At our first meeting of 2022, on Thursday 27^th January, we are delighted to welcome Soloist Gina Storm-Jensen as our guest.  Half Norwegian, half German, Gina began her training at the Norwegian Ballet School in Oslo, won the Grasse International competition 2009 and was a finalist at the 2011 Prix de Lausanne. She went on to train at the Royal Ballet Upper School, where she won the 2013 Gailene Stock Prize for Most Promising Student. She joined The Royal Ballet in October 2013 and was promoted to Soloist in 2021. Recent roles have included the Lilac Fairy, Monotones II,Rosaline and Harlot in Romeo and Juliet,Myrthe, Bathilde and Zulme in Giselleand the Dancing Mistress, Spanish Dance, Arabian Dance and Leading Flower in The Nutcracker.Gina last spoke to the Association alongside Donald Thom in 2015, so there is a lot to catch up on and we can expect an entertaining evening.

At our first meeting of the following month, on Monday 14^th February it is a pleasure to welcome Royal Ballet Principal Cesar Corrales. Cuban-Canadian dancer Cesar was born in Mexico City and trained with his parents, Taina Morales and Jesus Corrales, both professional ballet dancers, before attending Canada’s National Ballet School. He performed the title role in the musical Billy Elliotin Chicago and Toronto from 2010-11 and danced with American Ballet Theatre Studio Company in 2014. That year, he won the Grand Prix Award and Artistry Award at the Youth America Grand Prix, and soon afterwards joined English National Ballet. He was promoted to Principal in 2017 and roles included Ali in Le Corsaire,Albrecht in Giselle, Franz in Coppeliaand he created the role of Hilarion in Akram Khan’s Giselle.He joined The Royal Ballet at the beginning of the 2018/19 season and was promoted to Principal in 2021. His roles have included Solor, Romeo, Lescaut, Bluebird, as well as roles in Les Patineurs, Asphodel Meadows, Solo Echo, Morgenand the Tchaikovsky pas de deux.He won the National Dance Award for Outstanding Male Performance (Classical) in 2017 for Le Corsaire.We can expect a fascinating Valentine’s Day meeting.

The following week, on Tuesday 22^nd February, it is an enormous pleasure to welcome Johanna Adams Farley, Senior Stage Manager (Ballet) with The Royal Opera House. From a theatrical background, Johanna saw Fonteyn and Nureyev in Romeo and Julietwhen she was aged 15, and from then on queued every night for tickets for their performances. She studied stage management at drama school and her first job was with The Actor’s Company. Whilst a floor assistant at the BBC, the floor manager, who had worked at the Opera House, taught her how to follow a score in order to run a ballet. This led to her appointment as assistant stage manager at Festival Ballet in 1979 and John Field promoted her to Stage Manager the following year. Peter Schaufuss then made her stage director, and when he left Festival, he took her with him to Berlin Deutsche Opera Ballet. Following a serious road accident, Johanna returned to London and after a year off was appointed Stage Manager at the Royal in 1985. When Johanna last spoke to the Association in 2007, she brought with her a complete set of documentation for Sylviato illustrate her talk. She then talked in detail about every aspect of her role. We can look forward to a similar evening, including discussion on some of the new works which Johanna has overseen. This is a meeting you should not miss!