Carson Van Popering is a native of Wellington, Florida, and began his dance training at the age of 6 at Dance Arts Conservatory. He attended local studios, such as Precision Dance Conservatory and That’s Dancing until being accepted to the Dreyfoos School of the Arts in 2017. During this time, he attended summer intensives at Pacific Northwest Ballet and Next Generation. While at Dreyfoos, Carson also enrolled in Palm Beach Atlantic’s Preparatory Program under the leadership of Eileen Hebron. When COVID-19 struck, he was given the opportunity to train with Cory Stearns and Daniel Ulbricht over Zoom.

In 2021, Carson was accepted into the Ballet Department of Indiana University’s Jacobs School of Music where he trained under Sarah Wroth, Micheal Vernon, Kyra Nichols, Carla Körbes, Sasha Janes, and Christian Claessens. While attending, Carson got the opportunity to perform works such as Tarantella and Valse Fantaisie by George Balanchine, Heatscape by Justin Peck, Angels in the Architecture by Mark Godden, Shibuya Blues by Annabelle Lopez Ochoa, and The Nutcracker by Sasha Janes. He just graduated in the spring of 2025 with a Bachelor of Science in Ballet with an Outside Field in Data Science and couldn't be more thrilled to be joining the Indianapolis Ballet.

Photos by: Maximillian Tortoriello