DANCER HIGHLIGHT: ADRIAN FRY
Principal Artist Adrian Fry | Photo by Beau Pearson
Principal Artist Adrian Fry grew up in suburban Omaha, Nebraska where his first exposure to dance was at age five when he attended a neighbor’s dance recital. He was intrigued and began taking dance class.
“I was a really shy child, so dance was the perfect outlet for me because I could be expressive, but I was rewarded for not talking. I found where I fit in and then never stopped,” said Fry.
He was in every style of dance – acrobatics, clogging, tap, jazz, and lyrical. Interestingly, he didn’t care for ballet at first, though the ballet company nearby always performed The Nutcracker and Fry participated every year. At age 13, he decided to take more ballet classes in order to strengthen his competency in other styles of dance.
Fry became more devoted to ballet in high school and was offered an apprenticeship with the Omaha Theater Ballet, followed by additional training at Pacific Northwest Ballet School. He danced with Oregon Ballet Theater for four seasons before landing at Ballet West in 2010 and was promoted to Principal Artist in 2017.
Thirteen seasons later, Fry says one of the most pivotal moments in his career was when he debuted the role of Prince Desire in Sleeping Beauty. It was a surprise because a dancer got injured and Artistic Director Adam Sklute asked Fry if he could fill in.
“It was a big step for me to break my teeth on the classics. After that, I was involved in all of the classical productions, which was pivotal because they were less comfortable to me given my background in other styles of dance,” said Fry. “It was easier to blend into the contemporary and neoclassical repertoire; it took me awhile to see myself in classical roles.”
As Fry describes it, ballet is a comprehensive language that can be enjoyed by everyone. “The language of movement is really powerful because it tells stories that words can’t really do justice to,” Fry explains. “There is a lot of beauty in the limitation of using movement only. Even back to when I was a shy kid, it’s what has drawn me to ballet.”
Follow Adrian on Instagram @fryadrian.