Meet the Ballet Artists From Dance Magazine’s 2025 “25 to Watch”

2025 is a special year for our friends at Dance Magazine: It’s the 25th anniversary of their annual “25 to Watch” list, which features rising talent across a variety of genres. Naturally, we’re excited about the ballet dancers and choreographers who made this year’s list. Learn more about them below, and check out the full “25 to Watch” feature here.

Brett Fukuda

Dancer and choreographer, CCN-Ballet de l’Opéra National du Rhin

What if a muse were more than a vessel of inspiration for men—and instead regained the power and autonomy she had in Greek mythology? Last winter, rising choreographer Brett Fukuda flipped Balanchine’s 1928 Apollo on its head in Muse Paradox, her first main-stage work for the Ballet de l’Opéra National du Rhin, where she is a company member. In this fluently musical reinvention, steeped in the classical vocabulary, she put the spotlight firmly on the muses’ agency.

Muse Paradox came at the request of Ballet du Rhin director Bruno Bouché, who had noticed Fukuda’s creativity and outspokenness in the studio. It ended up being an opportunity for the 32-year-old dancer to reckon with her own training at the School of American Ballet and experiences with Boston Ballet, where she was a corps member from 2014–18 before joining Ballet du Rhin.

To an abbreviated version of Stravinsky’s score, Fukuda delineated thoughtful characters for the two women in the cast, even offering dancer Julia Weiss the chance to lead her male partner in an arresting reversed pas de deux. Rave reviews ensued in France. With two more creations already lined up for 2025, Fukuda is just beginning her time at the front of the studio. —Laura Cappelle

Melisa Guilliams

Corps member, Pacific Northwest Ballet

“Her potential is limitless, which is true of very few dancers,” Pacific Northwest Ballet artistic director Peter Boal says of Melisa Guilliams. An early vote of confidence in that potential: tapping her to perform David Parsons’ Caught, in which the dancer jumps nearly continuously under strobe lights for the length of the eight-minute solo, when she was just an apprentice. Now a corps member, Guilliams checks every technical box: soaring jumps, dynamic turnout, precise beats, flexible feet, pristine pirouettes, expressive arms. But the 22-year-old is a believable performer, too, whether asked to deliver soulful lyricism in Crystal Pite’s The Seasons’ Canon or the angst of Alejandro Cerrudo’s One Thousand Pieces.

The versatile Guilliams grew up in a Japanese American household, spending parts of the year with family in Japan and even going to school there. “With all those cultural shifts,” she says, “I couldn’t afford to divide myself—I’m a product of both cultures and can easily shift from one to the other, like in the diverse repertoire we perform.” She’s been cast in more Balanchine ballets as well as contemporary works recently, and with her range, musicality, and technique, says Boal, “there’s not a challenge she can’t meet.” —Gigi Berardi

Ruby Lister

Corps member, New York City Ballet

In Pam Tanowitz’s Law of Mosaics, New York City Ballet corps member Ruby Lister begins a series of low fouetté arabesques. With crisp clarity and a serene, open expression, Lister adds small flicks of the hand and sprightly sissones as the phrase builds, contrasting impressive control with moments of power. “Ruby finds freedom within that really harsh structure,” says Tanowitz, who created the solo on them. “They have a quiet, old-fashioned elegance, like an old soul with a fresh take.”

Many may be familiar with Lister from the popular 2020 Disney+ series “On Pointe,” which documented the lives of several School of American Ballet students. Lister, now 21, was clearly a standout, and would win SAB’s Mae L. Wien Award for Outstanding Promise before joining NYCB as an apprentice in 2021. Born in Sumner, Washington, they initially trained at Pacific Northwest Ballet School, where they studied modern with faculty member Eva Stone. That versatility has proved an asset at NYCB, where Lister has danced featured roles in ballets by Justin Peck, Alexei Ratmansky, and Jerome Robbins, and created roles in Kyle Abraham’s Love Letter (on shuffle) and Caili Quan’s Beneath the Tides. Last season they debuted in Tanowitz’s Gustave le Gray No. 1. “I feel excited that I’m a part of their history,” says Tanowitz. —Amy Brandt

Joseph Markey

Corps member, American Ballet Theatre

In Act III of American Ballet Theatre’s production of Swan Lake, the evil Von Rothbart takes the stage himself for a deliciously hammy dance to the ballet’s “Russian” variation. It’s a role that needs charisma, and one usually given to a senior dancer with the confidence to pull it off. But last summer, ABT took its chances on corps member Joseph Markey. With dazzling magnetism, his Von Rothbart relished the spotlight, commanding attention and seducing (not to mention partnering) each of the ball’s four princesses one by one. Buoyed by his steady, easy technique, Markey knew just how far to push his theatricality without descending into camp.

