Anna Pavlovna Pavlova was a Russian prima ballerina of the late 19th and the early 20th centuries. She was a principal artist of the Imperial Russian Ballet and the Ballets Russes of Sergei Diaghilev. Pavlova is most recognized for her creation of the role of The Dying Swan and, with her own company, became the first ballerina to tour around the world, including performances in South America, India and Australia.
Swan Lake, Op. 20, is a ballet composed by Russian composer Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky in 1875–76. Despite its initial failure, it is now one of the most popular ballets of all time.
Anik Bissonnette OC CQ is a Canadian ballet dancer, who started her professional ballet career with the Ballet de Montreal Eddy Toussaint in the 1980s and was a principal dancer starting in 1990 with Les Grands Ballets Canadiens. Her father, Jean Bissonnette, was a famous television director with Télévision de Radio-Canada.
Chan Hon Goh, C.M. D.Litt, is a Chinese-born Canadian ballerina. Goh was most notably a principal dancer with The National Ballet of Canada before going on to become a published author, director, teacher, executive producer, and entrepreneur.
Tamara Rojo CBE is a Spanish ballet dancer. She was the English National Ballet's artistic director) and a lead principal dancer with the company between 2012 and 2022. She was previously a principal dancer with The Royal Ballet. She became the artistic director of San Francisco Ballet in late 2022.
Nina Ananiashvili is a Georgian ballerina and artistic director of the State Ballet of Georgia. She has been described by the Daily Telegraph as one of the twelve greatest ballerinas of all time, and in 2002 was named Best Ballerina of the Year by the US Dance Magazine. Ananiashvili has been a prominent fixture of the Soviet, Russian and Georgian ballet scene for decades. Shortly before the fall of the Iron Curtain, in 1987 a New York Magazine critic praised her as "the best thing about the Bolshoi's Giselle whether she appeared in the title role or as the queen of the wilis." In 2014, a film of her 1991 performance in Giselle with the Bolshoi ballet was released.
Natalia Romanovna Makarova is a Russian prima ballerina and choreographer. The History of Dance, published in 1981, notes that "her performances set standards of artistry and aristocracy of dance which mark her as the finest ballerina of her generation in the West."
Cynthia Kathleen Gregory is an American former prima ballerina.
Natasha Katz is an American lighting designer for the theatre, dance, and opera.
Meryl Tankard is an Australian dancer and choreographer who has a wide national and international reputation.
Maina Gielgud is a British former ballet dancer and a veteran ballet administrator. She was artistic director of The Australian Ballet from 1983 to 1996. She had a twenty-year career as a dancer in Europe and the United Kingdom. Gielgud directed the Royal Danish Ballet between 1997 and 1999. Until 2005, she held the artistic associate position at the Houston Ballet. She is a daughter of Lewis Gielgud and actress Zita Gordon and niece of actor John Gielgud.
Jodie-Anne White-Bivona was an Australian dancer, choreographer and artistic director of the Ballet Theatre of Queensland.
James Kudelka, OC, is a Canadian choreographer, dancer, and director. He was the artistic director of the National Ballet of Canada from 1996 to 2005, now serving as the National Ballet's artist in residence.
Beverly Jane Fry is an Australian ballerina.
Amber Scott is an Australian ballet dancer. She is a principal artist at The Australian Ballet.
Gailene Stock CBE AM was an Australian-born ballerina, teacher and Director of the Royal Ballet School in Covent Garden.
Lucinda Dunn is an Australian retired ballerina and current principle teacher at the Tanya Pearson Academy.
Frances Chung is a Canadian ballet dancer. She is currently a principal dancer at the San Francisco Ballet.
Anne Woolliams was an English artistic director, ballet choreographer, dancer and teacher. She began studying dance at age five, performing with the Russian Opera and Ballet, the Ballet de la Jeunesse Anglaise and the St. James' Ballet and danced in the film The Red Shoes and stage musicals. Woolliams taught at Folkwang School, was appointed ballet mistress of Stuttgart Ballet, founded the John Cranko School with the director John Cranko, was the third artistic director of The Australian Ballet, was dean of dance at Victoria College of Arts, Melbourne and was artistic director of the Vienna State Ballet.
Tina Pereira is a Trinidadian-Canadian ballet dancer and designer. She joined the National Ballet of Canada in 2001, then the Dutch National Ballet in 2004. She returned to the Canadian company in 2006, and was promoted to principal dancer in 2021.
