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Your October Roster Roundup: Dancers and Directors on the Move

October 3, 2025

The past few weeks have brought another exciting round of ballet career news—check out the latest farewells, appointments, promotions, and more in your October 2025 roster roundup.

Promotions and Appointments

The following dancers from Paris Opéra Ballet’s junior company have moved up to the corps as quadrilles: Manon Baranger, Sarah Barthez, Alyssia Ferreira-Casevecchie, Hector Jain, Jeanne Larchevêque, Anaïs Morin-Choukroun, Hadrien Moulin, Camillo Petochi, and Marcos Silva Sousa.

At the Stuttgart Ballet, Riccardo Ferlito, Lassi Hirvonen, Dorian Plasse, and Ruth Schultz have been promoted to demi-soloist.

The Mariinsky Theater has promoted Maria Ilyushkina to principal.

The Joffrey Ballet announced the promotion of three Studio Company dancers from its Grainger Academy into the main company: Dayla Bowman, Seehyun Kim, and Laila Madison.

Three dancers en pointe pose in the studio's corner with one dancer holding échappé, another on her knee, and the last in mid jump.
From left: Laila Madison, Seehyun Kim, and Dayla Bowman. Photo by Carolyn McCabe, courtesy The Joffrey Ballet.

At Alberta Ballet, Patrice Bertrand has moved up to the corps de ballet, and Kairi Watanabe has been promoted from trainee to supplementary dancer.

At Atlanta Ballet, Júlio Santos and Rachel Olivia Zinman have been promoted from Atlanta Ballet 2 to the main company; Isabela Oku and Kahlen Wright have moved up to AB2 from the AB Centre for Dance Education.

Former BalletMet 2 dancers Amélie Freeman, Jordan Sheppard, and Claire Wessells have moved up to the BalletMet main company.

Jackson Calhoun has been promoted from apprentice to company dancer at Ballet RI.

Former apprentice Joseph Dufty has been promoted to Royal Winnipeg Ballet’s corps.

Ballet Tucson has announced its promotion of five apprentices to the corps de ballet: Alena Harrison, Whitney Hester, Naomi de Jesus, Abigail Lee, and Malerie Moore.

Nashville Ballet’s Elisabeth Baehman, Shaiya Donohue, and Nicholas Posluszny have moved up to the main company. In addition, four new company apprentices have been promoted from NB2: Graham E. Barnes, Summer Brown, Summer Montenegro, and Gwyneth Smith.

Two photos side-by-side. On the left: Against a light brown backdrop, a woman wearing a black top and pants with nude heels poses with her hands on her hips next to a man with crossed arms wearing a white button-up and black pants. On the right: A dancer wearing jeans, a black belt, black tank top, silver watch, and glasses leans against the barre with crossed arms.
From left: Jillian Davis and Joe González; photo by Rachel Neville, courtesy Complexions Contemporary Ballet. Mthuthuzeli November; photo by Isaac Aoki, courtesy Charlotte Ballet.

At Golden State Ballet, Silken Kelly has been promoted to principal, and Emiliano Dael and Haley Desjarlais to company artist.

Avery Snyder has moved up to company member at American Repertory Ballet.

Complexions Contemporary Ballet’s Jillian Davis and Joe Gonzalez have been appointed co-associate artistic directors; they will continue to perform as company artists in their new roles.  Additionally, Aristotle Luna was promoted from apprentice to company artist.

Rafael Ferreras has been named artistic director at Ballet San Antonio. BSA soloist ​​Vianca Palacios will now also serve as assistant artistic coordinator for The School of Ballet San Antonio.

Lexington Ballet welcomes new interim artistic director Kevin Jenkins.

Mthuthuzeli November has been appointed Charlotte Ballet’s new resident choreographer.

Ballet West has named Jane Wood as principal rehearsal director for the 2025–26 season.

Farewells, New Arrivals, and Guestings

After over 20 years of dancing professionally, Pacific Northwest Ballet principal Lucien Postlewaite has announced that he will retire from the stage on June 7, 2026, at the end of the company’s 2025–26 season.

Longtime Boston Ballet artist Madysen Felber will take her final bow after the company’s performance of George Balanchine’s Jewels November 6–16.

The Paris Opéra Ballet junior company says hello to new members Giovanni Bellucci, Tiziano Cerrato, Camille Couton, Nuria Fernandes, Anastasia Gallon, Hyuma Gokan, Lucia Abril Marcucci, Matt Vuaflart, and Carlo Zarcone.

A male dancer in a red costume poses in B plus with his hands flexed and arms stretched above his head.
Victor Caixeta in William Forsythe’s The Vertiginous Thrill of Exactitude. Photo by Sasha Gouliaev, courtesy Dutch National Ballet.

