Australian dancer Leanne Benjamin is a former Principal of The Royal Ballet. She joined The Royal Ballet School at the age of 16 and graduated into Sadler’s Wells Royal Ballet (later Birmingham Royal Ballet) in 1983. In 1992 she joined The Royal Ballet as a First Soloist and was promoted to Principal at the end of her first Season. Benjamin retired at the end of the 2012/13 Season, after 20 years as a Principal with The Royal Ballet. In 2005 she received an OBE in recognition of her services to dance.

Benjamin was born in Rockhampton in Queensland, Australia, and began dancing at the age of three. After training locally she followed her older sister to study at The Royal Ballet School, and while at the School won the 1980 Adeline Genée gold medal and the 1981 Prix de Lausanne. At Sadler’s Wells Royal Ballet she was promoted to principal in 1987; the following year she joined London Festival Ballet as a principal and in 1990 joined Deutsche Oper Ballet.

Benjamin’s wide repertory included Juliet, Manon, the Firebird and Odette/Odile (Swan Lake), among many others, and creating new roles for choreographers including Alastair Marriott, Wayne McGregor, Alexei Ratmansky and Christopher Wheeldon. She was one of the last dancers of The Royal Ballet to work with Ninette de Valois, Frederick Ashton and Kenneth MacMillan. Her final performance at the Royal Opera House was as Mary Vetsera in Mayerling on 15 June 2013, a role she first danced with the Company on 10 November 1992. She was appointed a Member of the Order of Australia in 2016.

Denzil Bailey started to dance aged 17 in a weekly jazz class in a church hall in Cricklewood, London. Encouraged by his teacher to take ballet, he joined the London School of Classical Dance. After 3 years he was chosen to join the internationally prestigious English National Ballet where he danced for 10 years, touring the world.

Following some time freelancing and raising his son, Jacob, Denzil was approached by Cassa Pancho, founder of the renowned Ballet Black, to be appointed as it's first Ballet Master.

This led to numerous requests to teach allowing Denzil to unintentionally became a ballet teacher; which he calls his "dream job". In addition to his weekly classes at Dance Works in London, Denzil teaches at central Ballet School, The Place, London Studio Centre, Middlesex University, London Theatre School and Pinneaple. He also teaches for dance companies such as Rambert, Random, Neo Ballet, Tavaziva and Skanes Danse in Sweden - and of course, Ballet Black.

A highly accomplished ballet dancer with recent international experience, Kase has been performing professionally with Ballet de l’Opera National de Bordeaux in France for eleven years. He grew up in Christchurch learning tap dance and classical ballet from age five. Following ten years of competing throughout New Zealand and Australia on the competition circuit, Kase was offered a one-year scholarship to the Australian Ballet School followed by a three-year scholarship to the New Zealand School of Dance in Wellington.

At 18 Kase was awarded a scholarship to New York for advanced classes at the ABT Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis School where he was scouted by Charles Jude, a former student of Rudolf Nureyev, who offered Kase a full contract to dance professionally with his ballet company in France. Kase performs with Ballet de l’Opera National de Bordeaux regularly throughout France, Italy and Spain including at the Opera Houses of Paris and Venice together with international tours to Russia, China and Hong Kong. His roles with the ballet company include all the classical repertory and leading roles in works by the following choreographers: Charles Jude, George Balanchine, Jerome Robbins, Sir Frederick Ashton, Sir David Bintley, Serge Lifar, Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui, Wayne McGregor, Ohad Naharin, Jiří Kylián, Carolyn Carlson, Angelin Preljocaj, Nicolas Le Riche, Alexander Ekman and Justin Peck.

Kase is currently completing a Master of Business Administration (MBA) at the University of

Canterbury with core skills in arts leadership. Awards and credentials to date include: Advanced Coaching at The Royal Ballet, an NZQA National Diploma in Dance Performance, National Certificate in Dance Performance, the Royal Academy of Dance Solo Seal Award and Certificate III in Dance. In 2018 Kase was made a Distinguished Graduate of the New Zealand School of Dance. When not in performances Kase has been fortunate to receive regular professional development from tutors to the Paris Opera Ballet. He has often appeared as a guest contributor on the Good Morning programme for Channel One and Arts on Sunday for Radio New Zealand. In 2009 a documentary on Kase was filmed by Television New Zealand.

