About Ballet Central

Ursula Hageli was born in Switzerland and began training at Zurich Opera House. Aged 12 she won a scholarship to train at the Royal Ballet School’s White Lodge and Upper School. Her professional career began in 1970 with Stuttgart Ballet touring coast to coast across USA, Russia and Japan under the direction of John Cranko. The Repertoire included Taming of the Shrew, Giselle, Eugene Onegin, Las Hermanas, Song of the Earth. Soloist roles included Pas de six and Polish Princess in Swan Lake, Gypsy in Romeo and Juliet.

In 1973 she was invited to join Northern Dance Theatre to dance the title role in Cinderella. Further roles included Princess in Aladdin, Partisan Woman in Kurt Joos’s The Green Table, the Girl in Spectre de la Rose, the Woman in Walter Gore’s Eaters of Darkness and many more. Several new ballets were created for her, most notably A Woman’s Love. BBC made a documentary about her career to date.

Ursula took her Professional Dancer’s Teaching Certificate A.R.A.D dip. P.D.T.C. at the Royal Academy of Dancing in 1977 and went on to the Lloydminster Dance Academy in Alberta, Canada, directing and teaching over 200 students entering students’ RAD examinations.

In 1980 she joined London City Ballet as a Principal Dancer. Roles included Odette/Odile in Swan Lake, title role in Carmen, Paquita partnered by Donald MacLeary, Mazurka & Pas de deux in Les Sylphides, Taglioni in Anton Dolin’s Pas de Quatreand Aurora in Aurora’s Wedding.

From 1985 to 1987 she worked with historical dance companies. Then from 1985 to 1988 she had a special contract with the Royal Ballet as principal dancer and teacher for their Education Unit to give introductory performances in schools, colleges and hospitals throughout UK for Birmingham Royal Ballet and Royal Ballet Companies.

In 1989 she co-founded Ballet Creations together with Richard Slaughter. A touring ballet company, based at Wimbledon Theatre, London giving up to 70 performances annually around UK, with a live music policy. In 2005 she joined The Royal Ballet as Ballet Mistress, retiring from her position in 2012 and continuing to work for the Royal Ballet devising a series of lectures on the History of Ballet and performing as a Character Artist until 2023. Ursula also worked for their Healthcare Team coaching the dancers in their final phase of rehabilitation, which she continues to do occasionally. She began to reconstruct a section Foyer de danse for a collaboration between the Royal Ballet and the Royal Academy for their exhibiton in 2011.

Kristen is a Principal Character Artist and Choreographer with The Royal Ballet Company. Born in Liverpool she trained with Elizabeth Hill before joining The Royal Ballet School in 1999. She graduated into The Royal Ballet Company in 2002.

Her repertoire as a dancer includes The Statement by Crystal Pite, Empress Elisabeth (Mayerling), Carabosse (The Sleeping Beauty), Step Sister (Cinderella), ‘M’ (Ek’s Carmen), Lady Capulet, Nurse (Romeo and Juliet), Cook (Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland), The Wife (The Concert). She has created roles in Untouchable by Hofesh Shechter, Flight Pattern by Crystal Pite, The Wind by Arthur Pita, Les Enfants Terribles by Javier de Frutos, The Cellist by Cathy Marston, Like Water for Chocolate by Christopher Wheeldon.

Offstage, Kristen has choreographed works for The Royal Ballet, Northern Ballet, The Royal Ballet School, New English Ballet Theatre, Scottish Ballet and BalletBoyz. Her latest piece, The Limit for The Royal Ballet, was nominated for Best Contemporary Choreography at the National Dance Awards 2024. Her commercial choreographic credits include The Paralympic Homecoming Wembley Stadium for Channel 4, BBC Platinum Jubilee Concert Buckingham Palace, John Lewis “Tiny Dancer” advert, and movement direction for brands and publications such as Vogue, Van Cleef & Arpels, Harper’s Bazaar, The Vampires Wife, and Lululemon.

Born in Columbia, South Carolina, Carolyn Bolton has had her choreography performed nationally and internationally, most notably at Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, the Operaestate Festival in Italy, National Theatre’s Riverstage, Rich Mix, Rambert, The Place, The Lowry, South Carolina Governor’s School for the Arts and Humanities and Youth America Grand Prix Competition.

In 2022, she was nominated for a Black British Theatre Award in the Achievement Category for Best Teacher. Carolyn has been invited as an academic tutor, guest instructor and lecturer in both ballet and contemporary styles for numerous schools including London Contemporary Dance School, Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance, Tring Park School for the Performing Arts, Mountview, Shockout Arts, The Dang and Bird College.

In 2023, Carolyn was one of nine artists/companies selected by The Place for their commissioned community projects. Carolyn is currently completing her MFA in Dance Leadership and Community Practice at Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance. She is an Inclusive Ballet Consultant and the Creative Director of English National Ballet’s Youth Company.

Carolyn created Night Flight v2.0 for the 2024 Ballet Central tour. The piece was inspired by a previous work, and then created in collaboration with the dancers over a twelve day period.

Daniel Davidson was born in Edinburgh, Scotland and trained at The Dance School of Scotland and Millennium Performing Arts.

