Birmingham Royal Ballet announces Promotions, Joiners and Leavers

Carlos Acosta, Director of Birmingham Royal Ballet, has today announced promotions within the Company and new joiners for the 2025/26 season saying: ‘It’s been another amazing season. Right now, the Company is on tour in Japan - the final performance of The Sleeping Beauty is tomorrow - and before that we travelled to the United States with Black Sabbath - The Ballet which we performed in Norfolk Virginia and Washington DC. The audience responses have been amazing and it’s been so gratifying to see the Company once more on the world stage. I am sure everyone will be exhausted and looking forward to their summer break, so to put a full stop to the season I’m so proud to announce our supremely well-deserved promotions, excited to welcome the new dancers who are joining the Company and I want to express my sincere gratitude to those who are moving on to pastures new. I really look forward to welcoming everybody back in August when we start rehearsals for the UK tour of Black Sabbath - The Ballet.’

Promotions

The following promotions have been made within the Company: Yu Kurihara is promoted to Principal; Enrique Bejarano Vidal is promoted to First Soloist and Javier Rojas, Ryan Felix and Yuki Sugiura are promoted to First Artist.

In addition to the above promotions Daria Stanciulescu becomes Principal Character Artist.

Rory Mackay and Jonathan Payn become Repetiteurs from the start of next season. They will both also continue as Principal Character Artists.

Many congratulations to them all on this well-deserved recognition of their achievements.

Joiners

Joining the main company as First Soloist is Katherine Ochoa from Cincinnati Ballet.

BRB2 alumni Alisa Garkavenko, Alexandra Manuel and Tom Hazelby have all been offered contracts as Artists.

Joining BRB2 are Yasemin Kayabay (Royal Ballet School), Yoli Meurisse (ENB School) and John Fontanini (Princess Grace Academy). Marlo Kempsey-Fagg also joins BRB2 following his year as Elmhurst Apprentice.

Alfie-Lee Hall will be next season’s Elmhurst Apprentice.

The following are also joining the Company for the 2025/26 season: Rafael Bejarano Vidal (from Washington Ballet), Amber Cook (Elmhurst Ballet School), Tobi Johnson (Kate Simmons Dance), Airi Kaboyashi (Royal Ballet School Prix de Lausanne dancer), Thomas Kujawa (Elmhurst Ballet School), Oisin Middleton (freelance), Samantha Paige (Tring Park) and Gillian Whittall (freelance).

Leavers

Jack Easton and Shuailun Wu are moving to Berlin Staatsballet; Oscar Kempsey-Fagg is moving to Bayersisches Staatsballet, Munich; Callum Findlay-White and Tessa Hogge are moving to Oklahoma City Ballet; and Gus Payne is joining Sarasota Ballet as a Soloist.

Also leaving to pursue other opportunities are: Yvette Knight, Regan Hutsell, Ariana Allen and Hamish Scott.

Rachele Pizzillo is taking a sabbatical and dancing with Cincinnati Ballet for the 2025/26 season.

In other news

We congratulate Shani Moran-Simmonds on joining the Royal Ballet School’s Aud Jebsen Young Dancers Programme. Shani began dancing with BRB’s Dance Track programme at six years old and is the first Dance Track student to join the Royal Ballet company.

And finally we are delighted to announce that Subin Kim joins us as the Constant Lambert Conducting Fellow for 2025/26. Subin studied orchestral conducting at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater Hamburg (M.M.) and Hochschule für Musik Hanns Eisler Berlin (B.M.). She was a semi-finalist in the Bucharest and Korea National Symphony Orchestra international conducting competitions and received the Audience Prize from Leipziger Volkszeitung in 2024.