It runs in the family: At ABT, 2 rising stars follow in their parents’ steps

When the American Ballet Theatre begins its summer season on June 18, many eyes will be on Chloe Misseldine and Jake Roxander.

The dancers, both 22, have had meteoric rises to center stage. Critics have called them “stunning” and “dazzling.”

“You didn’t notice them as people with promise, but as dancers who were already fully formed," said dance critic and author Marina Harss.

The two young talents are also what some might call nepo babies, to the extent that anyone can be a nepo baby in ballet, an endeavor that requires intense dedication just to get en pointe, let alone to become a soloist in one of the world's most prestigious dance companies.

Both Misseldine and Roxander allowed that, strictly speaking, they qualify as nepo babies. Misseldine’s mother, Yan Chen, was a soloist with ABT until she became pregnant with Chloe in 2001 and retired.

“My mom was a dancer at ABT, and I wouldn’t be here without her, literally,” Misseldine said on a recent afternoon in Central Park. Still, she said, “being a ballet dancer, you have to work very hard.”

Roxander, whom the New York Times singled out as a breakout star last year, was born to not one but two professional dancers.

He agreed with Misseldine’s assessment, noting that the real benefit he received from being born to ballet dancers was not connections (“my parents have zero power in the ballet world”) so much as an appreciation of the work that goes into becoming a professional dancer.

“It’s what my father calls delayed gratification,” he said after a day of rehearsals at ABT studios near Union Square. “Do the thing you don’t want to do now, that you know will make you better in the future, and in the future you will be so much happier for it.”

Following in their parents’ steps

Roxander made the leap to professional ranks after training at his parents' ballet studio in Medford, Oregon. His father, David Roxander, danced at the National Ballet of Canada for two decades and spent hours working one-on-one with Jake and his older brother Ashton, who is now a principal dancer at Philadelphia Ballet.

In order to make time for the requisite hours of training, both Jake and his brother were homeschooled.

Like his father and brother, Jake has a short, muscular physique. His signature move is his propulsive jump.

After a brief stint at Philadelphia Ballet II — effectively a training ground for the main company — he signed with ABT’s Studio Company in 2020. He has quickly scaled the ranks since.

After joining the corps at ABT in 2022, he nabbed starring roles like Mercutio in “Romeo and Juliet” and Puck in “The Dream.” In 2024, he won a Clive Barnes Award in Dance and Theatre, one of the most prestigious prizes that a young performing artist can receive in New York.

Misseldine took classes at Orlando Ballet, where her mother taught. She also tagged along when Chen taught at ABT’s summer intensives; her mother is now a principal teacher with ABT's Jackie Kennedy Onassis School’s Pre-Professional Division and a rehearsal director at ABT's studio company. At 14, after a growth spurt where Chloe shot up to 5'7", she began to take dance more seriously. “I started feeling more confident dancing and being in my body,” Misseldine said.

In 2018, the ABT studio company offered the then-16-year-old a contract. While the prospect of leaving home was daunting, Misseldine opted to go.

“I couldn’t turn down the opportunity,” she said. “And I’ve loved [the city] ever since.”

The original spark

Misseldine’s first connection to the art form came from finding the sequined toe shoes that her mother had worn for a performance of “Cinderella” when she was with ABT.

“I used to walk around the house with them, balancing, trying to turn and jump as a little child,” Misseldine said. “That’s my earliest memory having to do with ballet.”

Roxander has his own talismanic connection to his father’s ballet career. Last year, when he went for a costume fitting for the role of Puck at ABT, in “The Dream" — based on William Shakespeare’s “A Midsummer Night’s Dream" — the wardrobe supervisor assumed he had danced it before, because his name was in the costume.

“It was kind of that moment that I felt the hairs on the back of my neck stand up,” Roxander said. He realized it was the same costume that his father had worn when he played Puck at the National Ballet of Canada. (It’s not unusual for ballet companies to rent out costumes. Often, the names of successive dancers who have worn them are stitched into the seams.)

“My mind immediately went to, 'please fit, please fit, please fit,'” said Roxander. It did.

His brother Ashton did the same role at Philadelphia Ballet, and now all three Roxander men have performed the same role in the same costume.

Turning pro in New York City

When she’s not rehearsing, Misseldine, who lives on the Upper West Side, escapes to Central Park, where she indulges in her new hobby of photography.

Roxander recently moved to Long Island City and makes a point of regularly visiting the Forbidden Planet comic bookstore, which is close to ABT’s Union Square rehearsal studios.

“I’m a huge comic book nerd, I’m not even going to say fan,” he said.

Most of the pair's time, though, is spent preparing for the upcoming summer season. The days start with a 90-minute morning technique class, where they do tendus and grand battements at the barre, and later transition to pirouettes and jumps in the center of the room.

Rehearsals of upcoming ballets including “Swan Lake” and “Like Water For Chocolate” — both of which are part of ABT’s summer season — often start at 11:30 a.m. and can run as late as 7 p.m.

Both Misseldine and Roxander said that dancing at ABT was a long-held dream.

Misseldine’s mother has cautioned her that talent alone is not enough, and advised her to “work hard and work smart.” She has found that following that advice in ballet is a labor of love.

“The trial and error of working on steps, trying to experience a character and a role and dive deep into it, I find that so fascinating, and so exciting to do," Misseldine said.

Correction: A previous version of this story mis-stated where Yan Chen works.

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Upcoming shows

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ABT’s season begins June 18 and runs through July 20.

Jake Roxander will play Mercutio in “Romeo and Juliet” on July 10 and 13. You can see a full list of his upcoming performances here.

On June 20, Chloe Misseldine will perform the female lead in “Onegin,” and she will also play Odette/Odile in “Swan Lake '' on July 3. You can see her upcoming performances here.