Photo Credit: Sophie Elgort
Tomorrow, March 2, Isabella Boylston will make her big screen debut—as Jennifer Lawrence. The 31-year-old ballerina—a principle dancer with the famed ABT company in NYC—does all of JLaw’s dance moves in Red Sparrow, a spy thriller based on the novel of the same name by Jason Matthews, which tells the story of a Russian intelligence officer who is sent to make contact with a CIA agent and possible mole. Lawrence’s Dominika Egorova begins the film as a ballerina.
In addition to her famed career with the ABT, Boylston is the artistic director and co-creator of the Ballet Sun Valley, which was a new festival that she put together this past summer in the Idaho town where she grew up. Over the winter, she danced with the Ballet Opera de Paris.
Boylston has been dancing most of her life. While training at the Academy of Colorado Ballet, she won the gold medal in 2001 at the Youth America Grand Prix Finals in New York City. In 2002, she began training at the Harid Conservatory in Boca Raton, Florida, and joined the ABT Studio Company in 2005, the main Company as an apprentice in May 2006 and the corps de ballet in March 2007. She was promoted to Soloist in June 2011 and to Principal Dancer in August 2014. She created the Diamond Fairy in Ratmansky’s The Sleeping Beauty and had leading roles in Lauri Stallings’ Citizen, Ratmansky‘s Chamber Symphony and Dumbarton, Demis Volpi’s Private Light and Christopher Wheeldon’s Thirteen Diversions. She will star as Juliet this spring at the Metropolitan Opera House.
Here, this prima ballerina shares five ways to stay in shape and get tha ballet body you’ve always dreamed of.
1.Every professional ballerina’s body is different, so you just have to find what works for you. What works the best for me is eating 3 solid meals a day, and usually pasta is one of them.
2. I usually avoid sugar because I feel like it dehydrates me, but I don’t deprive myself. If I feel like eating ice cream, I’ll eat it, and I have a glass of wine almost every day with dinner.
3. Getting enough sleep is so important for not getting injured! I love sleeping and usually try to get 8-9 hours a day.
4. In addition to rehearsing up to 9 hours a day, I usually work out with my trainer once every few weeks. I would recommend incorporating some work outs that push you out of your comfort zone. It will make you stronger and keep you from getting bored with the routine. Honestly, there’s no way around hard work. If you want to be fit, you have to work for it! The mind body connection is really powerful, so when your body feels good, usually your mood will follow.
5. Set goals for yourself. When I set new goals and work towards achieving them, I feel like I actually have more energy. Setting goals will keep you going and make you excited to get out of bed in the morning.
