Once a Soloist, a Ballerina Finds Her Companion for Life

The first time Olivia Kathleen MacKinnon met William Howard Keenan III, he was carrying a tutu, a tiara, tights and bloody socks at his sister’s Halloween social gathering in 2019. The costume? Injured ballerina.

“I found it funny, slightly endearing and a little bit odd,” mentioned Ms. MacKinnon, an precise ballerina on the New York City Ballet.

Because Ms. MacKinnon was in a relationship on the time, her temporary interplay with Mr. Keenan remained simply that till practically 4 years later, when Mr. Keenan’s sister gave him the variety of the newly single Ms. MacKinnon.

“My sister is really the Cupid of the whole story,” mentioned Mr. Keenan, who goes by Bill.

In his first missive to Ms. MacKinnon, on the finish of August 2023, Mr. Keenan referenced her occupation, writing, “I’m standing in first position as I type.”

During their first date at Arte Cafe on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, the place they each lived, Ms. MacKinnon found that beneath Mr. Keenan’s humorous textual content message was a real ardour for the artwork type.

“We joke that he loves ‘The Nutcracker’ more than I do,” mentioned Ms. MacKinnon, 30, who has carried out all of the lead roles in George Balanchine’s “The Nutcracker,” together with Sugarplum last December. “He was genuinely interested in my lifestyle, the performances and all the details in between.”

Mr. Keenan, who performed skilled hockey in Europe for 3 years after graduating from faculty, even took ballet classes for a number of years, from ages 7 to 11. At the time, his mom wanted a option to occupy him whereas his sister, Mary Glenn Keenan Green, studied on the School of American Ballet at Lincoln Center. (Ms. Green is now a repertory director on the New York City Ballet).

“I have such a deep respect for the discipline and the pain and suffering it takes to perform,” Mr. Keenan mentioned. “With hockey, nobody cares what you look like on the ice. With ballet, you have to go through all these ups and downs, and you have to do it as if it’s effortless. It’s hard not to be awe-struck.”

Ms. MacKinnon was born and raised in Mobile, Ala., and moved to New York City at 15 to review on the School of American Ballet. She joined the New York City Ballet in 2012 as an apprentice and have become a soloist in 2023. In addition to being a dancer, she is on the college on the School of American Ballet.

Looking again, Ms. MacKinnon mentioned, she was glad she and Mr. Keenan reconnected after her promotion.

“It took me 10 years to get to the soloist status, and it was hard work to get there,” she mentioned. “I felt like finally I was able to enjoy a new aspect of my life.”

Mr. Keenan, 40, grew up in Manhattan and obtained a bachelor’s diploma in authorities from Harvard. He wrote about his experiences enjoying hockey in international locations like Finland, Sweden and Belgium in his first memoir, revealed in 2016. That identical yr, he obtained an M.B.A. from Columbia, after which, after a stint as a banker, wrote a second memoir, revealed in 2020: “Discussion Materials: Tales of a Rookie Wall Street Investment Banker.” When he met Ms. MacKinnon, Mr. Keenan was the chief working officer of Airmail, a digital weekly, a task he left after Airmail was purchased by the media firm Puck final yr.

Mr. Keenan’s newest guide, a romance novel a few hockey participant and a ballerina referred to as “The Swan and the Sentinel,” will likely be revealed in June. He mentioned that it was not autobiographical, however that “having found the love of my life, writing a happily-ever-after story was easier.”

After their first date, Ms. MacKinnon and Mr. Keenan’s relationship progressed steadily. She felt safe as a result of he was clear about his intentions, and he appreciated how right down to earth she was. They found that they favored visiting farmers’ markets and cooking collectively.

Ms. MacKinnon mentioned she was stunned to be taught that, in his residence, Mr. Keenan was extra “organized and routine-oriented and regimented than I was.” At first, she discovered it intimidating and tried to do the whole lot precisely proper. But, she mentioned, she shortly realized that if the connection was going to work long-term, they would want to compromise.

“We never, ever fight, but if there was anything I’d get aggravated about, it was when he’d say, ‘You’re leaving a trail of your things,’” Ms. MacKinnon mentioned. “And I was like, ‘There isn’t a trail, it’s my bobby pins from my bun.’ It took a couple of conversations. Bill hadn’t been in a long-term relationship and didn’t really let someone in until me, so those were some things we had to sort through. He was getting used to the idea that I’d be there for life.”

