Veteran ballerina Darian Kane adds choreography to her repertoire.
“I originally wanted to be a hip-hop dancer,” says Westside resident Darian Kane, who just finished her seventh season as a dancer with the Atlanta Ballet. “When I was 8, my mother told me she was taking me to a dance class, which I thought was hip-hop, but when I got there, they put me in a leotard and tights. I remember being horrified, but I was a very stubborn kid. So I ended up just being like, ‘Whatever, I’m gonna stick with it.’ And now here I am.”
Kane, 28, who hails from California, received her dance training at the Capitol Ballet Center in Sacramento, then performed for several years with BalletMet in Columbus, Ohio, before joining the Atlanta Ballet in 2018. Since then, she’s performed in everything from The Nutcracker to Giselle, and in 2021, she was named to Dance Magazine’s “25 to Watch” list. The honor came after Kane decided to try her hand at choreography, which resulted in a debut piece titled Dr. Rainbow’s Infinity Mirror.
During the pandemic, Atlanta Ballet Artistic Director Gennadi Nedvigin invited company members to choreograph something for their fellow dancers. “I decided it was extra work,” Kane says. “But then a friend said that no women had volunteered. So I volunteered and ended up just completely falling in love with it.”
Kane describes her choreography style as indie pop contemporary. “You can see ballet steps and my classical training in there for sure,” she says, “but I like to add a lot of playful, whimsical elements.” Through choreography, Kane says she’s able to bypass the criticisms she places on herself as a dancer. “It’s far easier for me to look at my coworkers and appreciate all the beautiful things about their dancing.”
Kane admits she’s equally hard on herself when it comes to painting, one of her other longtime passions.
“Ballet is about getting all the details and steps perfectly right, while art has no constraints to it,” she says. “But I wish I could say the same trap of perfectionism doesn’t come into my drawing. I have this tendency to get about a third of the way through and then experience an inexplicable fear of moving forward.”
Luckily, Kane’s offseason job working at a produce and floral market invokes less self-analysis. “It’s like my safe place because I don’t have to look perfect when I do things,” she says. “It’s very refreshing.” Kane also enjoys cooking, reading and spending time with her dog, Crumpet. And she always has a puzzle going on at her house. “I’m starting to learn how to balance my life and my career in a way that’s ultimately more fulfilling and mentally sustainable for me than when I was younger and was incredibly militant with myself,” she says. “That worked well at that point in time, but as my creative endeavors and desires grow, I need to figure out how to make space for them.”
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