BALLET WEST ANNOUNCES ROSTER AND DANCER PROMOTIONS FOR 2025-26 SEASON
SALT LAKE CITY, UT – Ballet West has announced eight company dancer promotions for the 2025-26 season, and five new company members, all of whom trained at the Frederick Quinney Lawson Ballet West Academy, four of whom come out of Ballet West II. In addition, we welcome ten new Ballet West II members, including seven from the FQL Ballet West Academy.
“I am thrilled to recognize the growth of our company artists with eight merit promotions and am so pleased to welcome an exciting new group of dancers to Ballet West and Ballet West II for our 2025-26 season,” says Adam Sklute, Artistic Director of Ballet West. “Out of hundreds of auditions we have seen this past season, these wonderful new artists to our organization came from Utah, the nation, and around the world. It’s very gratifying to be able to promote so many from the FQL Ballet West Academy and to know that there is such interest nationally and internationally in being a part of Ballet West.”
Main Company Promotions:
Rylee Ann Rogers, Dominic Ballard, and Vinicius Lima have been promoted to Soloist from Demi 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 years in a row. She joined Ballet West II in 2020 before being promoted to the main company in 2022 and then as a Demi-Soloist in 2024. Ballard is from Albury, New South Wales, Australia. He joined Ballet West in 2017 and was promoted to Demi-Soloist in 2022. Lima is from Vitoria, Brazil. He joined Ballet West Academy as a Trainee in 2016, joined Ballet West II in 2018, and was promoted to the main company in 2020, followed by a promotion to Demi-Soloist in 2024.
Former Corps Artists Lexi McCloud, Anisa Sinteral, Jacob Hancock, Joseph Lynch, and Loren Walton have all been promoted to Demi-Soloist.
McCloud is from North Salt Lake, Utah and joined Ballet West II in 2022. Sinteral is from Parker, Colorado. She joined Ballet West II in 2014 and was promoted to the main company in 2015. Sinteral left BW in 2019 and rejoined in 2021. Hancock is from Lehi, Utah. He joined Ballet West Academy as a Trainee in 2018, became a part of Ballet West II in 2020, and was promoted to the main company in 2022. Lynch is from Cumberland, Rhode Island. He joined Ballet West II in 2017 and was promoted to the main company in 2019. Walton is from Austin, Texas. He joined the Ballet West Academy as a Trainee in 2019, became a part of Ballet West II in 2020, and was promoted to the main company in 2022.
Joining Ballet West:
Promoted to Ballet West from BWII are Jaya Dhand, Lund Fuller, Victor Galeana, Téa Hinchley, and former FQL BWA student Kyra Stafford will also be joining Ballet West.
Dhand is from San Diego, California. She joined BWII in 2023. Fuller is from Salt Lake City, Utah and joined the FQL BWA in 2011. He became a Trainee in 2021 and joined BWII in 2023. Galeana is from Salt Lake City, Utah. As a child, he participated in BW’s Education and Outreach program I CAN DO where he was discovered and invited to begin classical ballet training at the FQL BWA. As the first BWA student to come out of that program, he then became a Trainee in 2020 and joined BWII in 2022.
Hinchley is from Castle Rock, Colorado. She joined the FQL BWA as a Trainee in 2023 and BWII in 2024. Stafford is from Salt Lake City, Utah. Growing up, Stafford was a student with the FQL BWA and performed with Ballet West in the role of Clara of Willam Christensen’s The Nutcracker for two years in a row. She went on to study with San Francisco Ballet School and The Joffrey Ballet Academy in Chicago before returning to Utah to join Ballet West.
Emily Adams, Katlyn Addison, Hadriel Diniz, Adrian Fry, Tyler Gum, Jenna Rae Herrera, David Huffmire, Amy Potter, and Jordan Veit continue as Principal Artists for 2025-26 Season.
New Additions to Ballet West II:
Joining Ballet West II, Ballet West’s pre-professional company, are Ballet West Academy alumni Carlie Allyn, Pieter Gunning (from The Netherlands), Melanie McIntyre, Mario Mery, Mateo Salinas, Zoe Wilson, and Annalise Wood. Newly added BWII artists Calder Feinstein (from Los Angeles, California), Jean Marco (from Havana, Cuba), and Aubri Parker (from Frisco, Texas) are all new to the organization.
Departing Dancers:
At the conclusion of the 2025-26 season, Ballet West bid a fond farewell from the stage to longtime Ballet West Artist, Soloist Kristina Pool, who is retiring from dancing. Pool joined Ballet West II in 2015 and was promoted to the main company in 2017, and then to Demi-Soloist in 2022. With Ballet West, Pool has danced leading roles in Smuin’s Romeo & Juliet, Sklute’s Giselle, Fonte’s Carmina Burana, Olga in Cranko's Onegin, and the role of Svetlana in Ben Stevenson's Dracula, among many others.
Also departing Ballet West will be Corps Artists Amelia Dencker, Taylor Fikes, and Tatiana Stevenson, as well as Ballet West II Artists Ava Gray, Andre McGregor II, and Anna Murray.
Come see the dancers perform in the upcoming 2025-26 season, which features five Utah premieres, two world premieres, and unforgettable storytelling with West Side Story Suite, Peter Pan, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Romeo & Juliet, and The Nutcracker.
Subscribers to the 2025 – 26 season enjoy exclusive benefits, including free ticket exchanges, up to 40% off single ticket prices, priority seating, and first access to purchase additional tickets to The Nutcracker. Five-performance pages start at just $210.
Single tickets do not go on sale until September 2, so ballet fans are encouraged to subscribe now or renew their seasons subscriptions early to get the best available seats.
Groups of 15 or more have access to purchase tickets now, before single tickets go on sale Tuesday, September 3!
Heritage Club Members will have access to exclusive insider events including in-studio rehearsals, intermission receptions, free parking, and more.
Contact Ballet West at 801-869-6920 or visit BalletWest.org.
PRESS INQUIRIES
Dana Rimington
Director of Communications and Publications
drimington@balletwest.org | 801-869-6918
About Ballet West
BALLET WEST, one of America’s leading and largest ballet companies, led by Artistic Director Adam Sklute, has earned an international reputation for artistic innovation and excellence since its founding in 1963. For 60 years, the Salt Lake City-based Company has entertained and excited audiences in Utah and worldwide by presenting great classical ballets, historical masterpieces, including America’s first and longest-running version of The Nutcracker, and new cutting-edge creations with only the highest artistic and professional standards. The Company continues to build future ballet artists and audiences by providing classical ballet training through the Frederick Q. Lawson Ballet West Academy and its four campuses and more than 1,000 students. Ballet West also operates one of the largest outreach and education programs in the country which reaches nearly 100,000 children and adults throughout Utah and the Intermountain Region every year. The 2024-2025 Season is generously sponsored by the Salt Lake County Zoo, Arts, and Parks (ZAP), the George S. and Dolores Doré Eccles Foundation, and Intermountain Health.