Melissa Hamilton is a Northern Irish ballet dancer and a First Soloist with the Royal Ballet, London.
Early life
Hamilton was born in Belfast and spent most of her childhood in Dromore, County Down. Her father is a builder and her mother is a pre-school teacher. Her sister is an architect and her brother is a primary school teacher. She started dancing at age four. She attended Dromore Primary School and Banbridge Academy, and left the latter after she finished her GCSEs. Until that point, the only trainings Hamilton had are once-a-week classes. At age 16, she was awarded a scholarship and entered Elmhurst Ballet School in Birmingham, where she trained for two years. During her first year, she was told she would not be able to catch up. However, in her second year, she was taught by Masha Mukhamedov, who believed she could have a career in dance. When Mukhamedovs moved to Athens, Hamilton followed them to train privately with Masha for ten months. In 2007, at age 18, she competed at the Youth America Grand Prix to “test the water”, but ended up winning the competition.
Career
The prize of YAGP is to join ABT II, American Ballet Theatre's second company. However, Hamilton did not want to move to New York, so Mukhamedov contacted Monica Mason, then-artistic director of The Royal Ballet, then Hamilton sent a video of her dancing to Mason. Hamilton was invited to take classes with the company, and was offered a contract to join the company as an Artist within a week after her victory at YAGP. She joined the company in 2007. The following year, despite being in the corps, she originated a role for Wayne McGregor's Infra, and frequently collaborated with McGregor since. She was soon casted in Kenneth MacMillan's works such as Juliet in Romeo and Juliet, the title role in Manon and Mary Vetsera in Mayerling. She was named First Artist in 2009, Soloist the following year and First Soloist in 2013. After Dresden Semperoper Ballett's Jiri Bubenicek suggested to have Hamilton partner him for his farewell performance in Manon, the directors of Royal Ballet and Semperoper Ballett negotiated and agreed to let Hamilton take a leave of absent to join Semperoper Ballett as a principal dancer. She danced with the company during the 2015/16 and 2016/17 seasons. During her tenure in Dresden, she made several principal role debuts, including Nikiya in La Bayadere, Princess Aurora in The Sleeping Beauty and Odette/Odile in Swan Lake. She returned to The Royal Ballet in the 2017/18 season. Hamilton has also performed internationally, including Roberto Bolle's Italy tour and Mikhailovsky Ballet’s 85th anniversary in St Petersburg, partnering Bolle. Writing of Hamilton's performance as Juliet in Kenneth MacMillan's Romeo and Juliet, The Observer's critic Luke Jennings wrote, "What really marks Hamilton out is the articulacy of her line. Here, she is all singing, expansive curves And if her acting can seem understated, it's never less than natural. In Act 3, she signals her unravelling with an immense weariness, and its final moments with a slow, sad unfurling of her arms."
Selected repertoire
Hamilton's repertoire with The Royal Ballet and Semperoper Ballett includes:
