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Katlyn Addison

Sponsored by Peggy Bergmann

Joined Ballet West: 2011
Promoted to Demi Soloist: 2014
Promoted to Soloist: 2016
Promoted to First Soloist: 2018
Promoted to Principal Artist: 2021

Katlyn Addison is from Ontario, Canada.  She joined Ballet West in 2011 and was promoted to Demi-Soloist in 2014, to Soloist in 2016, and to First Soloist in 2018.  In 2016, Katlyn was the first black principal ballerina to perform the role of the Sugar Plum Fairy in Willam Christensen’s The Nutcracker, and Katlyn again made history in 2021 when she became Ballet West’s first black female Principal Artist.  Also in 2021, Katlyn was awarded the Performing Arts Fellowship Award by the Utah Division of Fine Arts & Museums.  Katlyn began her professional ballet training at the age of ten with the National Ballet School of Canada and continued her training with Quinte Ballet School of Canada, Pacific Northwest Ballet, Boston Ballet, and the Houston Ballet Ben Stevenson Academy.  She joined Houston Ballet’s corps de ballet in 2007, and in 2008, she was awarded the Sarah Chapin Langham Award at Youth America Grand Prix and was invited to perform at the prestigious YAGP Gala the same year.  With Ballet West, Katlyn has danced leading roles in Sklute’s Swan Lake, Balanchine’s Prodigal Son, Stevenson’s Dracula, Fonte’s Carmina Burana, and many others!

Katlyn has also worked to find her choreographic voice. In 2015, Katlyn was chosen to choreograph The Hunt for Ballet West’s Choreographic Festival Program. She was again selected to create new works for the festival in 2018 (Hidden Voices) and in 2021 (Eden). She has created new ballets for the Utah Arts Festival (Unnamed, 2019), the Ballet West Academy, the University of Utah Dance Department (Saint-George, The Composer, Frenchmen, and Creator, 2020), the Kansas City Ballet (Sanctuary, 2022), and Ballet Jorgen (There Were TWO, 2022).

In 2015, Huffington Post named Katlyn as one of the top “26 black female dancers you should know,” and she has regularly been featured in Pointe and Dance Magazine.  She danced and acted in Miu Miu’s Woman’s Tales, a short film that premiered at the 2017 Venice Film Festival and appeared on the Prada Miu Miu website.  In 2019, Katlyn performed for attendees of the 68th United Nations Civil Society Conference, dancing the role of Mother Earth in The Way of the Rain – Earth Movements – A Symphony for Ballet with choreography by Emily Adams.  Throughout the fall and winter of 2019-2020, Katlyn performed the principal/soloist roles at the Scottish Ballet in Glasgow, Scotland, including Tituba in Helen Pickett’s The Crucible and Snow Queen, choreographed by Christopher Hampson, Artistic Director of Scottish Ballet.  In June of 2022, Katlyn was featured in “Reforming the Narrative” at the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C., where she performed a lead role in a new ballet created by renowned choreographer Donald Byrd.

In early 2022, Katlyn was included as an honoree in Microsoft’s virtual interactive museum, The Legacy Project, and she was also featured in the Utah Black Chamber’s book Black Utah: Stories of a Thriving Community.

Katlyn is involved in many passion projects and is dedicated to using her platform to give back to her community and to help raise the voices of other minority artists. Katlyn has volunteered her time for:  the Redlining Project, an initiative drawing attention to injustices created by red lining voter districts; Ballet West’s I CAN DO Program; Curly ME, which supports young girls of color; Morning Star Middle School and Ridgewood Elementary School, both in Ontario, Canada; and she also serves on the board of directors for the Utah Black Artist Collective.

Follow Katlyn on Instagram @katlynaddison, and be sure to check out her website for her full bio!

Click below to see Katlyn’s roles.

