Birmingham Royal Ballet announces new dancers for the 2026-2027 Season
Birmingham Royal Ballet has announced the dancers joining the Company and BRB2 for the 2026–2027 season.
Following the successful completion of their time with BRB2, Sophie Walters and Ixan Ferrer will join the main Company as Artists. They will be joined by Airi Kobayashi and Gillian Whittall, who performed with BRB during the 2025–2026 season, and Luciano Ghidoli, who joins as an Artist from Finnish National Ballet.
BRB’s talent development company, BRB2, continues to nurture the next generation of artists with the addition of Noah Campbell, Sophia Koo, Addison Partlow, Martha Savin, and Denis Teixeira, who join 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 2025–2026 season. Alfie-Lee Hall joins BRB2 following his apprenticeship year with the Company, while this season’s Apprentice, Ted (Heng-Yu) Peng, joins from Elmhurst Ballet School.
The Company also announced several departures following the conclusion of the 2025–2026 season. First Artist Javier Rojas leaves BRB to join Opera de Nice, while BRB2 dancers Andrea Riolo, Ellyne Knol, and Charlotte Cohen have completed their two-year training and performance contracts with the Company. 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 also concluded this summer.
Birmingham Royal Ballet returns to the stage this autumn with Swan Lake, one of the Company’s most celebrated productions, 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.
From L to R Sophie Walters, Luciano Ghidoli, Ixan Ferrer, Airi Kobayashi, Gillian Whittall. Photograph of Luciano Ghidoli by Victoria Olonen. Photographs of Ixan Ferrer, Sophie Walters, Airi Kobayashi and Gillian Whittall by Johan Persson.