Amanda McKerrow is one of America's most acclaimed ballerinas. She has the honor of being the
first American to receive a gold medal at the lnternational Ballet Competition in Moscow in 1981. Since then she
has been a recipient of numerous other awards, including the Princess Grace Foundation Dance Fellowship.
Ms. McKerrow was born in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and began her ballet training at ! the age of seven at the Twinbrook
School of Ballet in Rockville, Maryland. She later studied with Mary Day at the Washington School of Ballet, where
she danced with the company for two years and toured extensively throughout the United States and Europe.
Ms. McKerrow joined the American Ballet Theatre under the direction of Mikhail Baryshnikov in 1982, was appointed
a soloist in 1983, and became a principal dancer in 1987. Her repertoire includes: the leading roles in Cinderella,
Giselle, Romeo and Juliet, Manon, La Bayadere, Coppelia, Don Quixote, The Sleeping Beauty, Swan Lake, La Sylphide,
and The Nutcracker. She has been acclaimed for performances of shorter works by George Balanchine, Antony Tudor,
Sir Frederick Ashton, Jerome Robbins, and Juri Kilian. Ms. McKerrow has created roles in ballets by choreographers
such as Twyla Tharpe, Clark Tippet, lames Kudelka, Agnes DeMille, Choo San Goh, and Mark Morris. She has also appeared
as a guest artist throughout the world.
In 2000, together with her husband John Gardner, Ms. McKerrow began working for the Antony Tudor
Ballet Trust, staging and coaching his superlative Leaves Are Fading around the country. She has also staged numerous
other ballets for professional companies and schools across the United States. During her last ten years performing
as a principal ballerina with the American Ballet Theatre, she spent as much time as she could working with students
and young dancers. Upon her retirement from ABT in 2005, she has devoted the majority of her time to teaching and
coaching this great art form that she loves so much.
Amanda McKerrow - Répétiteur