Gisele Bethea is a young ballerina at the American Ballet Theatre in New York. As an American ballet dancer, Bethea is originally from Mesa, Arizona born in 1999. While Bethea is known as a professional ballet with the American Ballet Theatre, her initial training was at a local competitive dance studio called Danceworks by Dannis. Most of her training was in hip hop, contemporary and jazz dance. However, she lost all interest in dance and quit it for a full nine months. It was during this hiatus that she realized how much she actually missed dance and knew that she needed to return back to it.
It was in her hometown that at an early age, Gisele Bethea began training in ballet dance under Olga Tarasova. Tarasova was a Russian dance teacher who was very strict. She encouraged Bethea by telling her that she had a lot of potential as a dancer but would have to work very hard at it. Bethea completely gives credit to Tarasova who gave her a foundation in technique that was very strong. She became more inspired while dancing as a student under Tarasova and grew to prefer ballet instead, trading in her jazz shoes for a ballerina bun. It was then that she realized it was time to crack down and be serious and not just do it for fun anymore. Bethea was determined to be dedicated to dancing.
It was at her local studios that she danced and opted out of working with coaches at bigger name ballet schools. She preferred to train in smaller groups and from early on, she was recognized as a young dance prodigy.
Prior to having a professional career as a ballerina, beginning in 2011, she trained at the Master Ballet Academy in Phoenix, Arizona. She was 12 when she enrolled in the Master Ballet Acdemy that was in Scottsdale, Arizona. Her dance instructors at the Master Ballet Academy were Irena and Slawomir Wozniak. The school was Vaganova-based. Again, she had forgone the opportunity to move on to larger dance academies or schools for ballet training. However, her regimen became more intense and she not only had regular classes she participated in, but she also had private lessons offered by the husband and wife coaching team.
Since Bethea was so focused on her own dance potential, she stopped going to regular school. She began home school so she could focus on the rigorous dance schedule. The Wozniaks also took this time as her coaches to start preparing Bethea for much larger scale dance competition. Their goal was to get her in front of as many audiences and people as possible and expose her to numerous opportunities.
Her coaches were spot on and Gisele Bethea’s name became a part of the buzz on the competition trail. She was noted for very high extensions as well as her amazingly arched feet. As a competitor in ballet, she was beginning to make a name for herself and it did not go unnoticed.
Gisele Bethea became an award winning dancer early on. She attended the Youth America Grand Prix New York City Finals twice. In 2012, she won the Makarova Award for Artistry. The next year, in 2013, she won the Youth Grand Prix. She also won a silver medal at Tanzolymp, another at the World Ballet Competition and another in China at the Beijing Invitational for Ballet Schools. Bethea won yet another silver medal in 2013 at the Moscow International Competition where she was actually the youngest competitor ever in the competition at the age of 14.
In 2014, in Jackson, Mississippi, she was awarded the Junior Gold Medal at the USA International Ballet Competition. Throughout her success, Bethea has remained humble and kept level-headed in regards to her achievements through her natural talent as a ballet dancer. It should be kept in mind that she is still a teenager.
Even in her early teenage years, at the age of 13, she received a scholarship to attend the summer program at the American Ballet Theatre’s Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis School. Bethea instead had a competition schedule that was way too rigorous. After she declined not just once, but twice, she was invited by the school to just come and take classes for couple of weeks during the regular academic year to see if she even liked the program and she finally went to dance in the program in the fall of 2013. At that time, she just wasn’t ready to leave her family for the big time schools yet.
Gisele Bethea has danced with the Phoenix Ballet in “The Nutcracker,” from 2011 to 2014. She also dance major roles in the Phoenix Ballet’s original production of “Rising.” This performance was on tour throughout Poland in 2015. Bethea also danced as a guest artist in “The Nutcracker” as the Sugar Plum Fairy in a production with the Fokine Ballet in 2013 and again in 2014 with Ballet Mississippi. Bethea also danced in Beijing, China in 2014 in the 60th Anniversary Gala Performance of the Beijing Dance Academy.
Bethea left her sheltered and quiet life in Arizona for a spot in one of the most elite ballet companies in the nation in order to pursuit her dreams. This was after a lot of prayer within her family who were devout Mormons because American Ballet Theatre had their eyes on Bethea since she was 13 years old.
In September, 2015, Bethea joined the American Ballet Theatre Studio Company which was a dream to her. She then joined the main Company in January 2016 as an apprentice. A few months later, in June 2016, she became a member of the corps de ballet. This is Bethea’s current role at the American Ballet Theatre and she is prepared and devoted to becoming a successful professional ballet dancer. Bethea owes her success not only to her focus but also to entrusting he coaches and directors at the American Ballet Theatre.
As a member of the American Ballet Theatre, Bethea is a long-legged dancer who executes choreography with grace. She danced the part of Gamzatti, who is a princess in the “La Bayadere” ballet. Gamzatti is a scornful character which was a bit difficult for Bethea to capture as she is a sweet and mild mannered person by nature. Despite the difficulty in adjusting to the persona of the character, Bethea still has focus and motivation. What she did have in common with her dance role was that she was also a person who was very driven and had significant strength from within.
Bethea has been noted as her artistic directors of the American Ballet Theatre Studio Company to be a ballerina who undoubtedly loves to dance and is also kind and gentle at heart. She remains devoted to her faith while living in New York and when she is not in the dance studio, Bethea is found cooking or watching Netflix. With her family, she enjoys numerous outdoor activities such as surfing, motor biking through the sand dunes, tubing, wakeboarding, and even skiing (much to her coaches’ dismay). Throughout the few short years as a professionally focused ballerina, she has maintained an emphasis on family and has maintained positivity. Though the world of ballet and training can be stressful, Bethea has maintained happiness and appears to have a long career ahead of her.
