Director of The Royal Ballet Kevin O’Hare today announces promotions, new joiners and leavers for The Royal Ballet’s 2025/26 Season.  

Friday 27 June 2025

Kevin O’Hare says, ‘I am sure audiences will join me in congratulating our Royal Ballet dancers for a wonderful Season. Their artistry and commitment combine to make some of the most dazzling theatrical experiences for us all. I am delighted to announce a number of promotions as well as updating on other changes within The Royal Ballet. My thanks to all performers and staff who contribute so richly to the Company.’

The following promotions have been made: 

Isabel Lubach, Viola Pantuso, Julia Roscoe, Amelia Townsend and Harris Bell are promoted to Soloist.

Olivia Findlay, Ella Newton Severgnini, Hanna Park, Maddison Pritchard, Ginevra Zambon, Denilson Almeida and Caspar Lench are promoted to First Artist.

Following a 15-year career with The Royal Ballet, First Soloist Itziar Mendizabal leaves the Company to take up a new teaching position at The Royal Ballet School. Her repertory with the Company has been wide and varied, demonstrating a flair for dramatic characterisation with celebrated performances including the Firebird, Myrtha in Giselle, Carabosse and the Lilac Fairy in The Sleeping Beauty, Tatiana in Onegin, the Gypsy Girl in The Two Pigeons and Empress Elisabeth in Mayerling. She delighted audiences with her comic timing as the Queen of Hearts in Christopher Wheeldon’s Alices Adventures in Wonderland.

After 21 years, Soloist Romany Pajdak leaves the Company at the end of the Season. Featured across all the Company’s repertory, Pajdak has brought her distinctive Royal Ballet qualities to numerous productions, including as Clara in The Nutcracker, in Frederick Ashton’s The Wise Virgins and Five Brahms Waltzes in the Manner of Isadora Duncan, Wayne McGregor’s Infra and the evocative film of Kenneth MacMillan’s Sea of Troubles by Yorke Dance Project. She joins her husband, Dane Hurst, Artistic Director of Joburg Ballet in South Africa, in early 2026.

Soloist Benjamin Ella will retire as a performer after 16 years in December 2025. Ella has brought attack and verve in a wide variety of memorable roles and ballets including Albrecht in Giselle, Bluebird in The Sleeping Beauty, Mercutio in Romeo and Juliet, Benno in Swan Lake, Jerome Robbins’ Dances at a Gathering, Wayne McGregors’s Chroma, Obsidian Tear and The Dante Project, Crystal Pite’s Light of Passage and Solo Echo and recently Dusk by Joseph Toonga. Ella has also been a keen choreographer, featured frequently in The Royal Ballet’s Draft Works.

First Artist Katharina Nikelski takes a leave of absence in the 2025/26 Season to pursue an MBA.

The Aud Jebsen Young Dancers programme was established in 2014 and provides recently graduated dancers a year’s contract to be nurtured and perform alongside the corps de ballet of The Royal Ballet. This programme, made possible by the generous philanthropic support of Aud Jebsen, is central to The Royal Ballet and The Royal Ballet School’s endeavour to support emerging talent. By the beginning of next Season, 68 contracts will have been made available for dancers at the first stage of their careers since the programme’s inception.

From the 24/25 Season intake, Francesca Lloyd, Katie Robertson, Rebecca Myles Stewart, Ravi Cannonier-Watson, Emile Gooding and Alejandro Muñoz now become Artists.

For the 2025/26 Season, seven graduates from The Royal Ballet School join the Aud Jebsen Young Dancers Programme: Aurora Chinchilla, LilySophia Dashwood, Shani Moran-Simmonds, Yuki Nagayasu, Amos Child, Tristan-Ian Massa and Joe Parkinson.

The 2024/25 Prix de Lausanne dancer, Airi Kobayashi, leaves at the end of the Season to join Birmingham Royal Ballet.

On the artistic staff, Zhan Atymtayev joins The Royal Ballet as Répétiteur at the beginning of the 2025/26 Season. Currently Rehearsal Director at the Royal Swedish Ballet, Atymtayev was a dancer with English National Ballet and teacher at The Royal Ballet Upper School.

The Royal Ballet also announces new appointments and departures in the Music Department.

Longstanding pianist Timothy Qualtrough retires from his full-time role after 33 valued years with The Royal Ballet. His impact on class and rehearsals, with his sensitive musicality and commitment to the art form, has been immeasurable. He will continue to contribute to the Company as a freelancer.

Also departing at the end of the Season are Constant Lambert Fellow Yi Wei, Jette Parker Ballet Conductor José Salazar and Associate Pianist Wing Tung Fan.

The Constant Lambert Fellowship provides a tailor-made mentoring programme for conducting for ballet, working across The Royal Ballet and Birmingham Royal Ballet. In the 2025/26 Season, Subin Kim joins as the new Constant Lambert Fellow.

The Jette Parker Artists Programme is a professional two-year residency with The Royal Ballet or Royal Opera and for the new Season, Giovanni Fanizza joins as the Jette Parker Ballet Conductor.

Anastasia Matkovskaia joins as Associate Pianist.

Christina Cefai has been appointed in a new Ballet Healthcare role as Ballet Data Scientist. Dr Patrick O’Halloran has left the Company, replaced by Dr Moiz Moghal as Medical Advisor.

In The Royal Ballet team, Administrative Producer Ania Kapsza and Assistant Company Manager Natalie Holdys leave their roles at the end of the 2024/25 Season. Ted Blackburn joins as Assistant to the Company Manager in July 2025.

Deputy Stage Manager Jaclyn Fulton takes a year’s sabbatical during the 2025/26 Season to pursue a Master's programme in Creative Producing at the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama.