Semperoper Ballett announces joiners, retirement

Semperoper Ballett Dresden announced six joiners for the 2025-2026 season and a retirement in its Instagram posts over a few days in the period of the end-September and the early-October 2025.

• Hyo-Jung Kang joined as Principal Dancer from the Vienna State Ballet (Wiener Staatsballett)

• Jun Xia as Principal Dancer from the Finnish National Ballet

• Madoka Ishikawa as Second Soloist from the Leipzig Ballet

• Joining as Coryphée are Mattia Baccon from the Croatian National Ballet, Melissa Chapski from the Oregon Ballet Theatre and Rafael Vedra from the Ballett am Rhein

Congratulations!

Semperoper Ballett said Soloist Duosi Zhu retired from the stage on 6th October after 18 years. She remains with the German company as a stage manager. Toi toi toi!

The company already announced promotions and new corps members in July.