In 1987, an American ballet star was born. Growing up in Princeton, New Jersey, Sarah Hay is not only a professional ballerina but also an actress. Fortunately, arts ran in the family as her brother is an opera singer, her grandfather was a member of the New York Philharmonic, and her grandmother was a New York art dealer. At 3 years old, Hay began dance classes and became a member of New York City’s School of American Ballet at the age of 8. She eventually went on to attend the prestigious Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis School of Ballet through the American Ballet Theatre.
Hay said that while she was attending regular school, she felt normal because she was popular but in the ballet school, due to her family’s socioeconomic status and not being one of the wealthy kids, she was thought of as a loser. While she describes herself as a troublemaker as a kid, it was in her teenage years that she decided to go ahead and pursue a professional ballet career. She sacrificed many other pursuits due to being an ambitious professional ballet dancer.
However, again, Hay overcame many obstacles due to her body. Based on America’s definition of a dancer body, she was labeled as the fat or heavy girl and some of her teachers even suggested that she have breast reduction surgery. She was even encouraged to quit ballet as a teenager and instead to try to be a modern dancer because she was talented, but still didn’t fit the part. While she wanted to quit dance altogether at that point in time because the New York City Ballet was one of her ultimate goal, she still prevailed.
Upon leaving the School of American Ballet, Hay took open classes at the Princeton Dance and Theater Studio under the teaching of Susan Jaffe, who encouraged her to try out for the American Ballet Theatre’s Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis School. She spent three years there working on the technicalities of ballet. While she had aspirations of joining the American Ballet Theatre’s Studio Company, she received criticism from the artistic staff who said she was not focused. She trudged through and thought that her attention problems had greatly improved by the end of the school year. Unfortunately, it seemed too little too late as the younger girls in the school were receiving promotions instead of her.
Hay returned back to taking open dance classes. Charlotte Ballet artistic director, Jean-Pierre Bonnefoux at Steps on Broadway discovered Hay again. Immediately, Hay received an offer to join another company. It was there that she first danced contemporary ballet. However, after two years of working under the resident choreographer, she did not feel as though she was being challenged so she went back to doing auditions.
Eventually an open call landed her at the Pennsylvania Ballet. Hay said that she had not only spent two years at the second company but also two years dancing as an apprentice. She felt as though she was just on a plateau and was not necessarily improving. She lost confidence but gained weight and it was like she had to start all over again.
Hay was coached for William Forsythe’s “In the Middle, Somewhat Elevated,” and her coach, Jodie Gates, identified Hay immediately as a standout and encouraged her to go to a workshop at Dresden where the artistic director at Semperoper Ballet, Aaron S. Watkin, mentioned possibly hiring Hay when a contract came up. She came back to the United States, went through numerous auditions for Broadway which were discouraging. A month after her return, Hay got the call she didn’t necessarily expect from Watkin to finally accept her very first ballet corps contract in Germany. It was then that Hay left the American dance companies and relocated to Europe to join a German dance company at the age of 23.
Hay danced with the Semperoper opera house in Dresden, Germany. It was at the Semperoper ballet that the director believed in her talents and Hay attributes his direction and encouragement to advance her career and earned the rank of second soloist. She worked with William Forsythe very closely on “Impressing the Czar,” a full-length ballet.
As an aspiring actress, Hay made a debut on the big screen in “Black Swan” in 2010 but even though Hay was cast as a dancer, she does not consider it as a part of her acting resume. It should also be noted that in 1997, Hay played the role of Stephanie in the show, “You’re Invited to Mary-Kate & Ashley’s Ballet Party,” which was a series of DVD programs starring Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen.
Eventually an executive producer who was working for Starz who had seen over a thousand ballet performance auditions for a part in a new mini-series, Moira Walley-Beckett, along with Ethan Stiefel, choreographer, began to search for ballet footage from even more dancers for the role they were needing. Hay sent in footage, was asked for an audition in New York and received the offer for the part within an hour. So, from that experience, Hay played in the Starz network mini-series as Claire Robbins in “Flesh and Bone” in 2015.
From her role as Claire Robbins, Hay was nominated for numerous awards in 2016 including the Critics’ Choice Television Award for best actress in a movie or mini-series, a Satellite Award for best actress in a mini-series or television film, and a Golden Globe Award for best actress in a mini-series or television film. Hay won the Satellite Award in the category she was nominated in for her work in “Flesh and Bone.”
The role of Claire Robbins was based on a fictional character about a young and troubled young dancer who was getting a huge break in her career for the first time through work at the New York City ballet company. Hay completely owned the role through her natural talent as an actress and her fine-tuned dancing. The obstacles about her own body image and a slow starting career were useful when playing the role of Claire Robbins so some of the emotion the character went through were also things Hay had gone through herself.
Hay is described as an emotional and vulnerable dancer who has amazing honesty through her movement. After years of struggling at some of the bottom of some of America’s dance companies and then landing a spot in Dresden where she could prosper, she has very technical dance moves. Her performances on stage and on screen are completely captivating and now millions of people have become her audience as Hay is finally coming into her own and shining brightly as a potential star with still a lot of dreams left to accomplish. She has only just begun.
