Chloe Misseldine and Mira Nadon Are the Latest Leading Lights of American Ballet

The world of ballet is often a strictly regimented one, an art form that elevates precision and rigor to the highest level of beauty. Dancers can spend decades perfecting their craft, developing from toddlers in tutus through professional schools as teenagers to years of rigorous work in the corps until reaching, for the most illustrious, the top rank of principal. That trajectory can be long and arduous, beset by injury and numerous personal sacrifices to this calling. For some dancers, their talent is so indisputable that their movement through the ranks comes with shocking speed, as has been the case with American Ballet Theatre’s Chloe Misseldine and New York City Ballet’s Mira Nadon, who were promoted to principal in 2024 and 2023, respectively, each making history in her own way. Over the past year, the two long-limbed ballerinas have become friends and frequent partners, paired together for festival appearances during breaks from their home companies, and both celebrated for their elegance and artistry. Photographed here on the Lincoln Center campus where they both perform, Misseldine and Nadon represent two of the brightest stars in the next generation of the art, young in spirit but already wise beyond their years.

CHLOE MISSELDINE
Two summers ago, Chloe Misseldine was taking her final bows to a standing ovation after her debut as the lead of Swan Lake, one of the most famous works in all of ballet, when she noticed her partner Aran Bell had a strange look on his face. She glanced to the wings and noticed Susan Jaffe, American Ballet Theatre’s artistic director, walking onstage with a microphone in her hand. “I one-hundred-percent had no idea it was happening,” Misseldine laughs. To thunderous applause, Jaffe announced Misseldine’s promotion to principal, the first to take place on stage in front of an audience in the company’s history. “It was really funny because I couldn’t really hear what she was saying because she was speaking towards the audience. There was a lot of clapping, there was the orchestra. I kind of heard it so I gathered what was happening, and I was freaking out.” Jaffe said at the time that she had been planning Misseldine’s promotion for the end of the season but decided to move up the schedule after her performance that afternoon: “I felt no need to wait. The moment was right.”

Reaching the rank of principal is the pinnacle of a ballerina’s career, and doing so in such a public way only cemented Misseldine’s status as one of her company’s latest leading lights. In the years since that historic moment, she has challenged herself in a range of work that has showcased her abilities, citing Onegin, a masterwork that requires not only rigorous dancing but emotional depth as it traces the leading lady Tatiana’s life across decades, as a personal favorite for the way it has pushed her to grow. This summer, she’ll revisit her success in Swan Lake, as well as taking on the lead as Kitri in Don Quixote, which Misseldine calls a “dream role” and “top of my list.” She is currently deep in the rehearsal period, driven by her almost singular focus. “When I’m learning a new ballet, and even revisiting a ballet that I’ve done, I fully immerse myself into the role,” she says. “I study, I rehearse and work on my own, and then outside I do my own homework. I always surround my whole life around it, in a healthy way, because I feel like that’s the only way for me to fully be in character and fully understand the depth of the role.”

As the daughter of a ballet teacher and former dancer at ABT, Misseldine says that “ballet has been a part of my life for the entirety of my life.” After training under her mother in Orlando as a child, she moved to New York at sixteen to join ABT’s younger Studio Company, joining the main company a year later. After five years, she was made a principal. “It is difficult because there’s all this pressure and I’m put on a pedestal of being the youngest principal, of dancing all these roles and dancing them well,” she admits. “New York is a very particular audience. So many of them have been coming to see ballet and ABT and New York City Ballet for many generations, so they have a good eye and you want to do the best for them. I love performing at the Met. I just love the feeling of being in the theater, and the stage is so comfortable, so at home. But it definitely brings a level of nerves and stress.”

Misseldine credits her mother Yan Chen, who now also teaches part-time at ABT, as a driving force in her life, both artistic and personal. “When I was younger, it was harder because with your parents, sometimes you just don’t want to listen,” she laughs. “But when I joined ABT, I really started working more with her, and we have such a great relationship. She not only is my coach, but she’s my mother. She’s always helping me, and I just couldn’t be more grateful for that because I’m so lucky.”

