The Royal Ballet's 10 Principal Ballerinas of 2018 

Roh gets some difficults nearly without Nunez& Osipova for hit_ ballets due to they are in way of retirement. They lead the new introductions trailer with old excepts from these dancers but actually they are not there now.

yeah...shame that her feet are not stretched like the ones of the girls of the Paris Opéra....

mario marozzi She's still amazing tho. Feet aren't everything if you can't dance.

Totally agreed. She is the best Kitri of her generation

Niina Hagman 🤗🍀

Marianela has beautiful feet.

I hope you do too. She has incredible stage presence, but also totally relates to her partner. Live performance in cinema on June 1st in "Swan Lake." Which will probably give you a better view than in the theatre! Hope you find a cinema showing it near you!

Takada was astonishing when saw her in the Spring.

I agree but out of the two even though many people will hate me for it but my favourite is Lauren Cuthbertson

I was wondering about that too. I do not think she could still be dancing in 2018 because she is now approx 50.

She is still dancing but obviously not full length classic. She does modern short ballets.

Kiz Torres // hello, can you explain to me the difference of a principal ballerina and a prima ballerina ?

Yess yess

@@mochii5747 They're equivalent, but different names are used by different companies. At the Royal Ballet, the title is Principal; at the Paris Opera, the title is Etoile ('star'); at La Scala, the title is Prima Ballerina, etc.

@@daisy-fu9lc // oh, thank you so much ! 😊

@@daisy-fu9lc No, that is incorrect about POB. They have the rank of principal and then etoile is a title given, it is not a rank. There is a competition for promotions, but you can be named an etoile at any time. The dancers carry that title for life, it is not a rank.

My pleasure. Thanks for your input.

Osipova is 32!

I agree, Zenaida as Odette with Nehemiah Kish dance a heart wrenching duet. So poised, so mature. Watch on youtube. Notice that she actually 'looks' at him - so many Odettes barely glance at their prince.

She's a fav of mine also - - very lithesome.

@Moomin That's a really interesting point (sorry! no pun intended). Francesca actually started training at the ballet school round the corner from me in Worthing, though I 've never seen her live, she is a delightful dancer. When I first read Margot Fonteyn's autobiography years ago, I was struck by the exotic life she experienced and the variety of locations she lived in during her early years - she lived initially in Surrey, but them moved to the USA, then Shanghai. Ulitmately she travelled all over the world. She was taught by a variety of very cultured teachers - russian emigres and the like - teachers who had a long 'pedigree' behind them - George Goncharov, Olga Preobrajenska, Tamara Karsavina, Ninette de Valois and so on. I think she absorbed so much 'culture' that it showed through her dancing. If you have had a relatively straighforward life, it must be hard to portray complex emotions when dancing.

Thanks for your interesting comments, minissa.

minissa2009 Yuhui is a first soloist right? She was the chosen for the “A day in the life of a ballerina” vids on you tube. That’s when she said she was first soloist and her dreams came true.

Its probably a technical thing like she had an injury or doesn't meet some weird standards

Frankie was a beautiful Clara!

ray oso ditto. So turned off by Misty. Not racist just don't want to hear about it. Let YOUR DANCING SPEAK.

@Anne her tchnique was awful

@Laura Streeter She is a wonderful Manon.

I love the 90s/00s ABT. It's been a joke ever since Misty became a principal. They made it clear that ticket sales and media attention precede their dancing rather than having dancing lead to the other two.

Bollocks. To suggest that the promotion of one so-so dancer is the end of artistry in the U.S. says more about your obsessions and your biases than any actual trend. And I challenge you to name one other dancer besides Misty Copeland to back up your claim.

It's a pleasure. Thanks for commenting.

this comment hasn't aged well, but I hope you get to see her soon or someday at least

@@taylargriffith7231 Why not? Why doesn't it age well?

@@naoedouard4422 covid

So much attention has been paid to other dancers over the years ( well deserved, btw) I think she never got the attention she deserved. One very special thing about her is that not only is she a wonderful ballet dancer, she is also a great DANCER. There is so much passion and joy in her movement, which is due to her technical proficiency, in part. Only a dancer who is rock solid in her technique can dance with such freedom. If you ever see this, Laura Merde ❤️👏❤️

Mayara Magri reminds me of Laura, she doesn’t just perform technically, she DANCES.

