By Isabella Moreau | May 10, 2024
When Ava Thompson takes the stage as Giselle this month, she will do so with a title she never expected to hold this soon: principal dancer. Thompson, 24, is one of three dancers promoted to the top rank at Cole Camp City Ballet ahead of the 2024 season, joining Lucas Ramirez and Sophia Chen in a principal roster that has nearly doubled in two years.
The promotions signal a shift for the Missouri-based company, which has steadily expanded from a regional troupe of 18 dancers in 2019 to a 32-member ensemble now drawing choreographers from New York, Berlin, and Buenos Aires. Artistic director Margaret Holt says the growth demanded fresh faces at the top.
"We needed leaders who could not only handle the classics but could also work with choreographers who've never set foot in the Midwest," Holt said. "Ava, Lucas, and Sophia each bring something the others don't."
New Principals, Distinct Paths
Thompson's route to principal was accelerated by injury—she stepped into the role of Giselle last December when a veteran dancer tore an Achilles tendon three days before opening. Her performance drew a standing ovation and, eventually, the promotion.
"She doesn't just dance Giselle—she investigates her," Holt said. "In rehearsal, she asked whether Giselle's madness in Act I should read as betrayal or relief. That question changed how we staged the Wilis."
Ramirez, 27, trained at the School of American Ballet and spent four years in the corps de ballet before his promotion. He is scheduled to debut in Romeo and Juliet in October, a role Holt says tests stamina more than flash.
"Lucas held a développé à la seconde for eight counts in his final understudy performance, and you could hear the audience react," Holt said. "But what got him promoted was his consistency in rehearsal. He raises the standard without saying a word."
Chen, at 22 the youngest of the three, joined the company in 2021 after training at the Shanghai Ballet School. She will originate a leading role in Threshold, a world premiere by Argentine choreographer Tomás Mendoza, this November.
Chen described the shift from corps to principal as less about technique than about decision-making.
"In the corps, you watch. As a principal, you choose every second whether to show or hide something," Chen said. "I am still learning when to be still."
New Work, New Technology
The 2024 season includes four company premieres and two world premieres. The most technically ambitious is Mendoza's Threshold, which will incorporate virtual reality for select performances.
Audience members in a 40-seat section will wear modified headsets during the performance, placing them at floor level inside the corps de ballet as dancers move around them. The technology, developed with Brooklyn-based media studio Limbic, was tested in Copenhagen and Montreal before its U.S. debut in Cole Camp.
"We're not asking people to stop watching live dance," said limbic co-founder Dara Okonkwo. "We're using the headset for two 12-minute sequences, then removing it. The goal is to make the return to unmediated watching feel sharper, not like a consolation prize."
Other premieres include a collaboration with jazz composer Tyshawn Sorey on a new piece for Chen, and a restaging of Twyla Tharp's In the Upper Room for the full company.
Widening Access
The company is also expanding its "Ballet for All" initiative, launched in 2022. This fall, it will offer free adaptive ballet classes for dancers with disabilities at its downtown studio, plus open rehearsals for every mainstage production. A new partnership with local public schools will bring 800 students to dress rehearsals, double last year's total.
"We can talk about innovation all day, but if the people down the street have never seen a ballet, we're failing at something basic," Holt said.
The 2024 season opens May 17 with Giselle.
