Aran Bell

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Aran Bell (born October 7, 1998) is an American ballet dancer and a principal with the American Ballet Theatre (ABT). He was born in Bethesda, Maryland, and his father was a Navy doctor, so Bell was homeschooled and lived in many places, including Naples, Italy. He started ballet at age 4 and trained in Pennsylvania and with private teachers, studying styles from Vaganova to Balanchine. While living in Naples, he trained in Rome with Denys Ganio and later studied with Fabrice Herrault in New York, and attended ABT summer intensives.

At 11, he won the junior prize at the Youth America Grand Prix and was featured in the 2011 documentary First Position. He joined ABT Studio Company in 2014, became an apprentice in 2016, and joined the corps in 2017. In 2018, at 19, he danced Romeo in Romeo and Juliet when the lead dancer was injured; The New York Times called it "an astonishingly impressive debut." In 2019, he appeared at the Erik Bruhn Prize with Catherine Hurlin and made his debuts as Prince Siegfried in Swan Lake and Prince Désiré in The Sleeping Beauty, then moved up to soloist. In 2020, he was promoted to principal dancer at age 21, one of the youngest ever.