Age: 24
Hometown: Myrtle Beach, S.C.
Think of: People say she looks like Hannah Montana (Miley Cyrus), but she’s not sure that’s a good thing anymore after the young star’s controversial performance at the MTV Video Music Awards.
What caught our eye: Thriving since joining Boston Ballet’s corps in 2012, she’s also taking strides as a choreographer.
Lightbulb moment: At 18, she realized a career in ballet was truly possible when she was offered a job dancing with the Birmingham Royal Ballet in England.
Biggest thrill: “Queen of the Dryads in ‘Don Quixote’ was the first thing I did after I joined Boston Ballet. It was a bigger part, and it was also a part that I enjoyed doing.”
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Biggest surprise: “I’d only been here a little over nine months, and Mikko [Nissinen, the Ballet’s artistic director] actually approached me and said I was being promoted to soloist.”
Inspired by: Her fiance, Taylor Moore. “He used to be a dancer as well as a choreographer. Now he’s a watchmaker. Artistically I was inspired by him a lot because his style was so different from mine.”
Aspires to: “I definitely want to stay performing and be a principal in the company and do all that. I also would love to carry on with choreography, too. I love creating on people and watching them take to it in a different way.”
For good luck: She sends a text to Moore, who answers with an encouraging message.
What people should know: That’s her real name. Her parents wanted to give her a biblical name, but not one of the usual ones. “‘God made man from the dust of the earth,’ so they called me Dusty.”
Coming soon: “Timeless,” her 17-minute piece for nine dancers, set to music from Paramore and the “Shutter Island” soundtrack, among other sources, will have its world premiere as part of the BB@Home program Oct. 3-4, in Boston Ballet’s black-box theater in its headquarters at 19 Clarendon St.
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Links:
www.bostonballet.org/bb-at-home, www.bostonballet.org/Company_Dancers/Dancers/Dusty_Button.html
Joel Brown can be reached at jbnbpt@gmail.com.