Lisa began training at age 5 at The Dance Academy in her hometown of Dubbo, NSW. She graduated from The Australian Ballet school in 1999 and pursued work in Europe.

During her 4 years overseas Lisa danced with the Stadttheater St Gallen Switzerland, Anhaltisches Theater Dessau and Stadttheater Koblenz and toured through Germany, to Cuba and Croatia. Whilst in Germany Lisa auditioned for Queensland Ballet Company in Hamburg and moved back to Australia to join QB under the direction of Francois Klaus in 2004.

Lisa was promoted to Soloist in 2013 during Li Cunxin’s first season as Director with Queensland Ballet and is now Senior Soloist. Lisa also plays an active part teaching for QB’s Adopt a dancer, Summer School, Audition Experience Day and Workshops.

She received Dancer to Watch in Dance Australia’s Critic Survey in 2014 and 2016. Face of the It’s Live Queensland Tourism campaign. Artist of the Year at The Dream Festival in 2016. Received her Diploma in Pilates Movement Therapy in 2017.

Repertoire highlights in works from Francois Klaus include: Lilac Fairy - Sleeping Beauty, Hermia - A Midsummer Nights Dream, Michaela - Carmen, Lady Capulet- Romeo and Juliet, Big Swans - Swan Lake. Working with choreographers Gareth Belling, Nils Christie, Mario Schroeder and touring throughout Europe and Asia.

More recently : Cinderella, Fairy Godmother and Summer Fairy - Ben Stevenson’s Cinderella. Giselle and Myrtha in Ai-Gul Gaisina’s Giselle. Sugar Plum Fairy, Snow Queen and Arabian Pas de deux in Ben Stevenson’s Nutcracker. The Sylph and Lead Sylph in Peter Shaufuss’ La Sylphide. Fairy of Beauty, Grace and Wisdom in Greg Horsman’s Sleeping Beauty. Helena and Cobweb in Liam Scarlett’s A Midsummer Nights Dream. Big Swans, Czardas Princess in Ben Stevenson’s Swan Lake. Edith ( Gamzatti ) and 3rd solo shade in Greg Horsman’s La Bayadere.

Described by Dance Aotearoa New Zealand as ‘a creative tour de force’, Loughlan Prior is an Aussie/Kiwi performer and choreographer. He is Choreographer in Residence at the Royal New Zealand Ballet and the Creative Director of Prior Visual, a project based film collective.

Loughlan was the winner of the Ballet Foundation of New Zealand's Harry Haythorne Award in 2015, and received Creative New Zealand’s Tup Lang Choreographic Award in 2016. He is a graduate of the New Zealand School of Dance and a prolific producer of theatre, film and multimedia projects. He has presented his work in New Zealand, Australia, Canada, Denmark, Hong Kong, Germany and the United States.

His work has been featured by the Royal New Zealand Ballet, Te Papa Museum, New Zealand School of Dance, Asian Grand Prix, Grand Rapids Ballet, Palucca Hoschule fur Tanz Dresden, Assemblée Internationale Toronto, Tempo Dance Festival Auckland, LUX Light Festival, iD Fashion Week Dunedin, Vogue Australia, Melbourne Fashion Festival, New Zealand International Film Festival, San Francisco Dance Film Festival, Film Society of Lincoln Centre, TV3’s Dancing with the Stars and the Short Film Corner of the Cannes Film Festival.

A spirited performer, his career highlights include repertoire by William Forsythe, Jiří Kylián, Liam Scarlett, Alexander Ekman, Garry Stewart, and Larry Keigwin, and he has created original roles in works by Cameron McMillan, Sarah Foster-Sproull and Javier De Frutos.

