Nutnaree "Ommi" Pipit-Suksun is a Thai ballerina. She was born in Bangkok, Thailand, where she trained at the Varaporn-Kanchana Ballet School. [1] [2] At fifteen, she left Bangkok to study at the Royal Ballet School in London, England. [2] [3] In 2001, Pipit-Suksun became the youngest person to win a gold medal at the Adeline Genée International Competition. [4] She graduated in 2004 and, at the age of 19, was given a soloist contract with the San Francisco Ballet. [3] [5]
She was a principal dancer with Ballet San Jose (later Silicon Valley Ballet) in San Jose, California, from 2013 until the company's closure in 2016. [4] [6] She performed the title role in Cinderella in 2015. [7]
The Cuban National Ballet is a classical ballet company based at Great Theatre of Havana in Havana, Cuba, founded by the Cuban prima ballerina assoluta, Alicia Alonso in 1948. The official school of the company is the Cuban National Ballet School.
Xiomara Reyes is a former principal dancer with American Ballet Theatre. After retiring from performing she was appointed the Head of School of The Washington Ballet School.
Viengsay Valdés (1977) is a Cuban ballerina. Since 2003, Valdés is the Prima Ballerina Assoluta and since 2019 she is the Artistic Director of the National Ballet of Cuba.
Maria Olegovna Kochetkova is a Russian ballet dancer. She was a principal dancer with the San Francisco Ballet between 2007 and 2018, and with the American Ballet Theatre between 2015 and 2017. After that, she became a freelance dancer for several years, before joining the Finnish National Ballet in the 2020/21 season.
Sofiane Sylve is a French ballet dancer. She is currently a principal dancer and ballet master with the Dresden Semperoper Ballett, and the artistic advisor and school director of Ballet San Antonio, and is set to run the latter's new school. She was previously a principal dancer with Dutch National Ballet, New York City Ballet and San Francisco Ballet.
Misty Danielle Copeland is an American ballet dancer for American Ballet Theatre (ABT), one of the three leading classical ballet companies in the United States. On June 30, 2015, Copeland became the first African American woman to be promoted to principal dancer in ABT's 75-year history.
Katita Waldo is a Spanish ballet dancer and ballet master. She joined the San Francisco Ballet in 1988, was promoted to principal dancer in 1994, and retired from performing in 2010, but remains in the company as a ballet master.
Lorena Feijóo is a Cuban former ballet dancer. Her dance career started in 1988 at the Cuban National Ballet, but left Cuba two years later for more opportunities. After stints at Ballet de Monterrey, Royal Ballet of Flanders and Joffrey Ballet, she joined the San Francisco Ballet in 1999 as a principal dancer, and retired in 2017. She then became an associate artistic director of Bay Area Houston Ballet & Theatre. Her sister, Lorna Feijóo, was also a ballet dancer.
Jennifer Rose Olayvar is a ballerina from the Republic of the Philippines. She was a dancer for Ballet Manila from 2000 to 2013. She became the Special Assistant to Lisa Macuja-Elizalde from 2004 to 2007. Olayvar has taken minor and intermediate examinations for the Royal Academy of Dance London.
Lorna Feijóo is a Cuban former ballet dancer. Her career started at the Cuban National Ballet, where she rose through the ranks. She left Cuba in 2001, then spent two years with the Cincinnati Ballet, before joining the Boston Ballet in 2003, where she remained as a principal dancer until she retired. Her sister, Lorena Feijóo, was also a ballet dancer.
Natalia Petrovna Osipova is a Russian ballerina, currently a principal ballerina with The Royal Ballet in London.
The Alexandra Ballet is a pre-professional ballet company in St. Louis, Missouri, founded in 1949, that cultivates top dance talent. The company regularly performs classical ballets including A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Pas de Quatre, Les Sylphides, and an annual performance of The Nutcracker. Many guest choreographers have worked with Alexandra Ballet including Marek Cholewa, Petrus Bosman, and Kennet Oberly.
Ji-young Kim is a South Korean prima ballerina and is currently a principal dancer with the Korea National Ballet (KNB) in Seoul, South Korea.
Dores André Rodríguez is a Spanish ballet dancer. She is currently a principal dancer at the San Francisco Ballet.
Evelyn Cisneros-Legate is an American ballerina. Evelyn, who is Mexican American, is considered the first prima ballerina in the United States of Hispanic heritage. She holds an honorary doctorate from Mills College and the University of California at Monterey Bay.
Stella Abrera is a Filipina-American ballet dancer. She danced as a principal dancer with American Ballet Theatre until her retirement in 2020, and is the company's first Filipina principal ballerina. She is now the artistic director of the dance cultural park Kaatsbaan.
Aesha Ash is an American ballet dancer and teacher. She danced numerous leading roles as a member of New York City Ballet's corps de ballet and as a soloist with Béjart Ballet and Alonzo King LINES Ballet, and Morphoses/The Wheeldon Company. Following her retirement from performing, she founded The Swan Dreams Project in 2011 to dispel stereotypes about Black women in ballet. In 2020, she became the first African American female faculty member at the School of American Ballet.
Caroline Baldwin is an American ballet dancer who is currently a principal dancer with the Royal Danish Ballet in Copenhagen.
Jayna Noel Ledford is a Filipino-American transgender ballet dancer. She performed with Eastern Shore Ballet Theater in Maryland and is a former student at the Kirov Academy of Ballet in Washington, D.C. After coming out as a transgender woman, Ledford lost her scholarship at the Kirov Academy and disenrolled from the school, as they did not permit her to continue her studies as a female dancer. She then trained in classical ballet at First State Dance Academy in Delaware.