@giselle

@giselle

Soloist, American Ballet Theatre

Betsy McBride is originally from Coppell, Texas. She began her training at the Ballet Academy of Texas and then continued her training at Texas Ballet Theater’s School where she joined the company under O.B.E. Ben Stevenson. McBride danced for Texas Ballet Theater, rising through the ranks to principal dancer, from 2007 to 2015. McBride joined American Ballet Theatre as a member of the corps de ballet in June 2015 and was promoted to Soloist in September 2022. She has danced numerous soloist and principal roles in ABT’s repertoire. She danced in the New York Ballet Stars Gala in honor of Mignon Furman in Cape Town, South Africa and danced in Joshua Beamish’s premiere of @giselle in Vancouver in 2019. She also danced in the 2019 Joyce Festival curated by The Royal Ballet. McBride has danced in short seasons with both Colab Dance and Duncan Lyle Dance.

Photo by Jiyan Dai

@albrecht / @loys

Principal, The National Ballet of Canada

Harrison James, born in 1991 and hailing from the Kapiti Coast in New Zealand, is currently a Principal Dancer with the National Ballet of Canada. After completing advanced training at both the New Zealand School of Dance and the San Francisco Ballet School’s Trainee Program, James has performed in cultural epicenters all over the world including Paris, London, Hamburg, Moscow, Saint Petersburg, Tokyo, New York, San Francisco and of course Toronto. Known for his technical prowess and for being an attentive partner, James was promoted to Principal after only three years with the National Ballet of Canada. He has danced many of ballet's most iconic and sought after roles during his time there including Albrecht, in Sir Peter Wright’s Giselle, Lensky in John Cranko’s Onegin, Apollo in Balanchine’s Apollo, James in Johan Kobborg’s re-staging of La Sylphide and Prince Florimund in Nureyev’s Sleeping Beauty, to name a few. James has also worked with many of today's most in demand choreographers including Crystal Pite, Christopher Wheeldon, Wayne McGregor, John Neumeier, William Forsythe and Alexei Ratmansky. James is hugely grateful for where his dance career has taken him so far and has many plans and hopes for what the future may bring.

Photo by Karolina Kuras

@hilarion

Principal, Philadelphia Ballet

Sterling Baca is from Larkspur, CO and began his ballet training at the Academy of Colorado Ballet. He attended the Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis School at American Ballet Theatre on full scholarship in 2009 prior to joining ABTII in the Fall of 2010. Sterling joined ABT as an Apprentice in May of 2011 and was promoted to the Corps de Ballet later that year. Sterling danced numerous Soloist and Principal roles while at ABT before joining the Philadelphia Ballet as a Principal Dancer under the directorship of Ángel Corella in August of 2016. Since then, he has danced leads in most classical and Balanchine repertoire, as well as new works by world renowned choreographers. Follow @sterlingbaca to keep up with his upcoming performances and more!

Photo by Alexander Iziliaev

Myrtha

Ballet Edmonton

Born in Fukushima, Japan, Yoko started her ballet training at Hitomi Takeuchi Ballet School where since a young age she has been winning prizes at National Ballet competitions such as Sendai Ballet Competition 1st Prize, All Japan Ballet Competition 2nd Prize and Japan NBA Ballet Competition, to name a few. Upon graduating high school, Yoko moved to Vancouver to join Pacific Dancearts School where she completed her ballet training before starting her professional career as a dancer. Yoko joined Atlanta Ballet Company under the direction of John Mcfall where she had the privilege to perform Ballets such as Swan Lake, Cinderella, The Nutcracker, Firebird, Don Quixote, Peter Pan, Serenade (Balanchine), Dracula, Moulin Rouge and to work with renowned choreographers such as James Kudelka, Mark Godden, Michael Pink, Darrell Grand Moutrie, Bruce Wells and more. In 2017, she joined Coastal City Ballet to perform leading roles in ballets such as Midsummer Night's Dream, Raymonda and Joshua Beamish’s Butterfly Lovers. The following year, Yoko joined Ballet Edmonton where she is currently a company member under the direction of Wen Wei Wang.

