Spring at ABT

I came from Chicago to New York City specifically to work with ABT in the spring semester. I go to school at home so while I was nervous to leave, I was more than excited to be an intern at a company I had admired since the earliest days of my dance endeavors. I had trained with ABT in the summer several years ago before I quit ballet to attend college, and I was so excited to return in a position I had really grown to love and to experience the company from a different lens. After several weeks of re-learning the ropes of another city, I had really gotten the hang of navigating my commute and felt a lot more comfortable in the office. Just as I started to transition into genuinely feeling like part of the office as well as understanding the general steps needed in writing grant applications, there was talk of COVID cases rising in the state. At first everyone was calm, with the standard “it’s just like the flu” statement that everyone in the country was experiencing, but after about a week of a consistent rise in concern about the safety of everyone’s health slowly consuming the hope that things won’t get as bad as they say, I found myself booking an emergency flight back home in fear of the city shutting down and being stuck without my family. I, along with most of the staff, assumed we would all be returning in a couple weeks at the most, but after each day it became more and more unlikely that would happen. So, we made the best of it! While the majority of my internship was remote, I still gained so much experience and learned so much about the non-profit arts world. One of my most special memories was watching the Virtual Gala, as it really made me feel so special to be part of such an amazing company, even though my time with them was cut short. It made me cherish the little time I spent even more.

Kayla Taylor

Institutional Support Intern

Spring 2020