Birmingham Royal Ballet announces promotions, leavers and joiners
- Ikuko
- Jul 4
- 2 min read
The Birmingham Royal Ballet announced promotions, leavers and joiners on 4th July 2025.
Promotions
Yu Kurihara is promoted to Principal. The announcement was made on 21st June in Tokyo to her surprise.
Enrique Bejarano Vidal is promoted to First Soloist.
Javier Rojas, Ryan Felix and Yuki Sugiura are promoted to First Artist.
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.
Congratulations!
Leavers
Jack Easton and Shuailun Wu are moving to Staatsballett Berlin
Kempsey-Fagg is moving to Bayerisches Staatsballett
Callum Findlay-White and Tessa Hogge are moving to Oklahoma City Ballet
Gus Payne is joining Sarasota Ballet as a First Soloist.
Yvette Knight, Regan Hutsell, Ariana Allen and Hamish Scott are leaving to pursue other opportunities.
Rachele Pizzillo is taking a sabbatical and dancing with Cincinnati Ballet for the 2025-2026 season.
Joiners
Katherine Ochoa as a first soloist from Cincinnati Ballet.
Alfie-Lee Hall will be next season’s Elmhurst Apprentice.
The following dancers are also joining the Company for the 2025-2026 season on fixed term contracts: 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).
Alisa Garkavenko, Tom Hazelby and Alexandra Manuel join the Company as Artists following completion of two years with BRB2
Yasemin Kayabay (Royal Ballet School), Yoli Meurisse (ENB School) and John Fontanini (Princess Grace Academy) join BRB2 from the new season.
Marlo Kempsey-Fagg also joins BRB2 following his year as Elmhurst Apprentice.
Earlier on 27th on June, the Birmingham Royal Ballet announced Subin Kim joins the company as the Constant Lambert Conducting Fellow for the 2025-2026 season.