2022-23 Season

  • Onegin (Cranko) Tatiana, Madame Larina
  • Concerto Barocco (Balanchine)
  • Return to a Strange Land (Kylián)
  • The Nutcracker (Christensen) Snow Queen, Sugar Plum Fairy, Waltz of the Flowers

ON TOUR

  • Orange (Nunes) – Ballet West in the Garden, Red Butte Garden Amphitheater, Salt Lake City, Utah
  • Galantheae (LaPlane) – Ballet West in the Garden, Red Butte Garden Amphitheater, Salt Lake City, Utah

2021–22 Season

  • Dracula (Stevenson) Flora, Innkeeper’s Wife
  • The Nutcracker (Christensen) Snow Queen, Sugar Plum Fairy
  • Romeo + Juliet (Smuin) Juliet, Lady Capulet
  • Glass Pieces (Robbins)
  • Carmina Burana (Fonte)
  • Galantheae (LaPlane) Choreographic Festival (Rose Wagner Theater, Salt Lake City)
  • Orange (Nunes) Choreographic Festival (Rose Wagner Theater, Salt Lake City)

ON TOUR

  • The Solo Year (Neenan) – Ballet West in the Garden, Red Butte Garden Amphitheater, Salt Lake City, Utah
  • Romeo + Juliet (Smuin) – George S. and Dolores Doré Eccles Center, Park City, Utah

2020–21 Season

  • Tides (Archibald)
  • Faraway Close (Fonte)
  • Solo from Lambarena (Caniparoli)
  • Paquita (Kunikova after Petipa)
  • The Solo Year (Neenan) Choreographic Festival (Rose Wagner Theater, Salt Lake City)

ON TOUR

  • The Solo Year (Neenan) – George S. and Dolores Doré Eccles Center, Park City, Utah

CHOREOGRAPHY

  • With Assurance (Adams, Addison, Fry, Tilton) Choreographic Festival (Rose Wagner Theater, Salt Lake City)
  • Eden (Addison) Choreographic Festival (Rose Wagner Theater, Salt Lake City)

2019–20 Season

  • Le Chant Du Rossingnol (Balanchine) Death, court lady
  • Prodigal Son (Balanchine) The Siren
  • The Nutcracker (Christensen) Frau Stahlbaum, Grandmother, Snow Queen, Spanish, Arabian, Mirliton, Waltz of the Flowers, Sugar Plum Fairy
  • Giselle (Sklute, after Coralli and Perrot) Bathilde, Myrthe

ON TOUR

  • Giselle (Sklute, after Coralli and Perrot) Bathilde, Myrthe – The Soraya, Los Angeles, California

2018–19 Season

  • Jewels (Balanchine) Emeralds, Rubies
  • The Nutcracker (Christensen) Frau Stahlbaum, Snow Queen, Arabian, Mirlitons, Sugar Plum Fairy
  • Swan Lake (Sklute, after Petipa and Ivanov) Lead Swan Maiden, Pas de Trois, Lady in Waiting
  • Onegin (Cranko) Madame Larina, Old Woman
  • Constant Light (Liang) Choreographic Festival (Rose Wagner Theater, Salt Lake City)

ON TOUR

  • The Nutcracker (Christensen) – Frau Stahlbaum, Arabian, Kennedy Center, Washington, D.C.

CHOREOGRAPHY

  • Hidden Voices Choreographic Festival (Rose Wagner Theater, Salt Lake City)

2017–18 Season

  • Serenade (Balanchine)
  • Carmina Burana (Fonte)
  • The Nutcracker (Christensen) Frau Stahlbaum, Arabian, Mirlitons
  • Cinderella (Ashton) Fairy Godmother, Fairy Summer
  • Summerspace (Cunningham)
  • The Shakespeare Suite (Bintley) Lady Anne
  • Jabula (Weir) National Choreographic Festival (Rose Wagner Theater, Salt Lake City)
  • Sweet and Bitter (Guzmán) National Choreographic Festival (Rose Wagner Theater, Salt Lake City)

2016–17 Season

  • Madame Butterfly (Welch) Okasan, Kate, Mother
  • The Nutcracker (Christensen) Frau Stahlbaum, Arabian, Mirlitons, Sugar Plum Fairy
  • The Sleeping Beauty (Sklute, after Petipa) Fairy of Kindness, Lilac Fairy, Carabosse
  • Chaconne (Balanchine)
  • Facades (Smith)
  • The Green Table (Jooss)
  • Dances for Lou (Caniparoli) National Choreographic Festival (George S. and Dolores Doré Eccles Theater, Salt Lake City)

