Mary Barton is widely recognized for her special blend of technical brilliance and artistic expression as a performing artist, and as a teacher and coach she continues to bring those special qualities to her students in class. During her early training, she was privileged to be on stage performing young dancer roles at the Kennedy Center and Wolf Trap with New York City Ballet, American Ballet Theater and the Joffrey Ballet among others. This invaluable early exposure and experience as a young ballet dancer set Ms. Barton on course to become a unique dancer and teacher. She received her dance training at The Washington School of Ballet under the direction of world-renowned teacher Mary Day, during which time she also participated in summer courses at the School of American Ballet and Joffrey Ballet School. Her professional experience began at age 16 while she was still a student at The Washington Ballet School, when she performed with the professional company as a soloist in Balanchine’s Scotch Symphony and the following year she performed in the principal pas de deux in Tom Paczik’s Tzigane. At 18, she was the principal guest artist at the Oldenburg Staat Ballet in Germany where the principal role of Mme. de Rênal was created on her for the world premiere of Ingred Collet and Gerhard Markson’s Ballet recreation of Stendhal’s The Red and The Black.
In 1982, Ms. Barton joined the Dayton Ballet, performing as a principal dancer for three seasons in many of the company’s leading roles under the direction of Stuart Sebastian. In 1986, she joined the Joffrey Ballet NY/LA where she performed a variety of roles in the great ballets of the 20th century. Robert Joffrey created the role of Clara on her for the world premiere of his new Nutcracker. She was an original cast member of Joffrey Ballet’s historic recreation of Nijinsky’s Le Sacre du Printemps and she appeared in the PBS presentation of “Dance in America’s”, “The Making of Nijinsky’s Le Sacre du Printemps“.
From 1993–2004, Ms. Barton was a principal dancer with American Repertory Ballet (ARB) where notable roles include the Sugar Plum Fairy, Odette/Odile in Swan Lake, Juliet in Romeo and Juliet, the lead in Cinderella, Titania in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and Emily in Our Town, as well as leads in Balanchine’s Four Temperaments, Rubies, Concerto Barocco and Serenade.
Ms. Barton taught on the faculty of the Princeton Ballet School from 1994 until 2019, during which time she also was a senior faculty teacher and choreographer for the demanding Summer Intensive program, and choreographing more than two dozen works for Princeton Ballet School’s spring full-length ballets and Summer Intensive.
In addition, from 2010 to 2019, Ms Barton served as Resident Choreographer and Ballet Master for ARB. Her original works include Straight Up with a Twist, Five Men and a Concerto, Faerie Tyme, Fantasy Baroque, Shades of Time, A Shepherd Singing (And I Still Heard Nothing), Scarlet Sonata and her newest work Trois Voix. Ms Barton was also co-choreographer on Douglas Martin’s Nutcracker, which was presented to high acclaim for nine seasons throughout New Jersey by ARB.
Mary Barton has been a ballet faculty member at Princeton University and is currently an adjunct professor with the Rider University Music Theater Department.
