Mary Ann Schaefer

Born in Memphis, TN, Mary Ann Shaefer took her first ballet classes at the Allegro Ballet Academy with instructor Norah Curran. After moving to Indianapolis, IN at age 12, she studied at the Clara R. Noyes Academy of Ballet Internationale until its closing in 2005, and then continued her training under the instruction of Alyona Yakovleva, Tatiana Pali, and Sergey Sergiev at the Russian Ballet Academy of Indiana.

In 2007 she won first place in the classical division at the Youth America Grand Prix competition, and in 2010, she competed at the World Ballet Competition, where she received a Jury Award and full scholarship to Ballet West’s summer program and year round trainee program in Salt Lake City, UT. In 2012, Artistic Director Adam Sklute asked Ms. Shaefer to join Ballet West II, where she performed in their productions for two seasons and then stayed on as a supplemental artist for their 2014-2015 season. Beginning in 2015, Ms. Shaefer performed Aspen Santa Fe Ballet’s “The Nutcracker” for two seasons under Artistic Director Tom Mossbrucker, and was also a member of The Suzanne Farrell Ballet for two seasons, where she had the honor of performing numerous Balanchine ballets on tour and at The Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C.

In 2017, Ms. Shaefer returned to Indianapolis, IN as a founding company member of the Indianapolis Ballet. Over her four seasons there she performed numerous soloist roles, including “Dark Angel” in Serenade; “Tall Girl” in Rubies; “Katerina” in Firebird; and “Dew Drop” & “Arabian” in The Nutcracker. Ms. Shaefer is currently a faculty member at Ballet West’s Park City campus.Find her @schaef.ma on Instagram.