Graduate at Kyiv State Ballet School (Ukraine) 2001-2009. Since 2010, First Soloist of the National Opera of Ukraine.

Repertoire at the National Opera of Ukraine: "Giselle" (choreography: J. Perraut, J. Coralli, M. Petipa), Myrtha, peasant pas de deux "Don Quixote" (choreography: M. Petipa, O. Horsky, K. Holeizovsky), Street Dancer, Kitri's friend, "Lileya" (choreography: V. Kovtun.), Water Mermaid, "The Forest Song" (choreography: Vakhtang Vronsky) Water Mermaid, "Carmen" (choreography: A.Alonso), Rock, Tobacco Girl, "The Snow Queen" (choreography: Aniko Rekhviashvili), Snow Queen, Robber, "Julius Caesar" (choreography: Aniko Rekhviashvili), Kyfridia, "El sombrero de tres picos" (choreography: Aniko Rekhviashvili), Miller's wife, Gabriela, "La Sylphide" (choreography: Oleg Vynogradov), Effie, "Swan Lake" (choreography: M.Petipa), pas de trois, Venetian dance, "La Bayadere" (choreography: M.Petipa), Drums, Manu.

As well as solo parts in the ballets "La Bayadere", "Sleeping Beauty", "Nutcracker", "Paquita", "Corsair", "Viennese Waltz", "Cipollino", "Faust", etc.

Since 2022, principal ballerina of the United Ukrainian Ballet in the Netherlands. Repertoire: "Giselle" (choreography: A.Ratmansky), Giselle, "Don Ouixote" (choreography: O.Horsky), Kitri, "La Bayadere" (choreography: M.Petipa), Gamzatti, "Paquita" ( choreography: M.Petipa), Paquita.

Awards: Serge Lifar Ballet Competition - Special prize "Hope of the Competition"

Principal dancer with Kharkiv National Academic Opera and Ballet Theater named after N.V.Lysenko (Ukraine).

In 2004-2008 studied at the Choreographic School of Vadim Pisarev at the Donetsk State Academic Opera and Ballet Theatre named after A.Solovyanenko (Ukraine). In 2013 - graduated from Kharkiv State Academy of Culture, Contemporary Choreography Department (Ukraine). He performed leading roles in such performances as «Romeo and Juliet», «Spartacus», «Swan Lake», «The Nutcracker», «Sleeping Beauty», «Giselle», «La Bayadère», «Corsair», «Cinderella», «Coppelia», «Les Sylphides», «Don Quixote», «Carmen Suite», «Paquita», «Scheherazade» etc.

Throughout his career, he has performed on the best stages around the world: Australia, Singapore, USA, Canada, England, Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, France, Greece, Spain, Poland, China, Taiwan, Israel, Mexico, Norway, Denmark, Finland and so on.

Awards

Grand Prix of International Dance Competition Hellas (Greece 2018). Best duet of Ukraine award International ballet festival BalletUA

(Ukraine 2021).

Leigh Alderson comes from Portadown in Northern Ireland. He trained at the Royal Ballet School in London and danced in Rudi van Dantzig's "Four Last Songs" (Richard Strauss) in Toronto and Stuttgart before graduating in 2006. He danced works by Trisha Brown, William Forsythe and Ashley Page at the Scottish Ballet, and works by Richard Wherlock at the New English Contemporary Ballet. He later moved to the Atlantic Ballet Theatre of Canada and performed as a guest with the Cork City Ballet (Ireland). He worked for eight years with Les Grands Ballets Canadiens in Montreal in choreographies by Stijn Celis, Mats Ek, Jiří Kylián, Stephan Thoss and Didy Veldmans, among others. Leigh Alderson has also danced with Ballet Ireland, in the New Adventures company of choreographer Matthew Bournes (in "Swan Lake") and most recently with the Royal Ballet Fehérvári (Hungary).

Awards include Royal Ballet School Achievement Award (2005 & 2006) Lynne Seymour Award for Most Expressive Dancer (2004), The NJL Choreographic Development Award (2005) and The Ulster Tatler Arts Personality of the Year Award (2009 & 2010).

Anna Katherine McCoy is a dancer from Belfast and fell in love with ballet by her first teacher Fiona Cambell at the age of 4. Anna then went to Laura Walker whilst dancing with Irish National Youth Ballet under the directorship of Katherine Lewis till the age of 16. A year later, she moved to London to train at Central School of Ballet gaining a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Kent. Anna has danced in the Corps de Ballet with English National Ballet, been a body double in a new television series on Channel 4 named “Alice & Jack”, performed for the International Ballet Festival in Miami and performed for the “Le Relais de la Flamme” in Arles for the Olympic Games.

