The
Dancers

Aaron hails from northern Virginia where he began his ballet training at age 11, studying with renowned ballet teachers such as Violette Verdy, Suzanne Farrell, Jean-Pierre Bonnefoux, and Jacques Cesbron. He completed his training and simultaneously earned bachelor's degrees in Biology and Ballet at Indiana University.

Aaron was invited to join Philadelphia Ballet in 2015 and quickly began performing leading roles there including Basilio in Angel Corella's Don Quixote, Tybalt in Kenneth MacMillan's Romeo & Juliet, and Waltz boy in George Balanchine's Serenade. The formative years of Aaron's career were dominated by opportunities to perform diverse icons of ballet including work by Jerome Robbins, Alexander Ekman, Ben Stevenson, and Christopher Wheeldon.

Aaron joined Alberta Ballet as a soloist in 2021 and is thrilled to be entertaining audiences in his new home in Canada. He is particularly proud of his work as the title role in Jean Grand-Maître's PHI, and the reimagined title role in Annabelle Lopez Ochoa's Botero. Aaron was promoted to Principal Dancer in March 2024.

Alexandra is originally from Glens Falls, NY, USA. She trained at the North Carolina School of the Arts as well as the School of American Ballet and worked with Philadelphia Ballet (formerly Pennsylvania Ballet) as a soloist prior to joining Alberta Ballet.

She has performed many notable roles while in Philadelphia including Principal roles in George Balanchine’s Theme and Variations, Jewels, and Square Dance, William Forsythe’s Artifact Suite, and Jerome Robbins’ Fancy-Free.

While at Alberta Ballet, Alexandra has continued dancing featured roles in ballets such as Nicolo Fonte’s Rite of Spring, Helen Pickett’s Petal, Alyssa Pires’ Skyward, the Fly in Annabelle Lopez Ochoa’s Botero, and Gretel in Loughlan Prior’s Hansel and Gretel.

Throughout her career, Alexandra has also had the pleasure of dancing prominent roles in ballets choreographed by David Dawson, Nacho Duato, Alexander Eckman, Jiri Kylian, Sir Kenneth MacMillan, Cathy Marston, Trey McIntyre, Sir Wayne McGregor, Matthew Neenan, Justin Peck, Twyla Tharp, Christopher Wheeldon, and Yin Yue. Alexandra was promoted to Principal in March 2024.

Mariko is originally from Hiroshima, Japan, and received her ballet training at both the International Ballet Academy in Japan and Canada’s National Ballet School. Before joining Alberta Ballet, she had the opportunity to dance in Germany with Leipzig Ballet as well as with Opera Atelier in Toronto. Now in her Seventeeth season with us, Mariko has brought many wonderful roles to life on stage over the years, including Cio-Cio San in Stanton Welch’s Madame Butterfly, Giselle in Giselle, and Titania in Bruce Wells’ A Midsummer Night’s Dream.

Luna is originally from Kanagawa, Japan, and is in her 12th season with Alberta Ballet. Luna began her ballet training at a local school in Japan. At the age of 16, she received a full scholarship to the Houston Ballet Academy and completed her training at Boston Ballet School as a trainee before joining Alberta Ballet in 2013. She has danced many soloist and principal roles while with the company and was promoted to Principal Dancer in 2023. Some of her favourite roles include the title role of Giselle, Juliet in Romeo & Juliet and Suzuki in Madame Butterfly. Her repertoire includes Sugar Plum Fairy and Klara in The Nutcracker, Cinderella and Spring Fairy in Cinderella, Princess Aurora, Princess Florine and Fairy of Joy in The Sleeping Beauty, Alice Liddle in Alice in Wonderland, Red Women and Pink Women in Jiří Kylián’s Forgotten Land, Cordelia in All of Us and more. She has enjoyed the opportunity to collaborate with many choreographers such as Jean Grand-Maître, Ben Stevenson, Stanton Welch, Cathy Marston, Anne Plamondon, Annabelle Lopez Ochoa, Helen Pickett, Wen Wei Wang, Yukichi Hattori, Garrett Smith, Christopher Anderson, Alysa Pires, Yin Yue, Nicolo Fonte, and Leiland Charles.

Caleb received his ballet training from the National College of Dance in his home city Newcastle, Australia. In 2013, he won the McDonald’s Ballet Scholarship, Australia’s largest ballet competition, and received the juror award at the Australian Institute of Classical Dance awards. In 2014, he moved to Texas to join Houston Ballet II. His highlights from this time include performing the principal couple in Allegro Brillante and Franz in Coppélia. In 2015, he joined Houston Ballet where he danced for seven years performing in many of the great classical ballets, his favourites being La Bayadère, Don Quixote and Romeo and Juliet. He was also featured in contemporary works such as Stanton Welch’s Powder and Aszure Barton’s Come In. Caleb has also completed his Bachelor’s degree from the University of Canberra.

Scotto was born in Akron, OH, and began dancing at age 4 at Nan Klinger’s Excellence in Dance. He continued his training at the Houston Ballet Academy and became a member of Houston Ballet II. He also trained at the Royal Ballet School in Covent Garden, where he earned the Royal Ballet Achievement Award for two consecutive years. In 2018, he joined Alberta Ballet. Scotto has performed notable roles, including the Bluebird in Sleeping Beauty, a soloist in George Balanchine’s Allegro Brillante, and the Bugle Boy in Paul Taylor’s Company B. He has had the pleasure of working with many choreographers, including Jean Grand-Maître, Nicolo Fonte, Helen Pickett, Alysa Pires, Loughlan Prior, Ernst Meisner, and Stanton Welch AM.

Seira is now in her tenth season with Alberta Ballet. Originally from Fukuoka, Japan, she began her dance training at home at the Fukuoka City Kawazoe Ballet Academy, later moving on to study at the Alberta Ballet School in Calgary and the Dutch National Ballet Academy in Amsterdam. Since joining us in 2015, Seira has shared many wonderful performances with our audiences, some of which include the role of Yoomi in Helen Pickett’s Petal, the Fairy of Bravery in Christopher Anderson’s The Sleeping Beauty, and the Boterosutra couple in Annabel Lopez Ochoa’s Botero.

Hailing from Leesburg, Virginia, USA, Allison trained at The Loudoun School of Ballet and graduated from Indiana University’s Jacobs School of Music, before beginning her professional career as a member of BalletMet’s second company in Columbus, Ohio. Now in her seventh season with Alberta Ballet, her performances in Cathy Marston’s Moving, Still and Gretel in Hansel & Gretel by Loughlan Prior are some of her favorites.

Kurtis originally hails from Ontario, Canada. He began his ballet training at the age of 18 at the Oakville School of Classical Ballet before moving to New York City to complete his ballet training at Ballet Academy East under the direction of Darla Hoover. During his time in New York, Kurtis had the opportunity to perform roles like Prince Desire in Sleeping Beauty (staged by Maina Guilgud) and was the recipient of the David Howard Foundation scholarship before joining Alberta Ballet in 2019. 

Since joining Alberta Ballet, some of Kurt’s favourite roles he has performed are Jester in Christopher Anderson’s Cinderella, Sugar Plum Cavalier in Edmond Stripes, The Nutcracker, the Black Bird in Annabelle Lopez’s Botero and performing in Jean Grand Maitres pop ballet PHI. This will be Kurt’s fifth season with the Alberta Ballet.