<\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n
COURTESY OF ERIN BAIANO<\/p>\n
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tAs one of New York City Ballet\u2019s biggest stars, Fairchild is renowned for her technicality and musical precision.\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
Fairchild was always dedicated to her academics \u2014 growing up in Utah, school was important to both her and her family. An accomplished student, she attended a school a good distance from her family\u2019s home for its honors program. Like many young dancers who leave home to study at the School of American Ballet, she attended the Professional Children\u2019s School to finish high school.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Immediately after graduating high school, during her first year in the corps de ballet, she enrolled at Fordham, starting out with just one introductory writing class. At the time, continuing her academic education seemed like the natural next step, but in the throes of her first season of \u201cThe Nutcracker,\u201d she found it hard to balance the new workload.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Two years later, she tried again, but still struggled to manage the added demands of school as she adjusted to her career. By age 22, she was getting used to the rigorous schedule of being in the company and was ready to add her academic pursuits back into her life for good. This time, Fairchild said she was finally able to reap the benefits that continuing her studies could bring, both to her health and her career.\u00a0<\/p>\n
It felt like, \u2018I have this other part of my brain that has energy \u2014 to expand, to grow, to learn \u2014 that I\u2019m not using at the ballet. Megan Fairchild, NYC Ballet principal dancer<\/p>\n
Her first class upon her return was the quintessential Fordham core theology course, a class that she admits, as many students may, did not seem very exciting at first. With her grueling rehearsal schedule, she had to take the class on Monday nights, but Fairchild recalled that even at that late hour, \u201cit woke me up, it gave me life.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Coming from Utah, where Mormonism dominates religious conversation, she remembered finding it exciting to have such lively group conversation about all different religions. She credits that first theology professor for getting her excited to engage in academics again, even on a Monday night.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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Fairchild\u2019s final performance with the New York City Ballet will be in \u201cCoppelia\u201d on May 24.\u00a0(COURTESY OF ERIN BAIANO)<\/p>\n
\u201cIt felt like, \u2018I have this other part of my brain that has energy \u2014 to expand, to grow, to learn \u2014 that I\u2019m not using at the ballet,\u2019\u201d Fairchild said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
From then on, she was set in her academic routine, taking around two classes per semester and often more in the summer. After 15 years of hard work and balancing academic and artistic responsibilities, she graduated with a degree in math and economics.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Since joining the company, Fairchild has been excited to see more and more dancers prioritize continuing their education alongside their career. She estimated around 75% of her colleagues are beginning academic pursuits, many of them at Fordham.\u00a0<\/p>\n
After fighting to develop that confidence in her career, Fairchild is open about the mental toll that a career in dance can take.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe wouldn\u2019t be able to do it without the partnership we have with Fordham,\u201d Fairchild said, expressing gratitude for the flexibility she was granted to allow her prolonged studies.\u00a0<\/p>\n
For Fairchild, continuing school offered a needed confidence boost. She said exercising that different part of her brain and completing her degrees took pressure off casting and intense rehearsals; it felt good knowing that she had other goals and opportunities to work on.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThe fact that I had more things to put my mind on and focus on is when I started to have more success and really thrive mentally,\u201d Fairchild said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
In the same way that she saw her performance improve with the intellectual variety of her studies, Fairchild finds similar benefits in her role as a mom. After so many years, Fairchild feels she can trust her body and her training, so when she is not at work, Fairchild said ballet is not her focus at all.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI think I\u2019ve danced better than ever after having kids because I\u2019m not obsessing over shows,\u201d Fairchild said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
After fighting to develop that confidence in her career, Fairchild is open about the mental toll that a career in dance can take. She said it requires a \u201cthick skin\u201d to stand in front of the mirror all day or to put oneself in the vulnerable position of performing in front of thousands of people each night. According to Fairchild, it often feels that in the ballet career, dancers are \u201call kind of pretending to feel fine about things.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s ridiculous,\u201d Fairchild said. \u201cI know we\u2019re all feeling the same things.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Raymonda_Fairchild_BAIANO-1-600x464.jpg\")
