Julian Mackay was born into a family with a passion for ballet in Livingston, Montana. He received a scholarship to the American Ballet Theatre, New York and began to train at the age of nine. Later, he honed his skills at the Royal Ballet School, London and the Princess Grace Academy, Monaco. At the age of 11, he moved to Moscow to receive training at the Bolshoi Ballet Academy, becoming the first American to obtain a full Russian ballet diploma after learning both advanced and introductory courses. During his studies at the Academy, Mackay won five international ballet awards consecutively, including famous prizes carried off in the Prix de Lausanne, Istanbul International Ballet Competition and Youth America Grand Prix. At the age of 17, Mackay made his Berlin debut with the Russian State Ballet as Siegfried in Swan Lake, gaining favourable comments from Russian critics. After graduation, he joined the Royal Ballet as its youngest member. But before long, he joined the Mikhailovsky Theatre St. Petersburg upon the personal invitation of Mikhail Messerer. He was promoted to first-class Solo Dancer soon and started to star in ballets such as The Flames of Paris. As he advanced quickly in his international career, Mackay gave performances all over the world, including Tokyo, New York and Shanghai. From 2020 to 2022, Mackay served as a Principal Dancer at the San Francisco Ballet led by Helge Thomason. He is fluent in Russian and holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Ballet Performance and Choreography from the Russian Institute of Theatre Arts (GITIS). Since 2022, he has been a Principal Dancer at the Bayerisches Staatsballett and a Guest Principal Dancer at the Teatro dell’Opera di Roma, Opernhaus Dortmund, K-Ballet Japan, etc.

Maria Khoreva is a Principal Solo Dancer at the Mariinsky Ballet, praised for her virtuosity, stage presence and dedication to the art. Maria was an artistic gymnast at first. Later, she turned to ballet and received instructions from respected Prof. Lyudmila Kovaleva at the prestigious Vagonova Ballet Academy. Her talent and efforts soon came to the fore. After graduation in 2018, she joined the Mariinsky Ballet, where she made a career in a fast and impressive manner. Maria Khoreva has played some of the most iconic operatic roles at the Mariinsky Theatre. Her interpretation of Princess Aurora in Sleeping Beauty, Odette/ Odile in Swan Lake, and Martha in The Nutcracker is appealing. She has also showed her versatility in classical and Neo-classical works by playing Terpsichore in George Balanchine’s Apollo, Medora in Le Corsaire and Lady Dryad in Don Quixote. Her charming, elegant performance has won her loyal followers from all over the world, with whom she shares her life as a dancer both on the stage and Internet. In 2020, she won the championship in the Russian “Grand Ballet” TV Competition, marking a milestone, to strengthen her position in the ballet world. Maria continues to expand her repertoire for the Mariinsky Theatre, with the audience and aspiring dancers feeling so inspired by every new role that she portrays.

Born in the United States, Kate Cardo performed worldwide as a Principal Guest Artist before her accession to the Royal New Zealand Ballet. In her repertoire are Swan Lake, Sleeping Beauty, Giselle, Paquita, Le Corsaire, Don Quixote, La Bayadère and The Flames of Paris, in which she plays a leading role. There are also contemporary works in her repertoire including Christopher Wheeldon’s After the Rain, Sir Wayne McGregor’s Inverra, William Forsythe’s Artifact II, etc.

Laurinas Vigaris was born in Vilnius, Lithuania. After training at the Royal Ballet School in London, he joined the National Ballet of Canada in 2015. He joined the Royal New Zealand Ballet in 2018, was promoted to Solo Dancer in 2019 and to Principal Dancer in 2020. His representative works include Roméo et Juliette (Roméo), Sleeping Beauty (Prince Désiré), Giselle (Albrecht), Swan Lake (Siegfried), Nijinsky, Onegin, Inverra, etc.

Elizabeth Tonev was born in Berlin, Germany and trained at the Berlin State Ballet School, from which she graduated in 2019. During her training, she performed several classical works with the Staatsballett Berlin, including Alexei Ratmansky’s La Bayadère and Patrice Bart’s Swan Lake.