Originally from Jacksonville, Florida, Markey trained in various dance styles at Debbie’s Dance Company before joining Orlando Ballet School’s trainee program in 2017. A year later, he moved to ABT’s Studio Company, joining ABT as an apprentice in 2019 and the corps de ballet in 2021. Last season, Markey had several moments to shine, including in Jiří Kylián’s Petite Mort and as the stately Prince Gremin in John Cranko’s Onegin. This past fall, choreographer Helen Pickett, who calls Markey a “remarkable artist,” cast him in the featured role of Luzhin in her new Crime and Punishment: “His kinetic and emotional intelligence, combined with his deep curiosity about this art form, has given Luzhin multiple layers of life.” —Amy Brandt

Mayfield Myers

Corps member, Philadelphia Ballet

Just a month into her first season in Philadelphia Ballet’s corps, Mayfield Myers danced the Autumn Fairy in Ben Stevenson’s Cinderella. Soon, her boss, Angel Corella, was casting her in other soloist roles: big swans in his Swan Lake, Dewdrop in Balanchine’s Nutcracker. Her Dewdrop is light and springy, with beautifully soft fingers and arms and a strong upper body, carefree and in control. “She’s got that capacity of making things really hard look very, very, easy,” Corella says of the 22-year-old, who joined Philadelphia Ballet II at 18 and skipped the apprentice rank when she moved to the main company a year later. “But I think that her strength is how chill she is about everything.” That makes her easy to work with in the studio, he says, and translates into a sense of freedom onstage.

Myers was coached by Heather Watts in Dewdrop in 2023, and for the past two years was invited to perform at Vail Dance Festival by Watts and artistic director Damian Woetzel. There, Myers tackled more Balanchine soloist roles, showcasing her musicality and attack as Polyhymnia in Apollo and the jumping girl in Who Cares? Now in her third season with Philadelphia Ballet, Myers says she is focused on developing her artistry within the company’s Balanchine and classical rep. —Ellen Dunkel

Loughlan Prior

Ballet choreographer

Loughlan Prior serves up feasts for the senses. The Kiwi dancemaker has aptly described his work as “maximalist,” with playful choreography and florid concept design. Often thoroughly camp—and consistently enrapturing—his ballets are created for the modern world, with characters and thematic elements that topple heteronormative tropes and spotlight contemporary issues.

That all-in approach has begun catching eyes in the U.S. His Macaroni, commissioned for BalletX’s 2024 summer season, strikes a tricky balance of tender sincerity and utter hilarity as it reclaims historic queer caricatures. His deliciously fun Hansel & Gretel, created for Royal New Zealand Ballet, where he’s been resident choreographer since 2018, landed at Oregon Ballet Theatre this fall.

Prior is a former RNZB soloist, creative director of the film collective Prior Visual, and co-founder and artistic director of Lo|Co Arts with composer and frequent collaborator Claire Cowan. Expect to see his full-picture brain power shining through in more projects in New Zealand and beyond. —Kyra Laubacher

Enzo Saugar

Coryphée, Paris Opéra Ballet

Dancers at Paris Opéra Ballet clamor to perform Maurice Béjart’s Song of a Wayfarer, a lengthy, introspective duet for two men, often given to mature stars. Yet in 2023, Spain’s Enzo Saugar, a young dancer at the lowest rung of the company, was cast as the mysterious figure who leads his companion to his destiny. Saugar, 22, brought sensuous authority to the role, instantly setting himself apart as a future soloist.

After getting his initial training on his home island of Gran Canaria with Carmen Robles and Anatol Yanowsky, Saugar entered the Paris Opéra Ballet School at the age of 13. A company member since 2020, he was promoted to coryphée last year and made his debut as Swan Lake’s Rothbart.

And in the wings, he has been pursuing a long-held dream: For the past few years, he has trained regularly on pointe. “Most teachers” have been supportive at the still-traditional POB since they realized he was serious, Saugar says. In 2024, he performed a glitter-heavy version of The Dying Swan in a cabaret, and hopes “to bring a little more non-binarity” to the Paris ballet scene. —Laura Cappelle

Miguel Wansing Lorrio

Dancer, BalletMet

Whether maniacally scrambling up the bars of a metal cage as Renfield in David Nixon’s Dracula or palling around as Benvolio in Edwaard Liang’s Romeo and Juliet, Miguel Wansing Lorrio has a knack for characterization. But his stage presence comes alongside striking technical prowess: He delivers bravura jumps and turns with lightness and ease.

A former child actor, Wansing Lorrio began his dance education at age 11 at the Dance Academy of Cologne in his native Germany before attending John Neumeier’s School of Hamburg Ballet. It was there that, at age 14, he danced his first professional role, in Neumeier’s Romeo and Juliet.

Now in his third season with BalletMet, the 23-year-old has garnered several plum soloist roles, wowing Columbus audiences as Benno and the Jester in Liang’s Swan Lake and in the Autumn and Winter solos in Liang’s Seasons. “I am a curious person,” says Wansing Lorrio. “There is so much I want to experience. My goal is to get to a place of influence where I can use my art to do good.” —Steve Sucato

Header collage photo credits, left to right, top to bottom: Brett Fukuda (right), photo by Agathe Poupeney, courtesy Ballet de l’Opéra national du Rhin; Joseph Markey in Swan Lake, photo by Emma Zordan, courtesy American Ballet Theatre; Melisa Guilliams, photo by Angela Sterling, courtesy Pacific Northwest Ballet; Enzo Saugar in Maurice Béjart’s Song of a Wayfarer, photo by Julien Benhamou, courtesy Paris Opéra Ballet; Ruby Lister in Pam Tanowitz’s Law of Mosaics, photo by Erin Baiano, courtesy New York City Ballet; Miguel Wansing Lorrio in Dana Genshaft’s The Awakening, photo by Jennifer Zmuda, courtesy BalletMet; Mayfield Myers in George Balanchine’s The Nutcracker, photo by Alexander Iziliaev, courtesy Philadelphia Ballet; Loughlan Prior. Photo by Stephen A’Court, courtesy Prior/Royal New Zealand Ballet.