ELLEN GROCKI - BIOGRAPHY

Ellen Grocki took her last bow with Miami City Ballet in 2023 after completing nine seasons with the company. She started her ballet training in her hometown of Damascus, Maryland, and moved to Miami at age 16 to attend Miami City Ballet School. During her professional career with MCB, she performed many principal, soloist, and corps de ballet roles including the Sugar Plum Fairy in George Balanchine’s The Nutcracker, the principal woman in George Balanchine’s Emeralds, Anita in Jerome Robbins’ West Side Story Suite, Bomb Squad in Twyla Tharp’s In The Upper Room, and both pas de trois and little swans in Alexei Ratmansky’s Swan Lake.

She has originated roles in ballets by Alexei Ratmansky, Claudia Schreier, and Durante Verzola. With MCB, Grocki toured extensively, including visits to New York City Center, the David H. Koch Theater at Lincoln Center, the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., the Music Center Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in Los Angeles, the Queen Elizabeth Theater in Vancouver, Canada, and the Harris Theater in Chicago. Her repertoire includes a vast number of works by choreographers such as George Balanchine, Jerome Robbins, Alexei Ratmansky, Justin Peck, Paul Taylor, Twyla Tharp, Martha Graham, John Kranko, Marius Petipa, Amy Hall Garner, Peter Martins, Claudia Schreier, Durante Verzola, and Brian Brooks. Ellen has been a guest teacher with Miami City Ballet, Canton Ballet, Berrend Dance Center, Ayala Royal Ballet, Ballet Caliente, and Miami Dance Collective. She is currently pursuing her undergraduate degree at Saint Mary’s College of California.