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Chase Finlay

American ballet dancer

Image credit is listed at the end of this article.

Chase Finlay (born 1990) is an American former ballet dancer. He was a principal dancer with the New York City Ballet and also danced with the Mariinsky Theatre.

01Early life

Born in Fairfield, Connecticut, Finlay began his dance training at the age of 8, at Ballet Academy East in New York City. During the summer of 2007, he began studying at the School of American Ballet, the official school of New York City Ballet (NYCB). He subsequently enrolled there as a full-time student.

Finlay, dancing in evening dress, 2017
Finlay, dancing in evening dress, 2017

02Career

Finlay became an apprentice with NYCB in September 2008. He became a member of the corps de ballet in September 2009. While still a member of the corps de ballet, he danced the title role in George Balanchine's Apollo.

He was promoted to soloist in July 2011, and to principal in February 2013.

03Alexandra Waterbury lawsuit

In September 2018, Finlay was sued by his 20-year-old ex-girlfriend, Alexandra Waterbury, for allegedly sharing nude photos of her and other female dancers with male company members without their consent. Finlay resigned from the New York City Ballet in August 2018 during the company's investigation.

Finlay with Alexandra Waterbury, 2017
Finlay with Alexandra Waterbury, 2017

04Roles

Featured roles since joining the New York City Ballet:

George Balanchine
Ulysses Dove
  • Red Angels
Sean Lavery
Peter Martins
Jerome Robbins
Christopher Wheeldon
Originated featured roles in
Originated corps roles in

05Honors

In 2010, Finlay became the first recipient of the Clive Barnes Award for dance.

Watch videos about Chase FinlayExplainers and documentaries on YouTube (opens in a new tab)

Sources and credits

This article is adapted from the Wikipedia article Chase Finlay, written by its contributors and licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Fathomly has changed the layout, removed citation markers, navigation and maintenance notices, and adjusted punctuation. This adapted version is shared under the same license. For references, see the original article.

Images, from Wikimedia Commons:

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