ON TOUR

  • The Nutcracker (Christensen) – Austadt Auditorium, Ogden, Utah
  • Tremor (Oguma) – Eccles Center for the Performing Arts, Park City, Utah
  • Rendering Stillness (Nielson) – Eccles Center for the Performing Arts, Park City, Utah

2015–16 Season

  • Overgrown Path (Kylián) “Our Evenings,” “They Chattered Like Swallows,” “Good Night”
  • Symphony in C (Balanchine) First Movement
  • The Nutcracker (Christensen) Frau Stahlbaum, Spanish, Arabian, Mirlitons, Sugar Plum Fairy
  • Romeo and Juliet (Cranko) Lady Montague, Lady Capulet, gypsy
  • Games (Pickett)
  • The Rite of Spring (Fonte)
  • In Memoriam (Ruud) (Rose Wagner Theater, Salt Lake City)
  • Fragments of Simplicity (Oguma) (Rose Wagner Theater, Salt Lake City)
  • Lyric Pieces (Lang) (Rose Wagner Theater, Salt Lake City)

2014–15 Season

  • Giselle (Sklute after Perrot and Coralli) Myrthe, Bathilde, Peasant Pas de Quatre, Wilis
  • The Nutcracker (Christensen) Frau Stahlbaum, Spanish, Arabian, Mirlitons
  • Swan Lake (Sklute, after Petipa) Lead Swan Maiden, Hungarian Princess, Lady in Waiting
  • In the Middle, Somewhat Elevated (Forsythe)
  • Facades (Smith) Innovations (Rose Wagner Theater, Salt Lake City)

ON TOUR

  • Games (Pickett) – Joyce Theater, New York City, New York
  • The Sixth Beauty (Neenan) – Joyce Theater, New York City, New York
  • The Nutcracker (Christensen) – Frau Stahlbaum, Spanish, Arabian, Kennedy Center, Washington, D.C.

CHOREOGRAPHY

  • The Hunt Innovations (Rose Wagner Theater, Salt Lake City)

2013–14 Season

  • The Firebird (Christensen) (Kingsbury Hall, Salt Lake City) Princess
  • Petite Mort (Kylián)
  • Who Cares? (Balanchine)
  • The Nutcracker (Christensen) Frau Stahlbaum, Arabian, Spanish
  • The Sleeping Beauty (Sklute after Petipa) Lilac Fairy Attendant, Fairy of Kindness
  • Forgotten Land (Kylián)
  • Divertimento #15 (Balanchine)
  • Rite of Spring (Fonte) Principal
  • The Sixth Beauty (Neenan) Innovations (Rose Wagner Theater, Salt Lake City)
  • Inverted Affect (Gum) Innovations (Rose Wagner Theater, Salt Lake City)
  • Mixed Signals (Adams) Innovations (Rose Wagner Theater, Salt Lake City)
  • Great Souls (Ruud) Innovations (Rose Wagner Theater, Salt Lake City)

2012–13 Season

  • But Never Doubt I Love (Pickett) Lead
  • The Lottery (Caniparoli) Mrs. Delacroix
  • Bolero (Fonte)
  • The Nutcracker (Christensen) Spanish, Frau Stahlbaum, Mirlitons
  • Cinderella (Ashton) Stars
  • Jewels (Balanchine) Emeralds, Rubies, Diamonds

ON TOUR

  • The Nutcracker (Christensen) – Frau Stahlbaum, Spanish, The Kennedy Center, Washington DC
  • The Nutcracker (Christensen) – Frau Stahlbaum, Ogden

2011–12 Season

  • Dracula (Stevenson)
  • The Nutcracker (Christensen) Spanish, Frau Stahlbaum,
  • Don Quixote (Holmes after Petipa) Fandango, Bridesmaid
  • Paquita (Kunikova after Petipa)
  • Emeralds (Balanchine)
  • Petit Mort (Kylián)

Fonte’s Carmina Burana

Juliet in Smuin’s Romeo + Juliet

Balanchine’s Rubies © The George Balanchine Trust

Sugar Plum Fairy in Christensen’s The Nutcracker

The Siren in Balanchine’s Prodigal Son © The George Balanchine Trust

photos by Beau Pearson