunningham’s work. She has performed with Kyle Abraham/A.I.M., Kimberly Bartosik/Daela, Rosie Herrera Dance Theater, Rashaun Mitchell + Silas Reiner, Stephen Petronio Company, Sally Silvers & Dancers, Christopher Williams, The Bang Group: Tap Lab, Bill Young and many others. Her own work has been commissioned by the Boston Ballet, New York Theater Ballet and the Vail International Dance Festival. This year marks Melissa’s 10th season with the Festival.   

Mira Nadon

Mira Nadon was born in Boston, Massachusetts, and began her ballet training at the age of six at the Inland Pacific Ballet Academy in Montclair, California.

She attended summer courses at the School of American Ballet (SAB), the official school of NYCB, in 2014 and 2015, before entering SAB full-time for the 2015 winter term.

In November 2017, Ms. Nadon became an apprentice with NYCB. She joined the Company as a member of the corps de ballet in November 2018. Ms. Nadon was promoted to the rank of soloist in January 2022 and principal in February 2023.

Ms. Nadon has danced as a guest at the Vail Dance Festival and Nantucket Atheneum Dance Festival and has performed as a member of Ballet Collective. She is also a part-time student at Fordham University. She is the recipient of the 2021 Clive Barnes Award for dance and is a 2022 Princess Grace Award winner.

Tiler Peck

Tiler Peck has been a Principal Dancer with New York City Ballet since 2009. She made her Broadway debut at age 11 as Gracie Shinn in The Music Man and was seen on Broadway as Ivy Smith in the Tony Nominated On The Town. She originated the title role in Susan Stroman’s newest musical Little Dancer at the Kennedy Center and is attached to star in the Broadway production. Tiler made her choreographic debut at the Vail Dance Festival in 2018 and has gone on to choreograph and appear in episodes of Tiny Pretty Things and Ray Donovan, for the Boston Ballet and the box office smash hit film John Wick 3. She has also appeared on Dancing with the Stars, the Kennedy Center Honors and Live From Lincoln Center’s The Nutcracker and Carousel, Disney+’s The Hip Hop Nutcracker, and Josh Groban’s Great Big Radio City Show PBS special. As a guest star, she was the first ballerina ever to appear on The Ellen DeGeneres Show. In film she has starred in “Ballet Now”, a Hulu documentary that followed her as she became the first woman to curate and star in The Los Angeles Music Center’s presentation ofBalletNOW, “Ballet 422”, “A Time for Dancing”, and “Donnie Darko”. She is a recipient of the Princess Grace Statue Award, The Dance Magazine Award and was named one of Forbes 30 under 30.  Most recently, she curated and directed the highly anticipated inaugural Artists at the Center for New York City Center that will make its European debut this summer as Turn It Out With Tiler Peck & Friends. This program marked her NYC choreographic debut and featured premieres from William Forsythe, Alonzo King, Jillian Meyers and Michelle Dorrance.

To keep the dance world connected during the pandemic, Tiler developed a free ballet class #TurnItOutWithTiler that airs on her Instagram. She is the designer of the Love,Tiler collection for Só Dança and the capsule collection Tiler Peck X STATESIDE in collaboration with the popular Los Angeles-based clothing company. She has released two children’s books with Simon & Schuster: Katarina Ballerina and Katarina Ballerina & The Victory Dance.

More on Tiler at www.tilerpeck.com. Tiler can be found on Instagram & TikTok via @TilerPeck.