ANNOUNCING ROSTER AND DANCER PROMOTIONS FOR 2026-27 SEASON
SALT LAKE CITY, UT (May 20, 2026) – Artistic Director Adam Sklute has announced seven company dancer promotions for the 2026-27 season and four new company members, three of whom were promoted from Ballet West II. Come see the dancers perform in the upcoming 2026-27 season, which will honor Sklute’s 20th anniversary and final year with Ballet West.
MAIN COMPANY PROMOTIONS
Rylee Ann Rogers has been promoted to First Soloist.
Rogers is from Orem, Utah. As a child, she performed with Ballet West in the role of Clara in Willam Christensen’s The Nutcracker for two consecutive seasons. She entered Ballet West II in 2020 before advancing to the main company in 2022, to Demi-Soloist in 2024, and then to Soloist in 2025.
Demi-Soloists Nicole Fannéy, Lexi McCloud, Loren Walton and Corps Artist William Lynch have each been promoted to Soloist.
Fannéy grew up in Cary, N.C. She joined the Ballet West Academy as a Trainee in 2016 and then became part of Ballet West II in 2018. She was promoted to the main company in 2020 and became a Demi-Soloist in 2023. McCloud is from North Salt Lake, Utah and came to Ballet West II in 2022, making her way to Ballet West in 2024, with a promotion to Demi-Soloist in 2025. Originally from Austin, Texas, Walton moved to Salt Lake City where he became a Trainee in 2019, was promoted to Ballet West II in 2020, and became a part of the main company in 2022, with a promotion to Demi-Soloist in 2025. Lynch, from Seattle, Wash., entered Ballet West II in 2021 and joined the main company in 2023.
Maren Florence and Jonas Malinka-Thompson have been promoted to Demi-Soloist from Corps Artists.
Both Florence and Malinka-Thompson are from Salt Lake City, Utah. They began their ballet training at Frederick Quinney Lawson Ballet West Academy as young children. They became Trainees in 2020 and joined Ballet West II together in 2021. They were both invited to join Ballet West in 2023.
JOINING BALLET WEST
Advancing to Ballet West from Ballet West II are Olivia Book, Mario Mery, and Annalise Wood. Raquel Smith, from Los Angeles, Calif., will also join Ballet West after recently dancing with Collage Dance out of Memphis, Tenn.
Book is from Ontario, Canada. She began her training at Ballet West Academy in 2019, became a Trainee in 2021, and then joined Ballet West II in 2023. Mery, from Palm Beach Gardens, Fla., began training with Ballet West Academy in 2023 and was promoted to Ballet West II in 2025. Wood is from Windsor, Colo. She began as a joint University of Utah/ Ballet West Academy Trainee in 2023, and advanced to Ballet West II in 2025.
Emily Adams, Katlyn Addison, Hadriel Diniz, Adrian Fry, Tyler Gum, Jenna Rae Herrera, David Huffmire, and Jordan Veit continue as Principal Artists for the 2026-27 Season.
DEPARTING DANCERS
Principal Artist Amy Potter concludes her professional dancing career at the close of the 2025-26 season. The Roanoke, Va. native made her home at Ballet West II in 2011 and stepped into the main company in 2012. Potter then danced with Oklahoma City Ballet in 2014 and returned to Ballet West in 2021 as a Soloist and was promoted to Principal Artist in 2022.
With Ballet West, Potter has danced leading roles including Cranko’s Onegin as Tatiana, Ashton’s Cinderella as Cinderella, Odette/Odile in Sklute's Swan Lake, Christensen’s The Nutcracker as The Sugarplum Fairy and The Snow Queen. Smuin’s Romeo + Juliet as Juliet, Aurora in Sklute's The Sleeping Beauty, Kylián’s Petite Mort, Return to a Strange Land, and Symphony of Psalms, Robbins’ Glass Pieces and In the Night, Within the Golden Hour and Carousel, a Dance by Christopher Wheeldon, and Red Angels by Ulysses Dove, to name a few.
Also departing at the end of the 2025-26 season are Soloist Vinicius Lima, Demi-Soloist Lillian Casscells, Corps Artist Isabella Corridon, and Ballet West II Artists Pieter Gunning and Solomon Fishman.
NEW ADDITIONS TO BALLET WEST II
Joining Ballet West II, Ballet West’s pre-professional company, is Ballet West Academy alumni Natalie Clayton, from Columbus, Ohio. New to the organization added to Ballet West II are Ruby Bennett, from Santa Cruz, Calif., Bryan Gregory, from Charlotte, N.C., Tanner Mundorff, from Gainesville, Fla., and Jadson Santos, from Itabuna, Bahia, Brazil.