English National Ballet announces promotions, joiners and leavers

English National Ballet, London, the United Kingdom, announced the promotions for the 2025-2026 season on 25th June 2025, along with joiners and leavers.

Extremely personally, I would like to extend special congratulations to Emily Suzuki, who has been promoted to the rank of First Soloist. She is one of the early adopters of Prima Materia and I have been collaborating with her ever since. You can find out about her pointe shoe secret. Click here.

I am also excited to see Manuel Legris joining as a guest repetiteur.

Following are the promotions. Congratulations!

• Gareth Haw to Lead Principal.

• Rentaro Nakaaki, Anna Nevzorova, Haruhi Otani (she does crazy turns), Emily Suzuki, Angela Wood to First Soloist.

• Swanice Luong, Miguel Angel Maidana to Soloist.

• Ashley Coupal, Carolyne Galvao, Jose María Lorca Menchón, Thiago Silva, Anri Sugiura, Anna-Babette Winkler to First Artist.

• Martinho Santos to 6th year Artist.

Joiners

• Paulo Rodrigues, formerly with the Joffrey Ballet, joins as a Soloist. 

• Hatice Çağla Ertürk and Elvis Nudo join as Soloists from Finnish National Ballet. 

• Rodrigo Pinto joins as a Soloist and Taela Graff joins as an Artist, both from Houston Ballet. 

• Tara Millard, formerly with the Norwegian National Ballet, joins as an Artist. 

• Zai Calliste and Lois Fraiz join as Artists, having completed their training with English National Ballet School. 

• Sacha Venkatasawmy from Dutch National Ballet Academy joins as an Artist.

• Joining the Company as Prix de Lausanne Dancer is Jakob Wheway Hughes, from Tring Park Ballet School. 

• Cynthia Harvey (icon) returns as Associate Guest Repetiteur, alongside Stephanie Arndt, Yannick Boquin, Christina Johnson, Manuel Legris, and Alejandro Parente (Marianela Núñez's fiance or husband) as Guest Repetiteurs. 

Leavers

• Lead Principal Francesco Gabriele Frola leaves to become Principal with San Francisco Ballet.  

• Lead Principal Erina Takahashi becomes full-time Repetiteur with the Company.  

• First Artist Breanna Foad leaves to join Zurich Ballet as Group with Solo.  

• First Artist Edvinas Jakonis has left mid-season to join Lithuanian National Ballet as a Soloist. 

• Soloist Vsevolod Maievskyi, Junior Soloist Tiffany Hedman, and Artists Paulo Gonzalez, Marta Monesi, Vincent Philp, Alexandra Terry, and Madison Whiteley leave the Company this season.  

• Repetiteur Laurent Guilbaud leaves to join The Munich State Ballet, after six years with English National Ballet.