As she looks ahead to her career to come, Misseldine says that alongside revisiting the classics that form the backbone of ABT’s repertory, she is hopeful to have the opportunity to tackle some lesser-known works, including Manon, La Bayadère, and Lady of the Camellias. As is her habit, she’ll be sure to bring her intense focus and dedication to every performance to come, a reminder that the highest successes require a fortunate mixture of talent, luck, and hard work. “Every time I revisit ballets that I’ve done now quite a bit, I always learn something new,” she says. “I always learn ways to change things that might benefit me.”

MIRA NADON
Growing up in Southern California, Mira Nadon’s parents, as those of so many ballerinas, signed her up for her first ballet class after she wouldn’t stop dancing around the house. Even at the age of five, she recalls being drawn to the art form’s rigor. “I think I took it very seriously as soon as I started,” she says. “I was a pretty studious, serious child at the things that I set my mind to.” In middle school, as teachers began to note her natural talent, she convinced her parents to allow her to audition for a summer program at the New York City Ballet-affiliated School of American Ballet. With an acceptance and a scholarship, she moved across the country at the age of fourteen to train at SAB full time, and there she found herself immersed in the style of the company’s founding choreographer George Balanchine. “It was much more hands-on than I was used to,” she recalls. “I remember just getting so many more corrections than I ever had. Everything was so specific, but I think in a way that really appealed to me.” By sixteen, she was asked to join City Ballet’s corps de ballet.

After a few years in the corps, Nadon was promoted to soloist in 2022, and it only took a little over a year for her to be named a principal, thanks to an innate grace that she supports with her fervent dedication. “I think it’s something that maybe sounds a little crazier to me when I look back on it, but I feel like in the moment I felt very prepared for each step,” she says of her rapid ascent. “So I do think I’ve been lucky that it has been quick timing, but I feel like I’ve been equipped to deal with each step as I got there. I have to assume that also happened because they saw that I was ready to take it on and thought that I wouldn’t flounder.”

A standout in roles in “Rubies,” “Mozartiana,” and, this past spring season, “Diamonds” and “Agon,” Nadon credits her childhood violin lessons for her powerful sense of connection to the music she performs to, mostly live thanks to City Ballet’s celebrated orchestra. “I am really grateful for that background that I had studying music, and I think that was very appealing,” she says. “It’s so satisfying when the music and the steps line up, and it feels so fulfilling in your body. I’ve always been very drawn to that, and I’ve always just loved being on stage and performing and the sense of community and freedom that brings.”

With her recent promotion, Nadon also broke ground by becoming the first female Asian-American principal in City Ballet’s history, and she says she is appreciating all the facets of her historic position. “To be honest, when I got promoted, I wasn’t super aware that I was the first,” she admits. “I’m very white-passing, and I love my heritage and my background, but it wasn’t something that I felt like ever stood in my way. It wasn’t something that I really felt had ever been a hurdle necessarily in my path. But then it was really wonderful to hear from all these people that it was inspiring them. That has been nice to get a little more involved in that world.”

City Ballet is known for its vast repertory of dances, from classical full-lengths to modern icons to contemporary hits, and Nadon says that even after the many early highlights in her burgeoning career, there is still plenty to look forward to and grow into in the years to come. “I do feel very lucky,” she says. “I feel like if you’d asked me a couple years ago, I have gotten to do all the ones that were really at the top.” And every season, there is new work to tackle, like this spring’s “Symphonie Espagnole,” choreographed by fellow principal Tiler Peck and in which Nadon debuted a leading role. “I feel like the Balanchine rep is at the heart of the company, and those are probably my favorite ballets to dance. There’s just something about them that feels so natural in the body, and they make so much sense and are so satisfying,” she says. “But it is also really fulfilling to get to have the two sides of the coin of getting to do those works and also having new work being created. You have to approach it in a slightly different way, but I find it very intellectually rewarding also to be able to get to do both.”

American Ballet Theatre begins its summer season on June 17 at the Metropolitan Opera House, New York. New York City Ballet performs June 24-28 at the Music Center, Los Angeles. Be the first to read this story and many more in print by preordering your copy of our eleventh issue here.