Raymond Chai has worked in television, musical theatre and classical ballet and has performed professionally with the National Ballet of Portugal. His musical theatre credits include work for the Royal Shakespeare Company, London Palladium, Royal National Theatre and Theatre Royal and he has also choreographed for the UK television show, Auf Wiedersehen Pet. Other choreographic commissions include work for Ballet Black, National Ballet of Portugal and Hong Kong Ballet. Raymond has been guest teacher for many professional companies including Matthew Bourne's New Adventures, Richard Alston Dance Company, Hong Kong Ballet, Akram Khan, English National Ballet and Rambert Dance Company. He teaches professional Ballet at DanceWorks is Ballet lecturer for London Contemporary Dance School and Ballet Master for Ballet Black.

Recently Raymond has been invited as guest teacher and choreographer by the Hong Kong Academy of Performing Arts. He premiered his full length production of The Sleeping Beauty with great success in Malaysia last year,

Raymond Chai was awarded Master’s degree in Dance Technique Pedagogy by Middlesex University an outstanding achievement and a true testament to the calibre of this remarkable teacher.

Nicci Mcewan trained at the Canadian National Ballet School and then graduated at the Royal Ballet school. At aged 17, she accepted a contract with The Scottish Ballet where she danced for 10 years, dancing as principal in all the major classical ballets and performing all around world including the Bolshoi Theatre, the Kremlin in front of Gorbachev, in front of the royal family in South Korea and represented The Scottish Ballet in Brazil performing for the Royal Academy of Dancing.

Nicci set up her own ballet school in 2000 and guest taught at various ballet schools around Glasgow before coming to Auckland in 2013 where she now teaches for the New Zealand dance company, Unitec and coaches the young aspiring future ballerinas.

Born in London, Miko has received worldwide recognition for her dancing. She was awarded the Gold Medal at the Moscow International Ballet Competition in 2013. At Varna International Ballet Competition in Bulgaria, she won Silver Medal in 2014 and Bronze Medal in 2012. At the Prix de Lausanne in Switzerland, she was recognized as the best Swiss dancer in 2013. In the US, she won Bronze at the New York finals of the Youth America Grand Prix in 2010 and Gold Medals at the World Ballet Competition in 2009 and 2011.

Miko has trained classical ballet with Tatiana Pali, Alyona Yakovleva-Randall, Alexei Moskalenko, and Sergey Sergiev at the Indiana Ballet Conservatory. Between 2008-2010, Miko returned to London three times to train at the Royal Ballet School’s International Summer Program where she danced solo roles in the final performance and received the Commendation Award each year. She has also attended summer intensives on scholarship at San Francisco Ballet School, American Ballet Theater, Kirov Academy of Ballet, and Rock School. In 2015, Miko joined the Birmingham Royal Ballet.

Miko has been invited to perform soloist repertoires in galas such as “YAGP Stars of Today meet Stars of Tomorrow Gala”, “Lausanne Gala” in Japan, “Evening with the Stars” with Indianapolis City Ballet, “Aberdeen International Youth Festival” in Scotland, “An Evening of Stars” with National Ballet of Denver, “International Ballet Festival” in Miami, and many others. She has also been invited back to perform the role of Sugar Plum Fairy for the Chula Vista Ballet for three consecutive years.

Miko was one of 6 dancers featured in the award winning ballet documentary "First Position".

Miko is active on social media with over 290,000 followers on Instagram and 20 million views on Youtube and was listed as one of “The Most Influential People of 2011” in the Dance Spirit Magazine. She started teaching in 2016 and has held workshops in Thailand, Japan, and Australia.

Afterwards, Miko decided to change directions and pursue science. She is currently an undergraduate student at UC Berkeley majoring in Integrative Biology and researching therapies for malignant brain tumors in the Brain Tumor Center at UCSF.

Kara is a dancer, performer, creator, teacher and graduate of the Victorian College of the Arts, Bachelor of Dance.

Kara has performed nationally and internationally for choreographers such as James Batchelor (Metasystems - Italy, Ersatz - Thailand), Lina Limosani (XXHume, Malthouse Theatre), Bicky Lee (Fey, ArtPlay), Megan Beckwith (Parallax, Melbourne Fringe Festival) and for Rebecca Hilton’s (GROUPNESS, Piece for Small Spaces). She also created and performed a solo for Body Conference 1.0.