Vienna State Ballet welcomes new principal dancers Victor Caixeta, António Casalinho, Laura Fernandez-Gromova, Alessandro Frola, Kentaro Mitsumori, Cassandra Trenary, and Madison Young. Also joining are soloists Vladyslav Bosenko, Margarita Fernandes, and Rosa Pierro; demi-soloists Alessandro Cavallo and Rinaldo Venuti; and corps members Francesca Cesaro, Chloe Colter, Ariel Daley, Lena Dobija, Lars Philipp Gramlich, Milda Luckuté, Alex Martelli, Alice McArthur, Yo Nakajima, and Laurids Seidel.

A slew of dancers have joined Estonian National Ballet for the 2025–26 season: demi-soloists Rasmus Ahlgren and Yuki Nonaka; corps members Teofil Cosma, Ciro Lieto, Mia Lill, Miina Eliise Luts, Henry Matthews, Anastasiia Merkulova, Hiroto Nakabayashi, Alice Pelizza, Jette Pruulmann, Kantaro Takishima, and Yukina Yokoyama; and apprentices Eva Alamets and Matilda Sampietro.

Jacopo Bellussi, Romina Contreras, Fraser Roach, Ahyun Shin, and Cara Verschraegen have joined Les Ballets de Monte-Carlo.

Celeste Lopez-Keranen, Maura Moody, and Noura Sander have joined Kansas City Ballet as company dancers; Liam Colclough, Landen Walker, and Derek Wippel have joined as apprentices.

Atlanta Ballet welcomes new dancers Valeria Chaykina, Talisson Farias, Milei Lee, Sayron Pereira, and Jonas Totaj.

At Complexions Contemporary Ballet, Jordan Beasley, Jasmine Robinson, Imani Sailers, and Drazen Wilmers have joined as company artists.

Ballet Austin says hello to new dancers Marco Lorenzo-Giguere and Samuel Mayer.

Cesar Ramirez and Katelyn Yang have joined BalletMet for the 2025–26 season.

Three dancers pose on en pointe with their hair down. The first dancer wears a black skirt and leotard, posing in échappé with an arched back. The second dancer in a black leotard arches her back in a firebird jump. The last dancer poses in passé, wearing a black skirt and leotard.
From left: Celeste Lopez-Keranen, Maura Moody, and Noura Sander. Photos by Jeff Evrard and Tom Styrkowicz/53TOM LLC, courtesy Kansas City Ballet.

Ballet Dortmund has announced four new company members: Anatole Coste, Selen Gür, Damian Huiduc Manolescu, and Karin Sakaguchi.

State Ballet Karlsruhe says hello to new company members Luca D’Amato, Mariaelena Colombo, Christopher Evans, and Ella Matthews.

Giulia Finardi has joined Augsburg Ballet for the 2025–26 season.

At Nashville Ballet, Jorge Emilio Peña has joined as a company artist.

Miles Orvetti has joined American Repertory Ballet.

Gregori Humphreys and Anthony Shtov have joined Eugene Ballet as company dancers; Cadence Heidenreich, Cambria Martin, Caroline Smith, and Gabriel Warren have joined as aspirants.

Corah Abbott, Ahmad Joudeh, Daniel Kubr, Alexandra Martini, and Luc Simpson will dance with Golden State Ballet as new company members.

Northwest Arkansas Ballet Theatre welcomes new dancers Julianna Barrus, Bronwyn Bryant, Helen Jardon, Kayla Madsen, and Sarah Schiffhauer.

Liudmila Konovalova will dance as a guest artist with New English Ballet Theatre this season.

Awards and Recognitions

Dutch National Ballet principal Anna Ol received the 2025 Alexandra Radius Prize on September 11. The annual award recognizes a company dancer who gave “striking impressions” in the previous season and includes a cash prize and a bespoke piece of artwork.

A dancer wearing a light blue dress poses en pointe in attitude against a dark blue backdrop.
Anna Ol in Jerome Robbins’ Other Dances. Photo by Nina Tonoli, courtesy DNB.

On September 15, National Ballet of Canada principal Ben Rudisin and first soloist Hannah Galway received the 2025 Dancers First  Award for their performances in Sol León and Paul Lightfoot’s Silent Screen. (Rudisin was also recognized for his debut as Alexei Karenin in Christian Spuck’s Anna Karenina.)

This month, Toronto Metropolitan University will recognize Mavis Staines with an honorary doctorate. Staines, who is now the global ambassador for Canada’s National Ballet School, served as the school’s artistic director for over 35 years before her retirement in June 2024.

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