Growing up in Charlotte, North Carolina, Mollie Sansone began her dance training with many teachers, including Melissa Hale-Coyle, Claudia Folts, Lisa Leone, Mel Tomlinson, Rebecca Massey, Patricia McBride, Jean-Pierre Bonnefoux, and Maniya Barredo. During the summers, Mollie attended the following intensives: the Joffrey Midwest Workshop, the Nutmeg Ballet Conservatory, Atlanta Ballet, and Nashville Ballet.
In 2004, Mollie began her professional career as a member of Nashville Ballet 2, and in 2006, she was promoted to the main company. During her complete seventeen-year tenure, she has performed several works by renowned choreographers, such as Paul Vasterling, Jirí Kylián, George Balanchine, Christopher Bruce, Salvatore Aiello, Val Caniparoli, Sarah Slipper, Jennifer Archibald, Gina Patterson, Stephen Mills, Christopher Stuart, James Sewell, and Brian Enos. Her most notable lead roles include Juliet in Vasterling’s Romeo and Juliet, Lizzie in Vasterling’s Lizzie Borden, Lady Macbeth in Vasterling’s Macbeth, The Chosen One in Aiello’s Right of Spring, Aiello’s pas de deux Satto, the Turning Girl in Balanchine’s Who Cares?, and the Sugar Plum Fairy and the Dew Drop Fairy in Vasterling’s Nashville’s Nutcracker.
During her off-seasons, Mollie has performed as a guest artist with many other institutions. She returned home to perform lead roles in ballets such as La Bayadere and Thang Dao’s Printemp Perdu. In 2010, she performed in Paix Reveuse with Kansas City’s Quixotic Fusion. She danced in Asheville, North Carolina for several summers with the former MOTION Dance Theater, where she performed original works choreographed by Nick Kepley, Gabrielle Lamb, and James Gregg.
In 2013, Mollie was the recipient of the Individual Artist Fellowship awarded by the Tennessee Arts Commission. She has accumulated numerous years of experience teaching all ages and genres of dance for organizations all throughout Tennessee. She has been a School of Nashville Ballet faculty member since she was nineteen years old. Mollie has also begun choreographing, premiering her first professional work titled Mash the Pigeon for Nashville Ballet 2’s 2019 Future Artists Showcase. She then choreographed Bootleg Sugar Lips for the main company last year. Her latest work was Fortitudine, performed for Nashville Ballet’s 2022 Attitude season.