Photo by Cooper and O’Hara

@bathilde

American Ballet Theatre

Fangqi Li trained at the Secondary School of the Beijing Dance Academy and with The National ballet of China. She participated in summer intensive programs at American Ballet Theatre, Ballet Heritage, and the Beijing IBCC. Li joined ABT Studio Company in September 2017, became an apprentice with the main Company in January 2018, and joined the corps de ballet in June 2018. Her repertoire includes Pas de trois in Swan Lake, Moyna in Giselle, the Spanish Dance in Alexei Ratmansky’s The Nutcracker, The Swallow in The Seasons, and featured roles in Deuce Coupe, La Follia Variations, and Sinfonietta. Li’s awards include first prize in Group C at Beijing Dance Academy’s 5th Annual International Ballet Competition for Dance Schools (2014), third prize at the Youth America Grand Prix Asian Regional Semi-Finals (2015), and second prize at the Helsinki International Ballet Competition (2016). In 2017, Li was a finalist and scholarship winner at the Prix de Lausanne.

Photo by Marek Wojciak

@mamaberthe

Beverley Bagg began her training in both RAD and Cechetti in Johannesburg, South Africa, and has transitioned from a dancer into a master teacher. She was accepted at the Royal Ballet School in London, England, and danced Soloist and Principal roles with the PACT Ballet Company in South Africa for 15 years. Among the roles she performed were Bluebird and Princess Aurora in The Sleeping Beauty, Odette/Odile in Swan Lake, the Sugar Plum Fairy in The Nutcracker, Swanhilda in Coppélia, Juliet in Romeo and Juliet, and Giselle in Giselle.

Beverley was Ballet Mistress with Alberta Ballet and the resident teacher for Ballet BC. Recently, Beverley was invited to teach Joshua Beamish/MOVETHECOMPANY company on tour in Germany and to guest teach Les Ballet Jazz de Montreal. She also performed with internationally renowned choreographer Idan Cohen in Vancouver.

Photo by Paul McGarth

Moyna

Ballet Edmonton

Originally from Lethbridge Alberta, Chloe began her professional training in 2011 at Alberta Ballet School in Calgary and graduated from her post-secondary training in 2020 under the instruction of Murray Kilgour. During her training, she was privileged to work with the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra on many occasions, as well as a collaboration with the Calgary Opera. In 2021, Chloe joined Ballet Edmonton under Artistic Direction of choreographer Wen Wei Wang, and is now currently going into her 3rd season with the company. She has performed various works across Canada, from choreographers such as Wen Wei Wang, Ihsan Rustem, and Dorothea Saykaly. Chloe is thrilled to be revisiting this beautiful work by Joshua Beamish. She performed as an original cast member in the world debut of @giselle which premiered in 2019, and is excited to be performing the show again this year.

Photo by Cooper and O’Hara

Zulma

Kira Radosevic (Canadian/Croatian/Polish heritage) works in Vancouver on the unceded territories of the Coast Salish peoples. She trained with the LINES Ballet Training Program in San Francisco and Modus Operandi Contemporary Dance Program under the direction of Tiffany Tregarthen, David Raymond and Kate Franklin, graduating with a British Columbia Arts Council scholarship. Since graduating she’s performed and worked with: Out Innerspace Dance Theatre, Khoudia Touré, Kinesis Dance Somatheatro, Francesca Frewer, Yin Yue, Generous Mess, Joshua Beamish and others. Also a visual artist, Kira values interdisciplinary multimedia collaborations that bridge artists and audiences that would otherwise never meet. Her work, along with collaborator Tara Rajah, has premiered at SKAMpede Festival, BC Culture Days and F.O.R.M. Festival. She just completed a scholarship awarded by Peter Bingham (EDAM Dance) to study contact improvisation whose form she wants to continue to explore choreographically.

Photo by Julian Hunt

Wili

Alesandra earned her Bachelor of Fine Arts with Honors from Alonzo King LINES Ballet in May 2020. While in the program, she began her freelancing career in San Francisco, performing with dawsondancesf. She then moved to Canada and joined Modus Operandi, where she is mentored and taught by Tiffany Tregarthen, David Raymond, Kate Franklin, and several other prominent dance artists. She has enjoyed transformative opportunities through research with Out Innerspace Dance Theatre and Dance//Novella as well as with Khoudia Touré, with whom she performed. Alesandra is excited to work with this incredible team for @giselle!

