Playing the title role of Giselle in Giselle, American Ballet Theater, 2009

A native of Montevideo, Uruguay, Maria Riccetto began her ballet studies in 1990 at the Uruguay National Ballet School. In 1995, she was hired as a professional dancer by the national ballet company, S.O.D.R.E, where she danced pieces by Rodolfo Lastra, Ivan Tenorio and Jaime Pintos, among others.

In 1998, Ms. Riccetto was named "Revelation of the Year" by Washington Roldan, a well-known dance critic in Uruguay, and she received the Elena Smirnova Prize, awarded by Argentine ballet reviewer Enrique Honorio Destaville. Also in 1998, Ms. Riccetto received a full scholarship to the (University of) North Carolina School of the Arts, where she danced in Grand Pas Romantique, choreographed and staged by Fernando Bujones, and Intermezzo, choreographed by Eliot Feld, as well as the roles of the Sugar Plum Fairy and the Snow Queen in the school’s production of The Nutcracker. This production was later performed by the Hungarian National Academy and, in 1999, Ms. Riccetto was invited to reprise her role as the Sugar Plum Fairy in Budapest at the Academy’s gala, dancing with Hungarian National Ballet Soloist Gabor Szigeti. She also performed as a guest artist at the National Ballet School of Uruguay’s 25th Anniversary Gala and was invited by the First Lady of Uruguay to dance in Montevideo and Punta Del Este.

Ms. Riccetto joined American Ballet Theatre’s corps de ballet in August of 1999. Her repertory with the company includes the Girl in Afternoon of a Faun, Calliope in Apollo, first and third Shades in La Bayadère, Petal in Cinderella, Prayer in Coppélia, Gulnare and an Odalisque in Le Corsaire, Mercedes, Amour and a flower girl in Don Quixote, Giselle, the peasant pas de deux and Zulma in Giselle, the Two of Diamonds in Jeu de Cartes, Valencienne in The Merry Widow, Clara in The Nutcracker, Olga in Onegin, Natalia in On the Dnieper, the Street Dancer in Petrouchka, Henrietta in Raymonda, the Lilac Fairy, Fairy of Sincerity and Princess Florine in The Sleeping Beauty, the Young Girl in Le Spectre de la Rose, the pas de trois and the Italian Princess in Swan Lake, the Mazurka and Prelude in Les Sylphides, the Greedy One in Three Virgins and a Devil and roles in Baker’s Dozen, Ballo della Regina, Brief Fling, C. to C. (Close to Chuck), Company B, Désir, Drink To Me Only With Thine Eyes, Glow – Stop, In The Upper Room, Kaleidoscope, The Leaves Are Fading, Mozartiana, Rabbit and Rogue, Sinfonietta, Symphonic Variations, Symphonie Concertante, Symphony in C, Theme and Variations, Within You Without You: A Tribute to George Harrison and Without Words.

Ms. Riccetto created a featured role in HereAfter and a leading role in From Here On Out.
She was promoted to soloist at American Ballet Theatre in August 2002.