Donna Salgado is a one-of-a-kind contemporary ballet artist based in New York City.
At a young age she became engrossed with her classical ballet studies, training with Tatjana Akinafieva-Smith and Elena Manakhova. Under their guidance she performed in many of the classic works of ballet. She spent summers training at ABT, CPYB, NYSSSA Ballet, and Lines Ballet.
She furthered her education with a BFA in Dance Performance from Towson University and an MFA in Dance Performance and Teaching from Purchase College, SUNY. During her schooling she performed the choreographies of George Balanchine, Geoffrey Holder, Paul Taylor, Yanis Pikeris, and Jawole Willa Jo Zollar. She has performed professionally with the Eglevsky Ballet, the Connecticut Ballet, Rebecca Kelly Ballet, Sierra Nevada Ballet, Deborah Lohse’s ad Hoc Ballet, Thomas/Ortiz Dance, David Fernandez’s Some Dance Company, and others. Commercially, she has performed in for New York Fashion Week, the Armory Show, and the International Beauty Show Expo, and has collaborated with Grammy Award Winning Artist MYA. Donna has commissioned 12 different choreographers to create works on her and/or her company, CONTINUUM, including artists such as Edwaard Liang, Emery LeCrone, Gabrielle Lamb, Amy Seiwert, and Juanjo Arques.
Her choreography has been presented by the Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival (in 2011, 2012, and 2015), 92nd Street Y, DanceNOW, Bryant Park Presents, Latin Choreographers Festival, the CURRENT SESSIONS, Brooklyn Ballet, Island Moving Company, Pace University, the Columbia Ballet Collaborative, the Princeton University Ballet, and the Harvard Ballet Company.
In 2010, she founded CONTINUUM Contemporary/Ballet, a dance company committed to creating work that plays in the concert dance spectrum. CONTINUUM is a close knit group of New York City dance artists united by their classical training and their contemporary artistic voices.
In addition to her work as a performing artist and choreographer, she is a faculty member at the School at Steps on Broadway and the Joffrey Ballet School. She has participated in the CPYB Teachers Workshop with Marcia Dale Weary, holds a Mat Pilates Certification, and is a FLX Conditioning Specialist. She also co-authored the children’s book Crafterina with her sister Vanessa. In 2016, an essay by Donna on her career as a dance artist was included in the book The Hustle Economy: Real Talk from Real Experts on Transforming Your Creativity into a Career, published by Running Press, a member of the Perseus Book Group.