The spring performance season is moving full steam ahead with literary-inspired ballets, a queer reimagining of Carmen, and premieres drawing from everything from the upcoming solar eclipse to contemporary American politics. Here’s what’s grabbing our attention.

When Virginia Lensi first moved to the U.S. from Milan, she fell hard for one element of American culture: brunch. “It was my first time realizing that people here actually have pancakes on Sunday,” says the American Ballet Theatre corps dancer. “I had brunch once, and I loved it. I always wanted to keep pancakes as a tradition on Sundays with my friends or my boyfriend.”

There is an explosive energy to Michael de la Nuez’s dancing that will not be denied. In Christopher Wheeldon’s Like Water for Chocolate during American Ballet Theatre’s summer season, he sliced through the air like an arrow and spun like a top, equal parts bravura showstopper and clean classical dancer.

Electric performances, thought-provoking choreography, buzzy bodies of work—the artists on our annual list of dancers, choreographers, directors, and companies poised for a breakout share an uncanny knack for arresting attention. They’ve been turning heads while turning what’s expected—in a performance, from a career trajectory—on its head. We’re betting we’ll be seeing a lot more of them this year, and for many years to come.

When the curtain rises on American Ballet Theatre’s Swan Lake, the audience falls under the spell of the dancing, tragic romance, and moonlight. What they don’t see is the backstage sorcery that makes the magic happen, an elaborate choreography carried out by an ace crew of nearly 80 costumers, dressers, makeup artists, carpenters, property masters, lighting operators, and stagehands—the unsung heroes of the story.

In the August 1953 issue of Dance Magazine, photographer Bob Willoughby documented the young dancers of Eva Lorraine’s First Children’s Ballet of California preparing for a performance—including this 7-year-old star in the making.

A new generation of competition-kids-turned-ballet-dancers is making its mark. Madison Brown and Brady Farrar, both dancers with American Ballet Theatre Studio Company, have roots in not only dance competitions but competitive TV shows:

There’s flying through the ranks, and then there’s American Ballet Theatre’s SunMi Park, who skyrocketed from apprentice to soloist all within the span of a year.