She has collaborated on projects with Alana Everett (GQ Men’s Runway, VAMFF), Talitha Maslin (Primal, Short & Sweet) and assisted Yellow Wheel (Little Makers, Melbourne Now). She has also seconded and assisted for Chunky Move – Anouk Van Dijk (LUCID & Depth of Field).

​Kara is a freelance teacher based in Melbourne. She is a certified Countertechnique Teacher - Chunky Move (professional, public class and school workshop programs), Lucy Guerin Inc. (open professional class), VCA (musical theatre open class), The Space School of Performance Arts (curriculum) and guest teacher for professional and curriculum classes for Bangkok Dance Academy, Thailand (2013 & 2017). And she is also an Aleenta Barre Instructor for their Melbourne CBD studios and certified VIKASA Yoga RYS 200hr Yoga Teacher, having continued her practice and teaching practice in Thailand and Sri Lanka.

In 1997 Hayley joined the Southern Ballet Company as a full time dancer performing in numerous productions in classical ballet and contemporary. During this time Hayley discovered a love for teaching and after three years of dancing full time, she decided to pursue a career in this field.

Hayley gained qualifications at Distinction level with the Royal Academy of Dance, British Ballet Organization, and the New Zealand Association of Modern Dance and has successfully entered numerous students over the past 23 years in their Ballet, Jazz, Contemporary and Hip Hop exams. In 2005 Hayley established special training groups for gifted and dedicated modern dance students and each year directed and produced many productions and shows for the Christchurch public.

From the experience gained from these performance groups, Hayley has had students go on to pursue professional careers in the commercial dance industry. She has also choreographed many solos and troupe dances for local and national competitions, and has had the wonderful opportunity to choreograph for Showbiz Christchurch, Coca Cola Christmas in the Park and What Now. As well as teaching full time Hayley was also an examiner for the New Zealand Association of Modern Dance and has tutored for the popular Dance Masters International Convention.

Hayley is very passionate about passing on her love and knowledge of dance to her students and thrives on seeing them pursue and gain their dancing ambitions no matter how big or small.

Abigail Boyle was born and trained in New Zealand, joining the Royal New Zealand Ballet in 2005. She has received plaudits for her performances in both classical and contemporary works, and during her decade with the company has inspired many choreographers to create roles especially for her.Abigail’s principal roles include the title role in Didy Veldman’s Carmen, Odette/Odile, Aurora, and Balanchine’s Who Cares? Her portrayal of Mercedes in Don Quixote was noted for its ‘seductive hard-edged elegance, coupled with superb comic timing.’ (Dominion Post).

In 2012 Abigail performed the role of Myrtha, Queen of the Wilis, in Ethan Stiefel and Johan Kobborg’s landmark production of Giselle, a performance subsequently captured in film director Toa Fraser’s Giselle (2013) and reprised during the RNZB’s 2013 China tour and in 2014 at sell-out performances at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, LA Music Center and at the Granada Theater, Santa Barbara and during the 2015 UK & Italy Tour. In 2013 she created a memorable role in Javier De Frutos’ The Anatomy of a Passing Cloud, commissioned to mark the RNZB’s 60th birthday and subsequently performed in the UK and Italy.

2015 has seen Abigail perform as both Mercedes and the Queen of the Dryads in Don Quixote, and create roles in Andrew Simmons’ Dear Horizon and Neil Ieremia’s Passchendaele, for the RNZB’s critically acclaimed Salute tour with the New Zealand Army Band. Most recently, she created the role of Helena in Liam Scarlett’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream.

Alison Pond holds outstanding qualifications and experience in Dance. This includes The Royal Academy of Dance Advanced Teaching Diploma and is also an examiner and tutor for the Royal Academy of Dance. Alison is a Registered Teacher of the RAD and an NZAMD Teaching member and has over 35 years experience teaching on the Kapiti Coast. She teaches Classical Ballet, Jazz, Stretch & Strength and has coached many talented NZ dancers.