I now work with some of the smartest, hardest-working, and most inspiring people I’ve ever known. Every Sunday morning at 9 am—which, as a former professional, is very early to be taking a ballet class—40 to 50 adult dancers come into Westside Ballet and start their pliés with me. Our median age is somewhere in the late 50s, and I have students from ages 14 to 85!

The “comp kid” image has come a long way. Once viewed as over-the-top performers who prioritize tricks and trophies, competition dancers now fill the ranks of top colleges, conservatories, and companies around the globe. Competition studios are training dancers who aren’t just ready to win—they’re ready to work professionally. And the dance world is now making space for them to thrive.

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.