Happy #FBF: Watch a 15-Year-Old Kathryn Morgan Dance Snow Queen

October 8, 2015

It’s October! And you know what that means: While the normals are busy planning their Halloween costumes, you’re busy rehearsing The Nutcracker. (Well, and planning your Halloween costumes, too. Those Fraternal Twins outfits aren’t gonna make themselves.)

One of the best things about Nutcracker is that it gives lots of dancers their first shots at meaty principal roles. Long runs + a bazillion different parts to fill = opportunities left and right—every one of them a chance for a budding ballerina to discover her love of performing. I still remember standing in the wings, literally shaking in my pointe shoes, before dancing my first Snow Queen at 15. But I’ll never forget how exhilarating it was once I actually got out there onstage—once I BECAME the Snow Queen. I wasn’t all that good, but man, was I ever hooked.

And some extraordinary young students are, by the time they do their first Nutcracker leads, already gifted artists. This morning, former New York City Ballet soloist (and current Dance Spirit advice columnist!) Kathryn Morgan posted a #FBF video of her own teenaged Snow Queen performance with Mobile Ballet. She’s clearly destined for greatness: Her technique is polished, her port de bras beautifully expansive. What really stands out, though, is how she performs with every inch of her body. She’s a stage creature—completely at home and completely alive out there, even at just 15.

Already a beauty! (screenshot via YouTube)

Enjoy! And if you have questions for Morgan—about performing, about technique, about how to look like a principal before you can legally drive—send them to [email protected].