Mr. Keenan mentioned that the conversations had helped him develop and turn into extra affected person.

“I was able to do what I wanted, how I wanted, when I wanted, my whole life, and as you get older and live alone, you can get more set in your ways,” he mentioned. But then, he mentioned, you notice that the way in which to keep up an intimate reference to another person “is to change yourself — and usually you change yourself for the better.”

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Last yr, on April 25, Ms. MacKinnon and Mr. Keenan have been visiting an house on the Upper West Side that they’ve since purchased collectively. They have been there to take measurements of a number of the sellers’ furnishings to determine what to maintain. While they have been within the parlor, Ms. MacKinnon’s favourite room, Mr. Keenan started talking in regards to the recollections they might make of their new residence.

“He started getting a little emotional, and I thought, He’s so excited,” Ms. MacKinnon mentioned.

“Then I said, ‘This will be the first memory,’ and I got on one knee,” Mr. Keenan mentioned.

After Mr. Keenan proposed and Ms. MacKinnon mentioned sure, they went to the balcony, the place Ms. Green’s husband was ready to seize the second on digicam. That night, Ms. MacKinnon carried out in Balanchine’s “Ballo della Regina” with Mr. Keenan within the viewers. And afterward, the couple had a small celebration at Ms. Green’s house with cupcakes and champagne.

Ms. MacKinnon and Mr. Keenan have been married on March 7 at Central Presbyterian Church on the Upper East Side of Manhattan in entrance of 135 friends. Michael Keller, the senior pastor at Redeemer Lincoln Square, one other church Ms. MacKinnon and Mr. Keenan frequent, officiated the ceremony.

Ms. MacKinnon first visited Central Presbyterian earlier than she met Mr. Keenan.

“I remember looking at my sister at our first service there and saying, ‘I could see myself getting married in this church,’” Ms. MacKinnon mentioned.

The reception was held a block away on the Colony Club, a women-only non-public membership the place Mr. Keenan’s godmother is a member.

Wanting to include ballet influences, Ms. MacKinnon walked down the aisle to the “Nutcracker” pas de deux. Every desk was named after one of many couple’s favourite ballets, together with “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” and “Sleeping Beauty.” Ms. MacKinnon’s sister, Mary Thomas MacKinnon, who can be a soloist within the New York City Ballet, choreographed the couple’s first dance to a waltz from the movie “The Princess Diaries.”

“I knew it would be something easy for Bill in terms of the musicality and the counts, but the song meant a lot to me because I grew up watching the movie,” Ms. MacKinnon mentioned.

Wanting the lace flowers on her marriage ceremony gown to seem like tutus, Ms. MacKinnon went on a hunt for a dressmaker and located Maggie Outsey in Mobile.

“I told her I wanted the lace that we sourced to look like it was dancing on my dress,” Ms. MacKinnon mentioned. “She hand-sewed every single piece of lace on my skirt. Every time I moved, it looked different.”

Ms. MacKinnon mentioned that planning her personal marriage ceremony was a novel and worthwhile expertise.

“As a dancer, I’m so used to having choreographers or repertory directors give me steps, and I perform them,” she mentioned, “so to have this opportunity to choreograph our day exactly how I wanted it was a lot, but it was so special to see it all come to life.”

On This Day

When March 7, 2026

Where Central Presbyterian Church, New York

Coming Up Roses As a baby, Ms. MacKinnon was nicknamed Rosebud by her mother and father, so roses figured prominently within the decorations. The florals included English backyard roses that the florist “opened up to look like tutus,” Ms. MacKinnon mentioned. Ms. MacKinnon and her sister additionally spent a night folding all the fabric napkins into rosebud shapes.

Wedding Crest The stationery firm, Soirée Signatures, designed a marriage crest that includes the couple’s initials, hockey sticks, pointe sneakers, books with a quill and an inkwell, and numerous flowers (together with a rose). Bella Figura printed the crest onto napkins, menu playing cards and matchbooks.

Southern Comforts Following a Southern custom, Ms. MacKinnon and Mr. Keenan drank from silver goblets with ribbons and flowers wrapped across the stems. Ms. MacKinnon additionally selected camellia and magnolia foliage for the décor. “That’s what I think of when I’m missing home,” Ms. MacKinnon mentioned.