Birmingham Royal Ballet to Add New Dancers for 2026/27 Season

Birmingham Royal Ballet have announced new dancers joining the Company for the upcoming 2026/7 season. Following the successful completion of their time with BRB2, Sophie Walters and Ixan Ferrer will join the main Company as Artists. They are joined by Airi Kobayashi and Gillian Whittall, who performed with BRB during the 2025/26 season, and Luciano Ghidoli, who joins the Company as an Artist from Finnish National Ballet.

Birmingham Royal Ballet's sister company focused on nurturing ballet talent, BRB2, continues to grow this season with the addition of Noah Campbell, Sophia Koo, Addison Partlow, Martha Savin and Denis Teixeira all joining from The Royal Ballet School.

Also joining BRB2 are Mikel Arana Arzak and Samuel Pereira from Conservatorio Internacional de Ballet y Danza Annarella Sánchez, and Jacopo Biancucci, who trained at the John Cranko School and Accademia Teatro alla Scala and performed with Birmingham Royal Ballet during the 2025/26 season. Alfie-Lee Hall joins BRB2 after completing his apprenticeship year with the Company and this season's Apprentice will be Ted (Heng-Yu) Peng, from Elmhurst Ballet School.

First Artist Javier Rojas departed the Company at the end of the season to join Opera De Nice.

BRB2 dancers Andrea Riolo, Ellyne Knol and Charlotte Cohen completed their two years of training and performances with Birmingham Royal Ballet at the conclusion of the season.

Season contracts for Sofia Hensley, Kaitlyn Moore, Vidya Cannonier-Watson, Tom Wood, Thomas Kujawa, Oisin Middleton, Samantha Paige, Isabelle Clough, Florence Lane and Amber Cook came to an end this Summer.

Birmingham Royal Ballet return to the stage this autumn with one of the Company's most Popular Productions in its repertoire, Swan Lake - playing at Birmingham Hippodrome from Wednesday 23 September to Saturday 3 October 2026 and London's Sadler's Wells Theatre from Wednesday 28 to Saturday 31 October 2026. Tickets are on sale now at brb.org.uk.