In 2019, Elizabeth joined the Dutch National Ballet upon the invitation of Associate Artistic Director Rachel Boghian, and in every year that followed, she was appreciated by Director Ted Brendson, who gradually promoted to Solo Dancer.

Elizabeth portrayed many leading roles early in her career, including those in Don Quixote, The Nutcracker and Swan Lake. She has also starred in works by notable choreographers including George Balanchine, Hans Van Manen, William Forsythe, David Dawson, Jirì Kylian, etc.

Semyon Velichko was born in Novosibirsk, Russia. Previously, he was a Principal Dancer at the Novosibirsk Opera and Ballet Theater and Moscow Konstantin Stanislavski & Nemirovich-Danchenko Theatre. He has starred in Swan Lake, Sleeping Beauty, Giselle, La Sylphide, Le Corsaire, Coppelia, Paquita, The Nutcracker, La Bayadère, Raymonda, Elizaveta Kokoreva, Esmeralda, Roméo et Juliette, Manon, Apollo Mussagate and Ballet Imperial, as well as Balanchine’s The Four Temperaments, Hans Van Manen and Jirì Kylian’s Wings of Wax, Nuit Blanche, Little Mott, Grosse Fuge and Piano Adagio, etc.

Elisa Carrillo Cabrera was the first Mexican to receive three most prestigious awards in the world of dance - Benois de la Danse, Russian ballet prize “Soul of the Dance” and grand award in the St. Petersburg International Ballet Open. She was a Solo Dancer at the Stuttgart Ballet and a Principal Dancer at the Staatsballett Berlin, two highly influential ballet companies in Europe.

Elisa Carrillo is a member of the UNESCO International Dance Council and a ballet teacher and Co-Artistic Director of the Sir Anton Dolin Foundation, holding Academic Degrees from the German Ministry of Culture and John Cranko School of the Stuttgart Ballet. In Mexico, she is a cultural ambassador and Director of the International Dance Festival Danzatlan. She became Co-Artistic Director of the National Dance Company in 2019.

Elisa Carrillo danced on the world’s largest stage. She can endow the character to life through ballet by delivering the most representative and innovative interpretation from her performance. She also cooperates with many great choreographers including Boris Eifman, Nacho Duato, Angeline Prejokaj, John Cranko, Alexander Ekman, Marco Goecke, Marcia Haydée, John Neumeier, Kenneth MacMillan, Mauro Bigonzetti, Mats Ek, Vasily Medvedev, Vladimir Malakhov, Alexei Ratmansky, Christian Sprecher, Uwe Scholz, Maurice Bejart (Bolero), etc.

Elisa Carrillo has won different awards and rewards, both in Mexico and from around the world, for her interpretation of the dancing arts and for supporting culture from the foundation named after her.

For example, in 2012, the government of Estado de Mexico, one of the 32 states in Mexico, where she was born, established a scholarship in her honour and named the concert hall of a 200-year-old Mexican cultural centre after her.

In 2016, Elisa Carrillo won the Medal of Arts, the highest award given by the National Institute of Fine Arts and Literature. Her most recent international award was the Petipa Heritage Fund won in Slovakia in 2019 for conserving and promoting the legacy of French-Russian choreographer Marius Petipa.

Elisa Carrillo studied at the National Classical and Modern Dance School of Mexico and the English National Ballet School.

In Mexico, Elisa has organised two significant dance events that have been organised through her foundation, one of which is for ballet stars, entitled, “Elisa and Her Friends”. From 2012 onward, the best dancers and companies from around the world perform in Mexico. The other is an international dance festival, Danzatlan, launched in 2018.

Mikhail Kaniskin studied classical dance at the Bolshoi Ballet Academy and John Cranko School of the Stuttgart Ballet. He holds degrees in Choreography from the Stuttgart Ballet and German Ministry of Culture. He joined the Stuttgart Ballet in 1997 and became a Principal Dancer in 2004. Since 2007, he has been a Principal Dancer at the Staatsballett Berlin. He has toured France, Italy, Switzerland, Luxembourg, the United States, Japan, China, Russia, Korea, Panama, Dominican Republic, Poland, Estonia, Thailand, Singapore, Egypt, Ukraine, Israel, Qatar and Mexico. He offers ballet classes in Germany, Russia, the United States and Canada.

