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Hailing from the Northeast England, Xander started dancing in Hull. As talented young artist, he joined the Royal Ballet School from which he graduated with honours in 2005. Xander then joined naturally the Royal Ballet of Covent Garden, happy to share the stage with his sister Demelza, dancer as well.

In 2010, Xander was offered a contract with the world-famous Mariinsky Theatre Ballet, making him the first British dancer to join the company. In July 2017, Xander was promoted to Principal Dancer after the opening night of Swan Lake during the Mariinsky Ballet’s London season at Covent Garden.

In August 2022, Xander made the difficult but inevitable decision to leave Russia and join the Norwegian National Ballet. He became the artistic director of “Reunited in Dance”, a project with the “Segerstrom Center” in California bringing together dancers who have left Russia and the war-torn Ukraine, a symbolic project.

Xander has been invited to perform with many companies during his career, including the Stanislavsky Ballet, English National Ballet and ABT. He launched his own online platform, offering courses and training from leading dancers, named “balletclass.com”.

Among the many awards he has received, the Positano Premia La Danza Leonide Massine Emerging Dancer on the International Scene Award (2014), the Best Young Male Dancer at the 1st Taglioni European Ballet Awards (2014), and Outstanding Male Performance (classical) for Apollo at the UK’s Critics’ Circle National Dance Awards (2014).

In 2017, Xander was awarded an Honorary Doctorate by the University of Hull. In 2019 he was awarded an OBE in the Queen’s New Year’s Honours list, for services to Dance and United Kingdom-Russia Cultural Relations.

Born in Kiev, Ukraine, Iana discovered dance at the Pisarev Ballet School in Donetsk, from which she graduated in 2000. She then joined the city’s Opera Ballet as a Soloist. She then danced for the Kiev National Opera Ballet as Principal Dancer, which allowed her to return to her native city, which is so dear to her heart.

In 2005, she moved to the Berlin Ballet as a Demi-Soloist, under the direction of Vladimir Malakhov. She was promoted to Soloist the following year and to Principal Soloist in 2007 (the highest rank in the Berlin company, equivalent to the status of Principal Dancer). Since then, the direction has changed several times, from Nacho Duato to Christiane Theobald, passing by Sasha Waltz.

In 2002, she won the 1^st Prize and the “Diaghilev Prize” at the Kiev Ballet Competition; in 2004, 1^st Prizes at the Vienna and Perm Competitions, as well as the 3^rd Prize at the International Competition in Varna, Bulgaria. In 2005, the 1^st Prize at the Helsinki International Competition, as well as at the Nagoya International Competition and in 2012, the “Anna Pavlova Grand Prix” at the Dance Open, in Saint Petersburg.

In 2010 she was awarded the “Deutscher Tanzpreis Zukunft” (German Prize for the Future of Dance).

Iana is one of the greatest dancers of her generation. She has nevertheless managed to find time to give birth to three children with her husband, the Principal Dancer Marian Walter.

Originally from Canada, Shale began his training in 2007 at Vlad’s Dance Company and Stepanova Ballet Academy in Toronto. In 2012, he won the title of Junior Male Dancer of the Year at the “American Dance Awards”. In 2014, he won the “Youth Grand Prix Award” at the “Youth America Grand Prix” in the Junior division and decided to leave his native land for France. He then joined the prestigious and highly coveted “Académie Princesse Grace” in Monte-Carlo.

Under the supervision of the Academy’s director, Luca Masala, he won the “Prix de Lausanne” in 2018. Thanks to his gold medal and the Rudolf Nureyev Foundation Prize, the world discovered his great talent, and Tamara Rojo offered him his first professional contract with the English National Ballet in London.

Shale then joined the Munich Ballet, directed by Igor Zelensky and later Laurent Hilaire, as a First Soloist. Despite his young age, the artist has already performed numerous roles in the great ballets of the classical repertoire, while also working on a few personal choreographic projects.

Hailing from France, Chloé Albaret started dancing in 2007 at the “Mondap’art” training Centre in Nîmes. The following year, she continued her dance study at the “Ballet Junior de Genève”, in Switzerland. In 2010, she joined the “Nederlands Dans Theater 2” and then moved to the main company “NDT1” in 2013 under the artistic direction of Paul Lightfoot. Chloe has now decided to take her freedom back to dance as a freelance artist and is working with various choreographers on new contemporary works.

Throughout her career, Chloé worked with numerous choreographers such as Paul Lightfoot and Sol León, Jiří Kylián, Ohad Naharin, Mats Ek, William Forsythe, Marco Goecke, Franck Chartier and Gabriela Carrizo (Peeping Tom), Crystal Pite, Hofesh Shechter and Sharon Eyal.

In 2019, Chloé was nominated for the prestigious Dutch “Zwaan” Award in the category of “most impressive performance” and has won the prize for the same category in 2020.

Born in Canberra, in Australia, Sam trained at the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts (WAPPA) and at the Sydney Dance Company, before joining the Sydney Dance Company (SDC) in 2015.

During his time at the SDC, the artist performed works by William Forsythe, Rafael Bonachela, Alexander Ekman, Cheng Tsung-Lung, Jacopo Godani, Andonis Foniadakis, Gideon Obarzanek and Gabrielle Nankivell.

