Tobin Eason

Joffrey Ballet School

From Mandeville, Louisiana, Tobin Eason began his ballet training at the Apetrei Dance Center. He later continued his ballet studies at the Giacobbe Academy of Dance in New Orleans, LA with Richard Rholdon and Joseph Giacobbe. While in New Orleans, Tobin performed with the New Orleans Youth Ballet and Delta Festival Ballet Company. He continued his professional training through the School of American Ballet where he received a full scholarship in 2000. While at SAB, Tobin was awarded the Nureyev Foundation Scholarship Award.

In the summer of 2001, he attended ABT’s Summer Intensive on full scholarship. Eason joined American Ballet Theatre as an apprentice in 2002 and became a member of the company’s corps de ballet in April 2003. His roles with the company include the Cockerel in La Fille mal garde, the Spanish Dance in Alexei Ratmansky’s The Nutcracker, a Groom in Petrouchka, the Neapolitan Dance in Swan Lake, and roles in classical ballet repertory such as Raymonda, Don Quixote, The Sleeping Beauty, Cinderella, The Firebird, Kenneth Macmillans Romeo and Juliet, John Crankos Eugene Onegin, George Balanchines Theme and Variations, Agnes de Milles Rodeo, Twyla Tharps Baker’s Dozen, Paul Taylors Black Tuesday and Company B, to name a few. After leaving ABT, Tobin joined the Metropolitan Opera Ballet at the Metropolitan Opera House in New York City, performing in various operas including Aida, Mozarts Die Zauberflote, Richard Strausss Arabella, Antonin Dvoraks Rusalka, Don Giovanni, Macbeth, Tales of Hoffman, and Lucia di Lammermoor.

In addition to performing, Mr. Eason also choreographs. At the age of seventeen, Eason choreographed for American Ballet Theatres Studio Company for its New York season and received favorable reviews by newspapers such as the New York Times. In 2012 he choreographed another work for former ABT principal dancer Michele Wiles company, Ballet Next, for their Brooklyn Academy of Music performances. Tobin also designed and painted the set for his piece at BAM and his sets were also featured at New York Live Arts Center in Manhattan. Outside of the dance scene, Tobin is also an oil painter, inspired by the varied landscapes he has seen around the world while traveling to perform. Dancers and performing artists also inspire him and are the subject of his work. His paintings will be featured in the gallery The Alliance of Resident Theatres/New York in May 2015 and Arts and Crafts Beer Parlor in August 2015.