Dusty Button (surely one of the most delightful names in the business?) has been with Birmingham Royal Ballet for two seasons, but in her teenage years she was also one of the most successful dancers on the US competition circuit. I found out why she decided to complete her training at the Royal Ballet School and stay on to work in England, and the article is in the latest issue of Pointe Magazine, which features ABT’s Maria Riccetto on the cover:

Cover of the June/July 2010 issue © Pointe Magazine

Onstage, Dusty Button defies categorization. The Birmingham Royal Ballet corps member from South Carolina uses her long, swan-like lines with typical English softness but bursts with energy in spiky contemporary work. Once told by a teacher at American Ballet Theatre’s Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis School that she had “too many ingredients” in her soup, Button may be the unlikeliest dancer to find a home in an English company.

Ballet did not start out her favorite genre. Button began dancing at age 7, dividing her time between jazz, tap, hip hop and ballet. Within a few years, she was winning prizes at competitions like Showstoppers and New York City Dance Alliance. “I loved it because it was a way for people from elsewhere to see me dance,” she says. (…)

» Read the full interview in Pointe Magazine