Birmingham Royal Ballet announces promotions, joiners and leavers for 2023/2024 Season

Carlos Acosta, Director of Birmingham Royal Ballet, has announced the promotions within the company and new joiners for the 2023/24 season:

It has been a whirlwind year so far for everyone involved in Birmingham Royal Ballet. As the 2022-23 Season draws to an end I know everyone is looking forward to a well-deserved break and to returning in August with renewed energy for the exciting season ahead.

I want to say a very special thank you in particular to Marion Tait who has been a constant inspiration to everyone here and in the world of ballet. Also Carmen Piqueras and Brandon Lawrence whose glittering careers I know will continue to flourish.

Promotions

Announced on stage by Carlos Acosta during the run of Swan Lake at Birmingham Hippodrome, Lachlan Monaghan and Max Maslen were promoted to Principal.

The following promotions have also now been made within the Company: Gabriel Anderson, Rosanna Ely, Sofia Liñares and Lucy Waine have been promoted to First Artist.

Joiners

Joining the company are: Olivia Chang Clarke – Artist (previously Apprentice) and Yasiel Hodelin Bello (Cuban National Ballet School) – Soloist.

Joining the 2023/24 season BRB2 company as Artists are Nasrullah Abdur-Rahman (USA / Boston Ballet School), Ariana Allen (UK / Royal Ballet School), Alisa Garkavenko (Ukraine / Princess Grace Academy), Thomas Hazelby (UK / Royal Ballet School), Rosa Lidia-Nuesi (Dominican Republic / Acosta Danza), Alexandra Manuel (USA / Royal Ballet School) and Alfie Shacklock (UK/Australia / Royal Ballet School).

They will join the cohort of the first year of BRB2, Oscar Kempsey-Fagg (UK), Mason King (UK/New Zealand), Frieda Kaden (Germany), Mailene Katoch (France) and Jack Easton (USA).

Leavers

Leaving the company at the end of the season are Marion Tait – Rehearsal Director and Coach; Carmen Piqueras – Répétiteur and Brandon Lawrence – Principal Dancer who will take up a new position at Zürich Ballet. He ended his time at BRB by performing in all three pieces in the final performance of the summer triple bill: Apollo, Interlinked and ‘Still Life' at the Penguin Café.

Marion Tait – biography

Born in London, Marion Tait joined the Royal Ballet School at 15, graduating to The Royal Ballet's touring company. She danced the ballerina roles in all the classics and in Romeo and Juliet, Elite Syncopations, Las Hermanas, The Invitation, Hobson's Choice, The Dream, The Burrow, Fall River Legend (Lizzie Borden) and Pillar of Fire (Hagar). She created many roles in ballets by MacMillan and Bintley, and appeared as a guest worldwide. She was given an OBE in 1992 and made a CBE in the 2003 Queen's Birthday Honours. She has been nominated for two Olivier Awards, won the Evening Standard Ballet Award and was named Dancer of the Year 1994. Marion assisted Desmond Kelly in Ballet Changed My Life – Ballet Hoo!, the education project documented on Channel 4 in 2006, for which she was presented with the De Valois Award for Outstanding Achievement at the Critics' Circle National Dance Awards in 2008. In more recent years she was the Company's Ballet Mistress and then succeeded Desmond Kelly as Assistant Director, a role she stood down from in early 2021. In February 2020, Marion was awarded the De Valois Award for outstanding contribution to dance at the Critics' Circle National Dance Awards.

Carmen Piqueras – biography

Born in Murcia, Spain, Carmen Piqueras trained with Jose Antonio Robles and then with the Carmina Ocaña Ballet School in Madrid. She has danced in several European companies including Ballet Victor Ullate, European Ballet, Zürich Ballet, English National Ballet and joined the Semperoper Ballett, Dresden, in 2006 where she was then promoted to a Soloist. She has danced a wide variety of repertoire from classical to contemporary. Since 2008 Carmen has been a guest ballet teacher in many different dance companies throughout Europe. She was Ballet Master with the Semperoper Ballett (2016-21), responsible for the choreographies of MacMillan, Balanchine, Forsythe, Asthon, Dawson, Watkin, Celis, Peck, Inger, Bausch, among others. She joined Birmingham Royal Ballet in 2021.

Brandon Lawrence – biography

Brandon Lawrence joined BRB from the Royal Ballet School in 2011. He was promoted to Soloist in 2016 and First Soloist in 2018. He was made a Principal in 2019. Awards: National Dance Awards nominee for Best Male Classical Performance (2018, 2019, 2022, 2023) and Best Male Dancer, Classical (2019), RAD Phyllis Bedells Award (2008). Created roles: Principal role in George Williamson's Embrace, Pan in Ruth Brill's Arcadia, La Grâce in David Bintley's The King Dances, Alexander Whitley's Kin., Red Couple in Juanjo Arqués's Ignite, and roles in Didy Veldman's Sense of Time, Jessica Lang's Lyric Pieces and Wink, Jack Lister's A Brief Nostalgia, Miguel Altunaga's City of a Thousand Trades and Juliano Nunes's Interlinked. Guest performances: International Ballet Festival of Miami, 2018; Move It 2019 (Headline on main stage); Guest Artist with Cape Town City Ballet- Maina Gielgud's Giselle (Albrecht); Frederick Ashton's Les Patineur (White couple) and Veronica Paeper's Romeo and Juliet (Romeo). Brandon has helped with the LEAP Department's Ballet? What's That? events aimed at those completely new to the world of ballet.

Gramilano( Editor )

Graham Spicer is a writer, director and photographer in Milan, blogging (under the name ‘Gramilano') about dance, opera, music and photography for people “who are a bit like me and like some of the things I like”. He was a regular columnist for Opera Now magazine and wrote for the BBC until transferring to Italy.

His scribblings have appeared in various publications from Woman's Weekly to Gay Times, and he wrote the ‘Danza in Italia' column for Dancing Times magazine.