Melissa Hamilton is the epitome of a ballet dancer who appeared to have shattered dreams. As a late starter as a ballet dancer, it did not seem that she would ever have a career as a professional ballerina. Instead, with the odds stacked against her, it surged her to work that much harder to prove all of her naysayers wrong.
As a Northern Irish ballet dancer, Melissa Hamilton was born in 1989 in Belfast, Ireland. She grew up in Dromore, County Down. At the age of only four years old, Hamilton started her training in dance at the Jennifer Bullick School of Ballet. However, excellent dance teachers who featured classical ballet were scarce in Northern Ireland so she had become late to start her formal dance training.
It was at the age of 16 that Melissa Hamilton was actually first rejected by the Royal Ballet School. To begin ballet formal training in her mid-teens, Hamilton was considered to be a late starter. Though she had lost a lot of time and had years to catch up in order to bloom as professional dancer, Hamilton still showed determination.
Instead, Hamilton joined the Elmhurst School of Dance in Birmingham after receiving a scholarship to continue her dance training. However, after a short stint at the prestigious school of ballet, Hamilton was advised to quit. She was discouraged as a disadvantaged late starter in ballet. Hamilton’s teachers and mentors mostly gave the encouragement to discontinue her dreams as a ballet dancer. While most people would be more apt to quit the pursuit of their dreams, Hamilton saw it as an opportunity to seize them and by a twist of fate, she was discovered at just the right time in her life after all.
Apparently, there were other things that were about to take place in Hamilton’s life. Fortunately, a former dancer from the Bolshoi Ballet based in Moscow, Masha Mukhamedov, along with wife, Irek, discovered the young dancer and noted her talent. Mukhamedov was the only teacher who truly believed in Hamilton and she privately trained with Mukhamedov in Athens in order to perfect her technique and skill. In fact, Mukhamedov thought Hamilton was crazy when she wanted to divulge herself into private classes for four hours each day, every day.
The coaching was intense under Mukhamedov, and while it seemed like just a last vote of hope, to Hamilton, she saw it as an opportunity and followed her gut. Mukhamedov shaped Hamilton into the dancer she truly had the capability of becoming and it was so much different than the training she had receied at Elmhrst School of Dance.
In 2007, Hamilton was the winner of the 2007 Youth American Grand Prix. It was her first attempt to test the waters as a trained dancer. Her talent was finally becoming noted. Upon winning the award, Hamilton was offered a spot with the American Ballet Theatre. However she turned it down because she didn’t really want to move to New York. Instead, she still had hopes that she would be able to land a spot in London where she truly dreamed of being a professional dancer.
After a year of private teaching, Hamilton finally auditioned by sending a DVD to the company director at the Royal Ballet and was accepted into the Royal Ballet in 2007 to fulfill her lifelong dream as a member in the corps de ballet. Later that year, she joined the Royal Opera House’s Royal Ballet located in Covent Garden. Despite having zero experience as a stage performer, it would be yet again, another leap of faith that would continue to launch her professional career.
Hamilton was faced with the option to be complacent in her spot or to work her way through the ranks within the company through her interior desire to fight and be determined to work her way up within the company. She would only take a week off in the summers and then it was back to the dance studio to continue to work harder as a dancer.
It was within the Royal Ballet that Hamilton’s professional career began to accelerate. In 2007, she was an Artist and then promoted in 2009 to First Artist and a year later, was again promoted to Soloist. And in 2013, she became a First Soloist.
Hamilton has been noted to have a body with beautiful lines of a dancer. She has long arms, features that are dainty, and arched feet that are perfect for a ballet dancer. The young star of the Royal Ballet was distinguished for her powerful and long legs, fluid arms, and overall artistic style of expressing herself through dance.
Hamilton, while delicate, she dances in ways that are very strong, both mentally and physically. She has even been compared to a famous actress, called the “Charlize Theron in pointe shoes.” Not only has she been noted as a beautiful dancer, but also a beautiful actress too, submerging completely into her parts to evoke emotion which is portrayed through each of her roles.
Melissa Hamilton’s performances have been noted to be natural and she was highly recognized by media outlets in Britain, particularly for her role in “Romeo and Juliet,” by Kenneth MacMillan where she played Juliet. However, this is not her only role of distinction. She has numerous roles on her resume.
At Royal Ballet, Hamilton danced in “The Nutcracker,” as Raven Girl, Manon, Juliet, and the Sugar Plum Fairy. In “Onegin,” she played Olga and in “The Sleeping Beauty,” she danced the Lilac Fairy and Princess Florine. In “Don Quixote,” Hamilton danced Queen of the Dyrads. She also danced as “Mayerling” as Mary Vetsera and Terpsichore in “Apollo.”
Also with the company, Hamilton had other roles in “Rubies (Jewels),” “The Concert and Danse a grande vitesse,” “Gloria,” “Symphonic Variations,” “Las hermanas,” “Requiem,” “Fool’s Paradise,” “Serenade,” and “Agon.” Hamilton has also helped Royal Ballet’s resident choreographer, Wayne McGregor, create roles in various dance productions which has included “Carbon Life,” “Infra,” “Carbon Life,” “Acis and Galatea,” and “Limen.”
For Northern Ireland, Hamilton serves as the Allianz Arts and Cultural Brand Ambassador and has had the role since 2013. This is an effort to provide options for potential dancers in the region and give them opportunities that she did not have in her youth. Her goal is to develop an outreach dance program through the Royal Ballet.
Among other of Hamilton’s personal achievements, she has also won several awards. In 2009, Hamilton received the Critics Circle Outstanding Female Classical Performance. She also won a gold medal in the Eighth International Seoul Ballet competition in 2011. In April of 2015, Elle magazine named Hamilton as the publication’s Woman of the Month.
