Allison DeBona is a Soloist with Ballet West of Salt Lake City, Utah and a featured cast member on CW's hit reality television series Breaking Pointe. By design, her role as the latter has catapulted her dancing and her life as a ballerina into public prominence. After witnessing declining ticket sales and slashed budgets at Ballet West, (as well as other companies world-wide) she readily participated in the reality series in hopes of bringing ballet to a more mainstream and modern audience. As such, she has successfully created a social media audience of more than ten thousand followers. Among them, naturally, are thousands of aspiring dancers of every genre looking up to her, watching her, and wondering how they could be her. So, given how her goals meshed with those of our podcast, naturally we wanted to tell her story.

It may surprise some that Allison's journey has not been typical for a dancer. In fact, Allison quit dancing at 13 and did not start again until she was 16. Later she decided to pursue the college route before becoming an apprentice to Ballet West in her early 20s. Forthright and determined, Allison succeeded in getting a start with Ballet West and is now a soloist dancing great roles and great choreography.

Born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, she trained with The Parou Ballet Company under Debbie Parou, followed by the Pittsburgh Youth Ballet under Jean Gedeon. Allison then earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Ballet from Indiana University.

She joined Ballet West in 2007 and was promoted to Demi-Soloist in 2011. The success of the television show has translated to success for ballet, bringing larger audiences for Ballet West at home and abroad. The popularity of the series can also be seen as the inspiration for other reality based productions about ballet companies around the world.

11 - Allison DeBona, Soloist Ballet West - TV show Breaking Pointe

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