Dancers-Turned-Actors Through the Years

January 10, 2016

New Years is quickly retreating into the rearview as 2016 revs into gear and, for many people, the first couple months of the year mean one thing: awards season. Though our October/November 2015 cover girl Sarah Hay didn’t win a Golden Globe for “Flesh and Bone” last night, we doubt her foray into acting is over. With the Oscars around the corner, we’re taking a look back at some ballet dancers-turned-actors.

Brigitte Bardot


Photo courtesy of The Australian Ballet’s Behind Ballet.

Bardot was known for her sex-symbol persona in movies like Naughty Girl (1956) and A Very Private Affair (1962), but she trained as a classical ballet dancer and became the muse for pointe shoe company Repetto’s iconic street flats.

Audrey Hepburn


Photo by David Seymour courtesy of the Rare Audrey Hepburn.

Before becoming an Academy Award winner, Hepburn wanted to be a ballet dancer. Where else but a ballet studio would she have refined that stunning elegance and poise?

Mikhail Baryshnikov


Baryshnikov in Benjamin Millepied’s “Years Later.” Photo by Andrea Mohin courtesy of The New York Times.

One of the most famous male dancers of the last century, Baryshnikov didn’t just win bunheads’ hearts as Aleksandr Petrovsky in “Sex and the City” and in movies like The Turning Point (1977).

Zoe Saldana


Zoe Saldana. More fashion than ballet, but we couldn’t resist.

Who could forget the sassy role Saldana played as Eva Rodriguez in Center Stage (2000) with co-stars and former American Ballet Theatre dancers Ethan Stiefel and Sascha Radetsky. Now she’s taking the big screen by storm in movies like Star Trek (2009) and Guardians of the Galaxy (2014).

Sarah Hay


Photo by Nathan Sayers

And, of course, our October/November cover girl as Claire in “Flesh and Bone.”

For more news on all things ballet, don’t miss a single issue.