Mikhail Kaniskin has won awards including the “Best Duet” Award at the St. Petersburg Dance Open Festival in 2013, nomination for Russian classical ballet prize “Soul of the Dance” in 2019, and classical ballet legacy “Marius Petipa Award” in 2019 (Marius Petipa Heritage Foundation, Slovak National Theatre).

Lyudmila Konovalova, born in Russia, is a graduate of the Bolshoi Ballet Academy. She joined the Russian State Ballet in 2002. She was appointed a first-class Solo Dancer in 2004 and played leading roles in Giselle, Don Giovanni, Swan Lake and The Nutcracker. She joined the Staatsballett Berlin in 2007 and was appointed a Solo Dancer in 2009. In Berlin, she played leading roles in Vladimir Malakhov’s Sleeping Beauty, Patrice Bart’s Swan Lake and The Nutcracker, Mikhail Fiksel’s Scheherazade, Pierre Lacotte’s Vivandiere, Clark Pettit’s Violin Concerto, etc. She joined the Wiener Staatsballett as a Solo Dancer in 2010 and was promoted to first-class Solo Dancer in 2011. She has starred in many classical ballets in Vienna including Rudolf Nureyev’s Swan Lake, The Nutcracker, Don Quixote and Raymonda, Elena Chernykova’s Giselle, Peter White’s Sleeping Beauty, Manuel Legris’ Le Corsaire, Frederick Ashton’s The Ill-kept Girl and Margaret and Armand, Jorma Elo’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Titania), John Neumeier’s La Traviata (Manon Lescaut), George Balanchine’s Theme and Variations, Jewels (Diamond Pas de deux) and Duet Concerto, works by Kenneth McMillan, Serge Lifar, Harald Lander, Jerome Robbins and Hans Van Manen - e.g., Adagio, Hammer and Keyboard, Troy Noxians and Four Schuman Works and Concertos, and works by many famous choreographers including John Neumeier, Twyla Tharp, Nils Crist, William Forsythe, Rudi van Dantzig, Jorma Elo, David Dawson, Giri Bubenik, Christopher Wheeldon, Alexei Ratmansky, Heinz Sporley, Martin Schläpfer, etc. She has given guest performances in numerous European countries and other parts of the world. She has performed as a guest Solo Dancer at the Ballet de l’Opera National de Bordeaux, National Opera House of Slovenia, Teatro dell’Opera di Roma, Tokyo Ballet, Rudolf Nureyev Festival in Ufa and Kazan, World Ballet Festival in Tokyo and Moscow Kremlin (in 2015), etc. In March 2016, she had the honour of attending the Night of Maiya Ballets held in the London Stadium in honour of Maiya Plisetskaya. Lyudmila has won awards including the Special Prize in the Serge Lifar Ballet Competition in Kiev (2006), the Second Prize in the KIBC International Ballet Competition in Seoul, the First Prize in the ÖTR Competition in Vienna, the First Prize in the (Prix de Rome) Ballet Competition (2007), and the Capridanza International Prize (2018). In June 2019, Lyudmila was honoured by the Russian Embassy in Vienna for her contribution to Russian-Austrian cultural relations.

Born in Dalian, China in 1995 and raised in Shanghai, ZHANG Jinhao studied at Tongji University, Shanghai from 2010 to 2014. He won the Silver Award in the Genée International Ballet Competition in 2011, a prize in the Lausanne International Ballet Competition in 2013, and the Silver Award and Best Choreographer Award in the Beijing International Ballet and Choreography Competition in 2015. He was admitted to the English National Ballet School in 2013, joined the English National Ballet in 2014 and won the Newcomer Award by the English National Ballet in 2015. In the 2017/18 season, ZHANG Jinhao joined the Bayerisches Staatsballett as a Semi-solo Dancer. In the 2018/19 season, he was promoted to Solo Dancer. In the 2021/22 season, he was promoted to Principal Dancer.