In January 2018, he joined the Dresden Frankfurt Dance Company (DFDC) under the direction of Jacopo Godani, performing works by Jacopo Godani, William Forsythe and Marco Goecke.

In 2019, Sam has started his choreographic work with “Carnegie Solo”, a critically acclaimed solo created for dancer Anne Jung. Together with four other DFDC artists, Sam also created a “site-specific installation-performance” called “Traces”, which was presented as part of the 2021 season of Mousonturm Sommerbau and the F°LAB festival in Frankfurt in 2022.

Born in Germany, Anne initially trained intensively in rhythmic gymnastics. At the age of 14, she started classical dance classes, while participating in the Atlanta Olympic Games and in many international competitions as a gymnast. It was then time to choose. Turning towards dance, Anne continued her training at the Hochschule für Musik und Tanz in Köln, from which she graduated in classical and contemporary dance in 2008.

She then took a year off to take part in various artistic projects, notably at the Wuppertal Festival, in Bonn, in Dortmund, in Aix and in Köln. In 2009, she received a scholarship from the Kunststiftung NRW and joined the Ballet Theatre of Mainz in Germany, under the artistic direction of Pascal Touzeau.

In 2014, Anne joined Nederlands Dans Theater I, before becoming a member of the Dresden Frankfurt Dance Company in 2017, under the artistic direction of Jacopo Godani.

Drawn to choreography, she created “#onewithtwo” for NDT Switch in 2016, followed by “#twowiththree” and “#threewithfour” for the Dresden Frankfurt Dance Company.

Winner of the 2021 Dysart Prize, an award to support promising choreographers, she was commissioned by the Louisville Ballet to create “#fourwithsix”. Anne Jung has also been nominated for the “Benois de la Danse” for Best Dancer in 2021 for “Carnegie Solo” by Samuel You-Wright.

At the age of 8, the little Belgian began dancing at the Dinant Dance Academy, under the guidance of Michèle Deconninck. At the age of 12, he entered the prestigious Paris Opera Ballet School, where he continued his studies and joined the Paris Opera Ballet company at the age of 17.

Promoted to Coryphée in 2017 and Sujet in 2020, Thomas has danced in the great ballets of the classical repertoire as well as taking part in the creation of contemporary pieces, working notably with Crystal Pite and Hiroshi Sugimoto.

In February 2019, he danced the role of Rothbart in Nureyev’s Swan Lake for the first time as a soloist at the Opéra Bastille – a role he took on in July 2019 at the Shanghai Grand Theatre during the Opera Ballet’s Asian tour.

Having particularly stood out in the 2019/2020 season, Thomas received the AROP Award in 2021, an award that often bodes well for the future of the winners’ careers.

In July 2022, Thomas was invited to the “Ballet gala of Etoiles in Paris” in Seoul, where he danced alongside the Principal Valentine Colosante, and the First Dancer, Héloise Bourdon.

Hailing from the Netherlands, Toon started dancing at the “5 O’Clock Class”, a dance school directed by Jocelyn Bergland. In 2015, he took summer classes at “the Nederlands Dans Theater”, before training at the “Dutch National Ballet Academy” directed by Jean-Yves Esquerre until 2017. At the same time, he was a trainee at “the Nederlands Dans Theater 2” for a year, before joining the company directed by Nancy Euverinck and Fernando Hernando Magadan in 2017. For almost three years, he danced pieces by Paul Lightfoot & Sol Leon, Johan Ingen, Hans van Manen, Marco Goecke, Alexander Ekman, Juliano Nunes, and many others.

In 2020, his career took a turning point as Toon decided to take his freedom back to dance as a freelancer, following his dreams and desires. Since then, this brilliant dancer has been performing in the works of famous choreographers. These include Juliano Nunes’ “Synergy” and “COR”, Paul Lightfoot’s “Selvportraet” and Alexander Ekman’s “Cacti”, in which he is also the rehearsal director.

Born in 2002 in the suburbs of Paris, Inès fell in love with dance while watching a documentary on the Paris Opera Dance School. She then took classes at the “Conservatoire à Rayonnement Régional de Paris“ for a year before being admitted to the Paris Opera Dance School at the age of 9 and a half. Inès took all her classes in the French school’s pure tradition. A tireless worker, she has shaped her body little by little, to erase what she called her imperfections. She had the chance to take on her first solo roles in “Raymonda” and “Spring and Fall” by John Neumeier, as well as the leading role in “Les deux Pigeons” by Albert Aveline.

With her schooling completed in 2019, she joined the Corps de Ballet at the Paris Opera Ballet, when she was only 16 years old. She will be promoted to Coryphée in April 2021, after her first Concours (postponed due to the strikes) and to Sujet in the wake of the second Concours, just 6 months later. These promotions gave her confidence and, above all, the opportunity to work on certain soloist roles. In particular, she had the chance to dance the pas de deux of “Flamme de Paris“, which required unparalleled technical skills.

In December 2021, Inès was invited to perform at the Gala The Hivernales de la Danse as part of a close collaboration with the “Exclusive International Ballet Program“, an international workshop directed by Thomas Gallus and Robert Tewsley. Each year, an exceptional student is rewarded with an invitation to perform at the Gala The Hivernales de la Danse. Inès was the winner of the first edition.