\u201cWe\u2019re making magic happen,\u201d Fairchild said about why she loves her work as a dancer. (COURTESY OF ERIN BAIANO)<\/p>\n
To combat that experience, she started discussing her personal journey with her audience. In 2015, 10 years after gaining the title of principal dancer, she started a podcast called \u201cAsk Megan,\u201d where she gave advice on all those career difficulties that she had to work through\u00a0 \u2014\u00a0 things like auditioning, managing injuries and pursuing academics. While she no longer produces the podcast, its large success (even with those outside of the dance community) inspired the creation of her book in 2021.\u00a0<\/p>\n
We\u2019re making magic happen, and that\u2019s what elevates people in the audience and makes them cry, makes them feel something. Megan Fairchild, NYC Ballet principal dancer<\/p>\n
Fairchild said stress will always be part of a career in dance \u201cbecause we care about it so much,\u201d but that means that dancers and companies have to find a way to manage it. For that reason, Fairchild is grateful for many systematic changes that came during her career. Beyond an increase in academic interest, she said their company better supports its dancers by offering things like personal trainers and classes during time off to help the dancers stay in shape.<\/p>\n
But for all the ways that Fairchild (and the larger dance world) are learning to manage the high standards that come with the career, she is clear that she does not think there is anything wrong with its level of intensity. For Fairchild, that high standard is exactly what makes ballet so exciting, and what she said made her into the person she is today. Dance teaches resiliency and discipline, traits that Fairchild describes as \u201csuperpowers\u201d that are not always present in those she works with outside of the dance world.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re making magic happen, and that\u2019s what elevates people in the audience and makes them cry, makes them feel something,\u201d Fairchild said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
On May 24, Fairchild will grace the audience one last time as a New York City Ballet principal dancer with a retirement performance of \u201cCoppelia\u201d at the David H. Koch Theater in Lincoln Center. It is not common to choose a full-length ballet for a retirement performance, but Fairchild said she wanted to perform something she had prior experience dancing all in one night (as opposed to doing multiple shorter repertoire picks, as many dancers do for their retirement performance) and because, she said, \u201cmy daughters will be able to enjoy it.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
After that performance, Fairchild and her family are making an exciting move to France. Always a hard worker, she plans to start work with The George Balanchine Trust in Europe, where she can help preserve and share much of the repertoire that she performed throughout her career with the next generation of dancers. Ultimately, she said she hopes to utilize her MBA to work in arts consulting or to step into an executive role at a dance company, but Fairchild adds that she is going to \u201ctake some time to get settled first\u201d \u2014 a fair plan after a decades-long career as a prima ballerina and a move across the ocean.\u00a0<\/p>\n
There is certainly something special about Fairchild retiring with \u201cCoppelia\u201d after it being one of her first starring roles so many years ago. Her composure and regality make it hard to picture that scared younger dancer taking on the role last minute, but that progress is a testament to her journey. It is her decades of hard work both in and out of the studio that allowed her to shine on stage and protect her longevity.<\/p>\n
\u201cSometimes when you\u2019re doing it, you\u2019re not sure what it\u2019s going towards. You just gotta keep going,\u201d Fairchild said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
There is no doubt that audiences and aspiring dancers everywhere are grateful that Fairchild did just that.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Professional ballet is a notoriously short-lived career. There is no denying the mental and physical demands that years…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":198995,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[38],"tags":[128,79219,2190,9,24,11451,63,129,131,130],"class_list":{"0":"post-198994","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-the-bronx","8":"tag-bronx","9":"tag-megan-fairchild","10":"tag-mental-health","11":"tag-new-york","12":"tag-new-york-city","13":"tag-new-york-city-ballet","14":"tag-nyc","15":"tag-the-bronx","16":"tag-the-bronx-headlines","17":"tag-the-bronx-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/198994","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=198994"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/198994\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/198995"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=198994"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=198994"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=198994"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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