Photo by Danaea Godard

Wili

Talia Langtry was born and raised just outside of Vancouver, BC, where she began her dance training at the age of 3. At 18, Talia was a recipient of the Darcey Bussell Bursary award, and competed in the 2016 Genée International Ballet Competition in Sydney Australia. In 2020, Talia graduated from Modus Operandi, Post-Secondary Contemporary Dance program based in Vancouver, under the artistic direction of Tiffany Tregarthen, David Raymond and Kate Franklin. She was awarded B.C. Arts Council scholarships for the 2018/19 and 2019/20 Modus Operandi seasons. During her time in the program, Talia had the privilege of performing works by David Raymond, Karissa Barry, Company 605, Kate Franklin, Paraskevas Terezakis, Shay Kuebler, Out Innerspace Dance Theatre, Vanessa Goodman and Alanna Kraaijeveld. As a freelance dance artist, Talia has had the pleasure of working with Jenna Berlyn, Joshua Beamish/MOVETHECOMPANY, Out Innerspace Dance Theatre, Kirsten Wicklund and Ballet Kelowna.

Photo by Jack Tupper

Wili

Bridget Lee was born in Ohio, USA, and studied at Canada’s Royal Winnipeg Ballet School. She graduated with distinction in 2019 and was named a YoungArts winner in ballet. Bridget spent the 2019/2020 season as an apprentice with The Stuttgart Ballet before returning to Canada to further her contemporary training. She has spent the past two years studying with Modus Operandi in Vancouver under the mentorship of Tiffany Tregarthen, David Raymond, and Kate Franklin. Bridget will be joining Hessisches Staatsballett as a company member for the upcoming 2023/2024 season.

Photo by Julian Hunt Photography

Wili

Rianna Logan is an artist from Vancouver BC. Her professional training began with a somatic based psycho-physical practice at Ballet Bloch Canada in North Vancouver. She then attended the Alonzo King Lines Ballet Training Program in San Francisco and graduated in 2022, under the direction of Karah Abiog. She is now dancing in Vancouver with Modus Operandi under the direction of David Raymond, Tiffany Tregarthen, and Kate Franklin. She has attended intensives such as Orsolina 28, BODYTRAFFIC, Out Innerspace Dance Theatre, Alonzo King Lines Ballet, MOVETHECOMPANY, Boston Ballet, Ballet West, and American Ballet Theatre. She has performed new works by Juliano Nunes, Flock Works, Imre van Opstal, Micaela Taylor, Sidra Bell, Mike Tyus, Joshua Beamish, Chuck Wilt, Gregory Dawson, David Harvey, Alex Ketly, Kayla Farrish, Carmen Rozenstraten, and Monica Proenca, as well as repertoire by Alonzo King, David Raymond and Tiffany Tregarthen, Ethan Colangelo, Camille A. Brown, and Baye & Asa.

Photo by Laura Zeke

Wili

Bailey Madill grew up in Kamloops, BC, and later moved to Vancouver, continuing her professional ballet training at the Goh Ballet Academy, Coastal City Ballet, and The Richmond Academy of Dance. In 2013, Bailey began her professional career as an apprentice for Joshua Beamish/ MOVETHECOMPANY’s full length work Pierced, and the following year worked as a mentor for his Telus Youth Mentor Project. She has danced with companies such as Ballet Kelowna, Ballet Edmonton, Vancouver Opera, and Ballet Ouest de Montréal. Bailey has recently worked as a dancer on NBC’s Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist, and danced as a Wili in Joshua Beamish/ MOVETHECOMPANY’s world premiere of @giselle. She has since been training in Paris while auditioning for ballet companies, and is thrilled to be rejoining the cast of thisincredible work for the NYC premiere!

