Margot Aknin

Margot Aknin (she/her) grew up in San Jose, CA, where she trained at Los Gatos Ballet under Marcie Ryken for ten years. After high school, she spent three years in the Graduate Program at Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre School, where she performed roles including the Sugar Plum Fairy in The Nutcracker and Nikiya in La Bayadère, and also performed with the main company in Terrence Orr’s Swan Lake, Don Quixote, The Nutcracker, La Bayadère, Sleeping Beauty, and Beauty and the Beast. As a member of BalletMet 2, Aknin performed corps and soloist roles in ballets by Edwaard Liang, David Nixon, Gustavo Ramirez Sansano, Gerard Charles, and George Balanchine. She joined Dayton Ballet in 2016, performing many principal roles, including Daisy in Ron Cunningham’s The Great Gatsby, Odette in Septime Webre’s Swan Lake, Lucy/Mina in Karen Russo Burke’s Dracula:Bloodlines, and other notable works by Jiří Kylián, Amy Seiwert, Jessica Lang, among others. Aknin joined Newport Contemporary Ballet in 2021, where she danced principal and soloist roles in ballets by Danielle Genest, Miki Ohlsen, Nicolo Fonte, Kristopher Estes-Brown, Amy Hall Garner, Takehiro Ueyama, DaYoung Jung, and others. Following her performances with Smuin in French Kiss, Aknin will join Golden State Ballet in San Diego.

Headshot by PhotobyFriday, courtesy of Newport Contemporary Ballet