Anna has worked with many choreographers and dancers such as Kinsun Chan, Juliette Rahon, Xenia Weist, Julien Guérin, Ricardo Aramante, Young Soon Hue, Yoel Carreño, George Oliviera and Katarzyna Kozielska. Anna danced with Arles Youth Ballet Company under directorship of Norton Fantinel and Karina Moreira and now is joining Semperoper Ballet, Dresden as a member of the Corps de Ballet under the directorship of Kinsun Chan.

Luc Burns is a 21-year-old professional ballet dancer from Belfast, Northern Ireland. He began his training at the age of 14 at Rana’s School of Ballet. In 2018, he was accepted into the three-year Professional Dancers Diploma course at Kings International Ballet Academy graduating in 2021.

Since graduating, Luc has worked with many companies such as Brecon Festival Ballet, New Creations Collective, Sorbian National Ensemble (Germany), and Ajkun Ballet Theatre (New York).

Luc is currently with the Varna State Opera, having joined the Bulgarian company in December 2022. He has performed in many corps de ballet and soloist roles in productions such as Cinderella, Romeo and Juliet, Hanukkah, Paris Mon Amour, Swan Lake, The Nutcracker, and Sleeping Beauty in numerous international destinations, including Bulgaria, Greece, Italy, South Korea, and the UK.

Rachel Neale was in the first cohort of High Points Youth Ballet’s pre-professional training programme, performing principal roles in all of the company’s productions she was involved in, including The Nutcracker, The Sleeping Beauty and Swan Lake.

Since graduating from The Central School of Ballet in London, Rachel joined the international touring company of The Phantom of the Opera. For the past nine months, she has been performing to sold-out audiences in Saudi Arabia, Dubai and Bulgaria. She is excited to be continuing on her journey with the next leg of their European Tour!

Rachel said, “I am very excited to be performing as a guest artist for the Belfast International Ballet Festival and lucky to have the opportunity to dance in front of home audiences!”

Ruaidhrí is an Irish choreographer and ballet dancer currently working as a dancer with the National Ballet of Ireland. Before that he danced with the Baltic Opera Ballet, Gdansk, Poland, where he was the youngest male principal dancer at the performing leads in Giselle, The Nutcracker, Cinderella and Don Quixote. Following graduation from Central School of Ballet, London, he danced with Milwaukee Ballet II, USA and with Ballet Victoria, BC, Canada before dancing with his current company.

As a choreographer he premiered new works across the UK, Ireland, Canada, Poland and Japan. Recent works include; ‘The Five Seasons’ at Ballet Victoria. Canada, ‘Beating Streets in City Hearts’ at the Baltic Opera in Gdansk, ‘After/Before’ at Dancer From the Dance Festival, Dublin. He has been a resident artist with Dance Ireland and Galway Dance Project and will be in residency again with both organisations working on new projects.

Ruaidhrí founder and artistic director of Six Dance Collective to further develop ballet as an adventurous artform across the island of Ireland, through collaboration and creating opportunities for the next generation of dancers. As Artistic Director of Six Dance Collective, he produced a brand new two-act ballet ‘White Doves’ which took place at The MAC, Belfast Aug 2023.

Stephen Everson, originally from Toledo OH, USA began dancing recreationally at the age of 12. In 2016 he started his formal ballet training at Ballet 5:8 School of the Arts, and later at Project Ballet. While training, Stephen was given the opportunity to attend the Royal Danish Ballet Summer School in Copenhagen, Denmark, where he had the honor of studying under Fosse legends Ann Reinking and Dana Moore. In 2018 Stephen joined Ballet 5:8’s professional company as a trainee, touring and performing across the country. Stephen started working as a freelance artist in 2019, dancing lead roles such as Oberon in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Prince Siegfried in Swan Lake, and Cavalier in The Nutcracker; he also performed as a guest artist with Charleston Ballet Theatre. In 2021, Stephen joined First State Ballet Theatre, where his repertoire includes Dracula in Viktor Plotnikov’s Dracula, Dr Coppelius in Coppelia, Fantasy to Dvořák, Giselle, Swan Lake, Don Quixote, Sleeping Beauty, and excerpts from Raymonda and La Bayadère. He has also performed in original works by choreographers Zachary Kapuluck, Blake Krapels, Maeghan McHale, and many others.

Amy joined High Points Youth Ballet in 2022 and has performed principal roles in the company’s productions of The Nutcracker and Swan Lake. She is currently training at Central School of Ballet in London and going into herb graduate year in September. Amy says “I’m very excited to be performing in the Belfast International Ballet Festival as a guest artist.”

Lauren trained at High Points Youth Ballet from 2017 to 2022 playing roles such as Marie and Dewdrop in the Nutcracker as well as big swans for Swan Lake and jester solo. Lauren is currently in her 2nd year of training at Northern Ballet school on the Classical Focus specifying in ballet and contemporary. She will be graduating next year and hopes to have a career in contemporary dance. Lauren says “ I am really looking forward to performing with my High Points family again and I am so grateful for the opportunity to perform for such an amazing group of people”