Photo by David Cooper

Wili

Nyah Wong Penner is an aspiring dance artist currently training in Victoria, Canada. Nyah was born and raised in Vancouver, Canada, training in classical ballet from age three to 18 years at Goh Ballet Academy under the direction of Chan Hon Goh. In her time at Goh, Nyah has danced in original works by Maina Gielgud, Kirsten Wicklund, Monica Proenca, and Anna-Marie Holmes. In February of 2022, Nyah traveled to Berlin, Germany where she fell in love with improvisation and movement research. Upon graduating highschool, Nyah spent the summer exploring contemporary dance by participating in the Joshua Beamish/ MOVETHECOMPANY summer intensive and the Inverso summer intensive with Lesley Telford. Nyah is currently training at Victoria Academy of Ballet in the Post-Secondary Bridge Program under the direction of Bleiddyn Del Villar Bellis. In this program Nyah is able to work on deepening her improvisational practice while developing contemporary, modern, and ballet technique. She is interested in continuing to explore contemporary and contemporary-ballet movement moving forward. As a hobby, Nyah draws and sketches with pens, pencils, and crayola crayons.

Photo by Ronald Lee

Artistic Director/Choreographer

​​Choreographer Joshua Beamish founded Joshua Beamish/MOVETHECOMPANY in 2005. His works have since extensively toured throughout North America, Europe, Asia and Africa. He has created works for The Royal Ballet, The National Ballet of Canada, Dutch National Ballet Junior Company/Choreographic Academy, Vancouver Opera, Cape Town Opera, New York City Ballet Principal/Associate Artistic Director Wendy Whelan for Restless Creature and Principal Dancer Ashley Bouder for The Ashley Bouder Project, Compania Nacional de Danza de Mexico, Toronto Dance Theatre and Cirque du Soleil for World EXPO Shanghai. His company has been presented by BAM Next Wave Festival, The Joyce Theater, Canada’s National Arts Centre, Fall For Dance North, London’s The Place, The Bangkok & Seoul International Festivals, among others. He is a founding member of The Joyce Theater’s Young Leaders Circle Committee, an alumni of the NY Choreographic Institute (a New York City Ballet affiliate), and a Jerome Robbins Foundation, Samuel H Scripps Foundation and Rockefeller Brothers Fund grantee. Joshua is the recipient of artistic residencies throughout North America, including the Banff Centre, Jacob’s Pillow, The Dance Centre and the Rockefeller Brothers Fund Pocantico Center, and a term as the National Incubator Artist at ADI (now Lumberyard). Joshua was an inaugural artist-in-residence at The Joyce Theater's Choreographic Centre at Gibney Dance.

Projection Designer/Animator

As the 2001 Visual Communications Valedictorian of Alberta College of Art and Design in Calgary, Alberta, Brianna started her career as an Environmental Graphic Designer at Gottschalk + Ash International. Here she worked on large-scale architectural graphic projects for hospitals, airports, convention centers, and museums. She worked on such projects as Boston Convention and Exhibition Center (BCEC), Vancouver Convention and Exhibition Center (VCEC), Ottawa and Calgary Airports, NHL Hockey Hall of Fame, and Aquatopia in Belgium. In 2007, our team won the Society of Environmental Graphic Designers (SEGD) top award for our work on Alberta Hospital Ponoka. After her time at G+A, Brianna moved to Vancouver where she worked on various freelance projects. In that time she also helped to create the Entheos Gathering, an electronic music festival on the West Coast that ran for 6 years. ​

Several years later, Brianna lived in California where she pursued her goal of becoming an animator. In 2013, she was hired as a contract animator at Vortex Immersion Media where she began to deeply explore immersive Fulldome and Virtual Reality content production, as well as acquiring VFX skills for film and video. ​Brianna also possesses a Bachelor of Science in Psychology and Geography double major from University of Calgary, and she is a veteran Army Reservist of the Canadian Armed Forces Signals Corps where she held a Top Secret security clearance. In addition, Brianna was a sessional instructor for several years at Alberta College of Art & Design, and an FM radio DJ.

