English dancer Anna Rose O’Sullivan is a Principal of The Royal Ballet. She trained at The Royal Ballet School and joined the Company in December 2012 as an Artist, promoted to First Artist in 2016, Soloist in 2017, First Soloist in 2019 and Principal in 2021.
O’Sullivan was born in Harrow and began dancing aged two, training locally before joining The Royal Ballet School, White Lodge. Early performances included the lead role of Sara Crewe in A Little Princess for London Children’s Ballet and Cosette (Les Misérables) and in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang on the West End. Roles at the School included a Principal role in Alastair Marriott’s Simple Symphony, pas de deux (Don Quixote) at La Fenice, Venice, and pas de deux (Rhapsody) at Buckingham Palace. Awards include the April Olrich Award for Dynamic Performance and the Phyllis Bedells Bursary (Royal Academy of Dance). In 2010 she reached the finals in the Genée International Ballet Competition and in 2011 won The Royal Ballet School Achievement Award, the Director’s Prize for most promising student and Young British Dancer of the Year.
O’Sullivan’s roles with the Company have included Lescaut's Mistress (Manon), Kitri (Don Quixote), Fairy Spring (Cinderella), Odette/Odile (Swan Lake), Princess Aurora and Princess Florine (The Sleeping Beauty), Swanilda (Coppélia), Alice (Alice's Adventures in Wonderland), Olga (Onegin), Clara and Sugar Plum Fairy (The Nutcracker), Juliet (Romeo and Juliet), La Fille mal gardée pas de deux, pas de six and Moyna (Giselle), Princess Louise and Princess Stephanie (Mayerling), Dorabella (Enigma Variations), Vera (Month in the Country), Calliope (Apollo), Florence Billington (The Unknown Soldier), Blue Girl (Les Patineurs), 1st Movement (Concerto), ,Symphony in C, 4th Movement and roles in Corybantic Games, Infra, ‘Emeralds’ (Jewels), After the Rain, Carbon Life, Within the Golden Hour, La Bayadère, Voices of Spring, Tchaikovsky Pas de deux, Dances at a Gathering, Tarantella, The Weathering, Rhapsody, and DGV: Danse à Grande Vitesse. She created Gertrudis in Like Water for Chocolate and roles in Robert Binet's Dark with Excessive Bright, Untitled, 2023, Multiverse, Woolf Works, Symphonic Dances, Dispatch Duet and The Dante Project.
Watch Anna Rose in performances on Royal Opera House Stream. You can also watch her exclusive interview as part of the Spotlight on... series.
Anna Rose O'Sullivan discusses her favourite roles to dance and her career with The Royal Ballet.
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