Birmingham Royal Ballet has announced a raft of new arrivals for its 2026/27 season, with dancers joining both the main Company and its young artist programme, BRB2.
Following the successful completion of their time with BRB2, Sophie Walters and Ixan Ferrer will join the main Company as Artists.
They are joined by Airi Kobayashi and Gillian Whittall, who both performed with Birmingham Royal Ballet during the 2025/26 season, while Luciano Ghidoli joins from Finnish National Ballet.
BRB2, the Company’s sister ensemble dedicated to nurturing emerging ballet talent, will also welcome a significant intake of new dancers this season.
Noah Campbell, Sophia Koo, Addison Partlow, Martha Savin and Denis Teixeira all join BRB2 from The Royal Ballet School.
Also joining the programme are Mikel Arana Arzak and Samuel Pereira from Conservatorio Internacional de Ballet y Danza Annarella Sánchez, alongside Jacopo Biancucci, who trained at the John Cranko School and Accademia Teatro alla Scala and performed with Birmingham Royal Ballet during the 2025/26 season.
Alfie-Lee Hall joins BRB2 after completing his apprenticeship year with the Company, while Ted (Heng-Yu) Peng, from Elmhurst Ballet School, has been named as this season’s Apprentice.
The Company has also confirmed that First Artist Javier Rojas departed at the end of the season to join Opera De Nice.
BRB2 dancers Andrea Riolo, Ellyne Knol and Charlotte Cohen completed their two years of training and performance with Birmingham Royal Ballet at the conclusion of the season.
Meanwhile, 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 came to an end this summer.
Birmingham Royal Ballet returns to the stage this autumn with one of its most popular productions, Swan Lake, which will play Birmingham Hippodrome from 23 September to 3 October 2026 before transferring to Sadler’s Wells Theatre in London from 28 to 31 October 2026.
Listings and ticket information can be found here.