Lighting Designer/Supervisor

Abigail Hoke-Brady is a Brooklyn based lighting designer whose work centers primarily in opera and new work. Work in New York City includes : The Night Falls (Peak Performances/ BalletCollective); Grass is Green (UNA / 92nd St Y); The Beginning Days of True Jubilation and The Strangers Came Today (SOCIETY Theater Co); BUST (Soho Repertory Theater) *scenic and lighting design*; Portrait and a Dream (Contemporaneous); Bound (Fresh Squeezed Opera); The Little Death vol 1 (Prototype Festival); MukhAgni (Under the Radar/The Public Theater); and Silent Voices : Lovestate (New Victory Theater / Brooklyn Youth Chorus). Regional work includes : Requiem (INSeries Opera); Those With 2 Clocks (co-design with Amith Chandrashaker, The Wilma); How I Learned What I Learned (Playmakers Repertory Company); Cosi fan Tutte (San Diego Opera); The Last American Hammer and FLORIDA (UrbanArias); Glory Denied and Three Decembers (Tri Cities Opera); Mad Forest (Bard College/Theatre for a New Audience). She is the resident designer at DiMenna Center for Classical Music. Member : USA 829. Website : hokebradydesigns.com | Instagram : @hokebradydesigns

Rehearsal Director / Stage Manager

Heather Dotto is a diverse performer trained in many forms of dance and theatre at Caulfield School of Dance. Following graduation, Heather began dancing for Joshua Beamish’s Move: the Company in 2005. For the following seven years she performed, toured and grew to be artistically involved in many new creations by Beamish. Within the company Heather also performed works by: Simone Orlando, Amber Funk-Barton, Susan Mensinger, and Danny Austin. After seeing stages all over the world (Shanghai, Singapore, New York, England, Brazil, Bangkok, Seattle, Los Angeles, Toronto, Nanaimo) Heather planted her feet back in Vancouver and has enjoyed working with many members of the dance community on new creations and remounts, a selection being: Vision Impure, mmHop, Kinesis Dance, Coriograph Theatre, Heather Laura Gray, Caitlin Griffin, Lara Barclay, Monica Proenca. In 2012, Heather joined JoeInk, under the direction of Joe Laughlin in Vancouver. She remounted roles and participated in new creations within the company for 10 years. While working with all of these celebrated choreographers, Heather’s teaching and choreographic career was nurtured at K&S Dance Productions since 2006. In 2017, Heather engaged in two new creations of her own, seeded by Small Stage. She has been commissioned twice by Ballet Kelowna and Lamondance. For the last year, Heather has been touring across Canada, the US and Europe as the Rehearsal Director for Saudade, Source Amnesia and @giselle, all works by Joshua Beamish.

Costume Designer

Janie Taylor is a dancer and rehearsal director from Houston. She began her ballet training at age 2 with Gilbert Rome, and then trained at Giacobbe Academy of Dance in New Orleans from 1993-'96. After attending two summer programs at The School of American Ballet, she became a full-time student there in fall 1996. At the June 1998 SAB Workshop Performance, she originated a featured role in Christopher Wheeldon's Soirée Musicale and received the annual Mae L. Wien Award and an invitation to apprentice with New York City Ballet. A month later, she became a member of NYCB's Corps de Ballet. In 2000, she appeared in the film Center Stage, directed by Nicholas Hytner. She was promoted to Soloist at NYCB in February 2001, and to Principal Dancer in 2005. She originated roles in ballets choreographed by Peter Martins, Benjamin Millepied, Justin Peck and Richard Tanner. She also performed featured roles in numerous ballets by George Balanchine and Jerome Robbins, as well as in pieces by Lynne Taylor-Corbett, Susan Stroman, Twyla Tharp and Alexei Ratmansky. She retired from New York City Ballet on March 1, 2014, and began working as a répétiteur, setting ballets for Benjamin Millepied and Justin Peck. She also started a career in costume design, and her costumes have appeared both at New York City Ballet and L.A.Dance Project. In December 2016, Taylor joined L.A. Dance Project, where she returned to dancing and also works as rehearsal director. Taylor started choreographing in 2019 with her first piece, Adagio in B Minor, for L.A. Dance Project. Other choreographed pieces include Sonata for Saras (a short film starring Sara Mearns in all three roles), and her second piece for L.A. Dance Project, Night Bloom.