Ashley Bouder’s Farewell Performance At The New York City Ballet

Ashley Bouder took her final bow at the New York City Ballet, concluding a remarkable 25-year career with the Company, including two decades as a principal dancer. Her farewell performance on February 13 in Igor Stravinsky’s “Firebird” was a testament to her profound impact on two generations of dancers and audiences alike.

Taking the stage as the Firebird, a role she first performed in 2001, Bouder received five curtain calls. Standing on stage to thunderous applause, each member of NYCB presented her with flowers. By the end, a pile of bouquets stood tall at her side. The last was delivered by her 8-year-old daughter, Violet de Florio, dressed in red to match Ashley’s Firebird costume. “If you weren’t crying with me during the performance, you were by then,” said Bouder.

Bouder’s farewell was followed by a private celebration at Bowlero in Times Square, where she traded her pointe shoes for bowling shoes with more than 100 friends and colleagues. The evening also marked a new beginning as she announced that Ashley Bouder Arts, her organization dedicated to supporting women choreographers and commissioning new works, has already raised nearly half a million dollars.

Born in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, Bouder trained at Central Pennsylvania Youth Ballet under Marcia Dale Weary before joining the School of American Ballet in 1999. She became a NYCB apprentice in 2000, a corps de ballet member later that year, a soloist in 2004, and a principal dancer in 2005. She has danced George Balanchine’s “The Nutcracker” and “Serenade” and new works like Alexei Ratmansky’s “Concerto DSCH” and Justin Peck’s “Pulcinella Variations.” In 2019, she received the Benois de la Danse for her performance of Swanilda in “Coppélia.”