Akane Takada

Japanese dancer Akane Takada is a Principal of The Royal Ballet. She danced with the Company on a Prix de Lausanne scholarship in 2008 and in 2009 entered the Company as an Artist. She was promoted to First Artist in 2010, Soloist in 2011, First Soloist in 2014 and Principal in 2016.

Takada was born in Tokyo and trained at Hiromi Takahashi Ballet Studio and the Bolshoi Ballet Academy. In the 2008 Prix de Lausanne she won Audience Choice Award in addition to her scholarship with The Royal Ballet. Takada’s repertory with the Company includes Odette/Odile (Swan Lake), Giselle, Kitri, Manon, Juliet, Cinderella, Princess Aurora (The Sleeping Beauty), Sugar Plum Fairy (The Nutcracker), Swanhilda (Coppélia), Olga (Onegin), Titania (The Dream), Young Girl (The Two Pigeons), Mary Vetsera (Mayerling), Mathilde Kschessinska (Anastasia), Raven (Raven Girl), Nikiya (La Bayadère), Irina (Winter Dreams), Perdita and Young Shepherdess (The Winter’s Tale), Tita (Like Water for Chocolate) and roles in Fool's Paradise, Tchaikovsky Pas de Deux, The Statement, The Vertiginous Thrill of Exactitude, Jewels, Chroma, The Human Seasons, Voices of Spring, DGV: Danse à grande vitesse, The Four Temperaments, Ballo della regina, Within the Golden Hour, Concerto, Multiverse, Monotones I, Medusa and Carbon Life.

Takada’s role creations include roles in Wayne McGregor’s Live Fire Exercise, Tetractys, Woolf Works and The Dante Project.

Akane Takada is scheduled to perform in The Nutcracker on 12 December 2025. She is scheduled to perform in Mayerling on 7 April, 25 April and 16 May 2026. She is scheduled to perform in Giselle on 25 February and 3 March 2026.