It's a pleasure. :)

It's a great pleasure. Thank you for your input.

In which way do you mean Royal's overly proprietary approach? Because, personally, I find the Royal Ballet one of the most "public" companies. From their brilliant Live Cinema Relays all around the world, to World Ballet Day and the numerous youtube live events they do, they are definitely opening up to new audiences. I mean, I speak for me, due to their global presence, I fly from Portugal to go watch performances and everytime I meet people from all over the world who came to London just for that too.

I haven’t seen all these principals live but I am certainly aware of them. Even if you aren’t able to attend performances there are numerous Royal Ballet productions on DVD/Blu-ray, both recent and archival. The filmed recordings include the classical repertoire, plus many by Ashton and MacMillan. I even have a DVD of Checkmate and the Rake’s Progress by de Valois. The ROH has an online shop.

She is my fav out of all of them. The hardest working and most dedicated

Moomin Maybe it’s personal preference? I understand what you mean though. I like her style. It looks effortless.

I think she is better than lamb

Danca do ventre

She's fabulous, but kind of one dimensional. She dances pretty, cheerful roles better than anyone, but struggles with deep/dramatic roles.

It's a pleasure!

Osipova is far from being the best at technique on royal

Absolutely. Best acting and characterisations. Wonderful partnership with Acosta, and now with young Montegirov. Fabulous.

I'm not so sure.She can look clumsy at times.

Hmm sometimes she isn’t as graceful as others...to me Lauren is 100% the truest

Yessss. She is good in every role, i've never seen a dancer like that

@@elodie_bel the thing is: not every role in ballet demands gracefulness. But you are entitled to have your own opinion and lauren is a good dancer (tho i do feel she lacks something when i watch her dancing)

Interesting! She seemed so off balance and stiff to me - as the white swan, those double jumps (are they sissonnes?) I usually see with far greater extension with the leg and through the back, and as the black swan, her piroutte into attitude seemed sloppy. I feel like other ballerinas hold and float effortlessly on these moments, and she looked injured or something. Maybe it's the artistic directors interpretation though. I'm not wanting to argue with you personally, just posting here to see if anyone else here notices these things the way I did too.

I agree with you C F... She always seems very stiff to me :/

I usually enjoy Sarah's performances but didn't like her Odile

C F I usually look at dancers analytically like you expressed here. I don't know why but just hit me that way.

Agreed, I think she doesn't do Odile/Odette as well as her modern roles.

Thank you

I agree ballet has really changed, I feel like the turning point was in the 70's. But I also feel like this can be stated for different art forms. Cinema until the 60's was much more dramatic as well, whereas today the acting is more about being realistic and precise. It's a general cultural shift imo :)

Thanks for your comment. As far as I know, it is indeed Bolle dancing with Zenaida.

I agree Lauren can make anything look amazing and that is why she is my fave

Yuhui Choe is currently a First Soloist at the Royal Ballet. This video showcases the Royal Ballet's Ballerinas as listed in 2018, but I have no doubt Yuhui Choe will be promoted soon.

@@TheBunduBallerina If Yuhui won't be promoted next year, I would not watch anything from the Royal Ballet.

All the way! Superb! Sublime!

It is Zenaida Yanowsky.

I like Lauren Cuthbertson, too, but I'm amazed by Natalia Osipova and Nina Kapsova - are perfect.

I agree. Natalia's Giselle, in my opinion, is the best of her generation. What a jewel she is.

I recently saw Natalia in Giselle, what an artist she is...!!

Kaptsova is a unique and undervalued artist!

Almiria Wilhelm Agree with you, her Giselle is one of the best I have seen.

She was also beautiful as Alice!

A reviewer once said of Lamb "she dances with her eyes, like Fonteyn" and if you've ever seen her live, you can see it's true. She's mesmerising. Technically very precise too.

