OUR STORY
Returning home to the world of ballet
The Ballet Salon is a semi-professional contemporary ballet company designed for dancers returning to ballet in search of artistic expression, joyful community, and the inspiration that comes from collective movement. The Ballet Salon was founded in 2025 by Meiying Thai and Adriana Gramly, two ballet dancers-turned visual artists who connected through a shared passion for dance, art, and community building.
We see the act of returning to ballet as a return to oneself. To return to dance is to return to both a first love and a first language. The Ballet Salon will be a place for all of us to come home to dancing with a shared and supportive community. With the Ballet Salon, we also hope to challenge the belief that a dancer’s career span must end when her true adult life perhaps, is only just beginning. We are interested in dancers with rich life experiences, and even dancers who have overcome obstacles in order to return to ballet. We hope to challenge the limitations and stigma that are often felt by “former” dancers– you may have taken time away from the barre, but we truly believe you never stopped being an artist.
A LITTLE ABOUT US
From Ballet,
to Visual Arts,
and back to Ballet
Adriana and Meiying first met by chance at the barre in an open Mark Morris ballet class in Brooklyn. Despite their differences (Adriana was an adagio lover while Meiying preferred petite allegro) they connected over their mutual passions for dance and visual art. Realizing they both had studied at art universities (Adriana at RISD, Meiying at MICA), they became friends and then later, colleagues at the art studio, Drawing Room, where they now are staff instructors who teach drawing, painting, and textiles. As both artistic colleagues and friends, Adriana and Meiying continue to collaborate across both art and dance studios together!
