After graduating from San Francisco Ballet School, Ms. Salerno took a position with Boston Ballet II under the directorship of Laura Young. Bruce Marks invited her to join the full company the following year. Ms. Salerno danced eight seasons with Boston Ballet, rising to the rank of Soloist. Her repertoire with the company included the Sugar Plum Fairy and Snow Queen in the Nutcracker, Gamzatti in La Bayadere, Princess Florine and Fairy of the Golden Vine in The Sleeping Beauty, Peasant Pas de Deux in Giselle, Helena in Midsummer Night’s Dream, Pas de Deux in Paul Taylor’s Company B, Tango in Tharp’s Waterbaby Bagatelles, Rudi Van Danzig’s Four Last Songs, Nacho Duato’s Songs Without Words, and Merce Cunningham’s Breakers. She was involved with the world premieres of Christopher Wheeldon’s Corybantic Ecstasies and The Firebird and she assumed the leading role of Winter in Mr. Wheeldon’s Four Seasons. She was also an original cast member of Lyla York’s Ode to Joy. Teachers in Boston included Anna-Marie Holmes, Tatiana Terekova, Sergey Berejnoi, Tatiana Legat, Natalia Dudinskaya, Caroline Llorca, Deirdre Miles, Devon Carney, Elaine Bauer and Arthur Leeth. While in Boston, Ms. Salerno also spent two years as the Chair for the Dancers Resource Fund, raising over $40,000 to assist dancers in their career transition endeavors.

Ms. Salerno left Boston Ballet to pursue a dance career in Europe, initially joining Zurich Ballet as a Soloist under Heinz Spoerli. While in Zurich, Ms. Salerno danced numerous soloist roles in Spoerli’s ballets and she was featured in Hans Van Manen’s Grosse Fuge. Ms. Salerno was then invited by Monica Mason to join Royal Ballet in London, where she spent five years as a Soloist, performing principal and soloist roles in La Bayadere, Les Patineurs (Ashton), Danses Concertantes (MacMillan), Cinderella (Ashton), Symphonic Variations (Ashton), Sleeping Beauty, Nutcracker, Apollo (Balanchine), Theme and Variations (Balanchine), Symphony in C (Balanchine), Agon (Balanchine) and The Tales of Beatrix Potter (Ashton), among others. While in London, Ms. Salerno had the opportunity to work with Natalia Makarova, Leslie Collier, Antoinette Sibley, Anthony Dowell, David Bintley, David Howard, Alexander Agadzhanov, Jonathan Cope, Betty Anderton, Donald MacLeary, Christopher Saunders, Roland Price, Mikhail Messerer and Wendy Ellis. She was also featured in the world premiere of Wayne MacGregor’s Qualia.

Ms. Salerno has toured the world extensively, performing on the Bolshoi stage in Moscow, the Maryinski in St. Petersburg and other opera houses and theatres in Germany, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Switzerland, Mexico, the United States, France, Japan, Singapore and South Korea.

Ms. Salerno has also taught ballet technique classes in and around Boston, teaching nine year olds through adults, at the Boston Ballet School and the Young Dancer Summer Workshop of Boston Ballet. She taught for two summers at Nina Alonso Hathaway’s Fresh Pond Ballet in Cambridge, MA. While in England, Ms. Salerno taught at the Sadler’s Wells Summer School in London, England with other professional dancers of the Royal Ballet. She now teaches specialized ballet classes for young athletes interested in the benefits of ballet training.

Ms. Salerno completed a Bachelor of Arts degree with a concentration in Nonprofit Administration from Skidmore College in 2006. She has appeared as a guest lecturer for Loyola University’s Dance Department. She spent eighteen months as Director of Development and Communications for Salt Creek Ballet and was promoted to Executive Director in 2009. Her roles with Salt Creek Ballet include Board development, budgeting and financial oversight, fundraising, donor acquisition and retention, overseeing the companies 100 volunteers, marketing, grant writing, venue contracting and substitute teaching. Ms. Salerno has also initiated various community outreach programs, including a joint collaboration with Community Unit School District 201, Westmont entitled Literacy through Dance. The six week dance program for second graders was funded, initially, by a grant written by Ms. Salerno.