The royal ballet is a very prestigious school but I feel really the Russian tecnique and artistry are unbeatable

Darcey Bussell is no longer dancing. This video is only of current ballerinas.

@@TheBunduBallerina ahh 👌 ok

Thanks for the link. I did find it at the time, but due to copyright, the Royal Ballet doesn't allow their videos to be re-posted.

She has never been at the Royal Ballet.

Don’t know if it was her, but it does look like her. I don’t remember her ever saying that she performed with the RB.

Sally Gardiner But Sarah's Black swan performance shown in this video wasn't with the Royal Ballet. It was a guest performance with joy's company, Kremlin Ballet

Beatriz Guedes Ahh, that explains it. I couldn’t figure out what Joy would be doing with the Royal Ballet, but they were with the Kremlin Ballet. Thanks for answering that question.😊

Seven of them trained at the Royal Ballet School (Not including Zenaida, but considering she was a principal at the Royal Ballet for over 20 years, she was able to develop the RB style). So yes -- they do have their own identity and style. Different nationalities doesn't mean much if they are all trained the same; and there are Brits of all kinds of ethnic origins, so I don't understand that comment. Some of the foreign dancers at the RB have even applied and received their British citizenship, too.

The Royal is probably the most versatile company in the world thanks to its diversity. If you want everyone to be the same, go watch Russian companies.

Alexandra .Martins If you want total conformity go to Bolshoi or Mariinsky. RB has also a very distinctive style not only by those who come from RB school. Why are you complaining about diversity I don’t understand what you want to say? Is it skin color is it the difference of where they where trained. If it’s the latter it’s an easy answer that’s how ballet company’s look today with the exception of POB and Russia.

The easiest thing to notice about the RB is that they are very ethnically diverse, yes. But if you were to think about it, I would say RB has a signature based less on the technique than the presentational aspect. I would say their ballerinas are very GRAND...Royal pretty much! Each is a queen, with a flair, a grace, a dignity, sometimes a saucy spark. They are all incredibly beautiful (gorgeous faces!) and commanding, and that is what ties these very different ballerinas together.

Let's be honest, "diverse..." is another word for "imported"

Personally, I like English style better. Russians tend to be floppy in some cases.

B Batargal-don't be so silly, good and mediocre in all companies. What I don't care for in many Russian dancers is the poor port de bras and use of the hands.

@@ixopo6715 I am not denying the fact that occasionally there will be good non-Russian dancers like Fonteyn or Alonso (Cuban). But historically and contemporarily Russian ballet school graduates dominate the world ballet. Many of the good dancers from US are actually products of the American Ballet School in New York set up and run by the Russian Prima Ballerina Absoluta - Natalya Makarova, a product of the Vaganova School and Mariinskii Ballet in St. Petersburg. You will always have good dancers here and there outside the Russian schools. But by and large, the Russian schools and ballet companies dominated, dominate now, and will be dominating for decades to come. This is the truth.

@@ixopo6715 What you have said is a wishful thinking - somehow non-Russian schools can compete with Russian schools and theaters like Vaganova school, Bolshoi Ballet school in Moscow, and Bolshoi Ballet and Mariinskii! No, they simply can't because the Vaganova methodology is in Russia only - St. Petersburg and Moscow (graduates of Vaganova). The Vaganova methods are tacit knowledge that you learn only by doing it with great Vaganova students like Ulanova, Semenova, and Dudinskaya, and so on. Even Plisetskaya was not a Vaganova product, and her dancing technique and especially her leg movements were criticised by Ulanova, Semenova and Makarova (Dudinskaya's student). Of course, other schools are catching up, and produce occasionally (only occasionally, but not systematically, like Vaganova, Bolshoi school, or Perm School. The Russian ballet schools are in their own league. Great Nikolai Tsiskaridze said recently that in the world there are only three great ballet schools: Vaganova, Bolshoi Ballet School, and Paris. The rest are not considered as even ballet schools by Russians. Regarding Nureyev moved to Denmark, he moved there because both Nureyev and and Bruhn were sodomites, and he moved there not because of the ballet quality because of Bruhn's ass to fuck...

Speaking as a Russian.