He joined Scottish Ballet in 2005 where he performed works by renowned choreographers including Richard Alston, George Balanchine, Matthew Bourne, Trisha Brown, Christopher Bruce, Jorma Elo, William Forsythe, Christopher Hampson, Kenneth MacMillan, Hans van Manen, Annabelle Lopez Ochoa, Ashley Page, Krzysztof Pastor, Stephen Petronio & Twyla Tharp.

From 2014-2022, Daniel danced with Rambert and performed in works by Mark Baldwin, Christopher Bruce, Kim Brandstrup, Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui, Merce Cunningham, Ben Duke, Sharon Eyal & Gai Behar, Andonis Foniadakis, Hofesh Shechter, Wayne McGregor, Imre & Marne van Opstal, Jo Strømgren, Marion Motin, Shobana Jeyasingh, Didy Veldman, Wim Vandekeybus & Alexander Whitley amongst others.

Daniel now works as a freelance artist and choreographer. His choreographic work includes pieces for Rambert School, The Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, The Dance School of Scotland, The National Theatre’s River Stage, Covent Garden Dance Company, Young Ballet Company of Scotland, Rambert’s ‘Blueprints’ Evening, Ballet Nights London, Central School of Ballet and National Youth Ballet.

In 2023 he joined Jean Paul Gaultier’s Fashion Freak Show as Assistant Choreographer to Marion Motin and is currently studying an MA in Choreography at Central School of Ballet.

Daniel choreographed I think we’re on different planets as part of his MA Choreography with Central. He then restaged it for Ballet Central in 2024.

Michael Pink is Artistic Director of Milwaukee Ballet, USA and an International choreographer. He trained as a classical dancer at the Royal Ballet, joining English National Ballet in 1975. He worked with Christopher Gable as co-founding director of Ballet Central and Associate Artistic Director of the Northern Ballet Theatre. His work has been hailed as ‘Classical Ballet for the 21st Century’. His early choreographic work won him first place in the Frederick Ashton Choreographic Competition and the Royal Society of Arts Competition.

He has worked as répétiteur for Rudolf Nureyev at the Paris Opera and La Scala Milan. His first professional work, 1914, was nominated for a West End Theatre Award. His other works include Romeo and Juliet, Dracula, Giselle 1943, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Dorian Gray, Mirror Mirror, Beauty and the Beast, Don Quixote, Strange Meeting, Swan Lake, The Nutcracker, Cinderella, as well as works for theatre and television.

Michael is committed to the development and promotion of dance through new work, education and collaboration.

In 2023, Ballet Central performed Mirror Mirror, an excerpt from Michael’s contemporary adaption of Snow White, created in 2014 for Milwaukee Ballet.

Darshan Singh Bhuller is an Artistic Director, Choreographer, Teacher, Dancer Film Director and Editor. Darshan became a longstanding member of world-renowned London Contemporary Dance Theatre (1979-1994) under Artistic Director Robert Cohan, and danced with Siobhan Davies Dance Company and Richard Alston, before becoming Assistant to the Director of Richard Alston Dance Company (1994-1996).

Darshan had a long relationship with Phoenix Dance Company, contributing 13 works to its repertory before being appointed Artistic Director in 2002. As Artistic Director, he rebranded to Phoenix Dance Theatre and moved the company forward as a multi-cultural company performing in larger scale venues. During his five years with Phoenix he revitalised the reputation of the company earning Company Prize for Outstanding Repertoire (Modern) in the 2006 Critic’s Circle National Dance Awards.

Darshan has since created and directed works for numerous international companies including Rambert Dance Company, Shaolin Wheel of Life, Companhia de Bailado Contemporaneo, and CandoCo. Film and digital visuals have long been a feature of Darshan’s stage work and in 1990 he started Singh Productions alongside his wife Sallie Estep. Darshan has directed numerous dance and music films throughout his career including The Fall, Robert Cohan Another Place, and NALA. NALA has accumulated nine awards and two honourable mentions in twenty-four international film festivals.

In 2023, Darshan created his original work Blind Optics on Ballet Central.

Trained at the Royal Ballet Schools, entering The Royal Ballet in 1975 and becoming a Principal dancer in 1984, Ashley Page worked closely with Frederick Ashton and Kenneth McMillan, creating numerous roles in new ballets by them and other leading choreographers of that period. As a choreographer since 1984, he has created many works for The Royal Ballet and other companies and developed a reputation for often daring collaborations with designers and composers. His ballet Fearful Symmetries won both an Olivier Award and Time Out Dance Award in 1994/95.

After 27 years at Covent Garden, he became Artistic Director of Scottish Ballet in 2002, re-energising and redeveloping them into an internationally renowned modern ballet company over a 10-year period, winning numerous awards and attracting critical acclaim and new audiences.

Since 2012 he has been freelancing as a choreographer and opera director, working with many ballet, contemporary dance and opera companies in the UK and internationally.

In 2022, Ashley Page created his original work Twice Removed on Ballet Central.

Cathy Marston is a choreographer, Artistic Director and Clore Cultural Leadership Fellow and is Director Designate of Ballett Zurich, Switzerland. After education in Cambridge, she spent two years at the Royal Ballet School, before launching an international career now spanning over twenty-five years, most recently choreographing for companies like The Royal Ballet, San Francisco Ballet, ABT, Joffrey Ballet, Danish Royal Ballet, Ballet Black, and Northern Ballet.
Cathy’s great gift is to join artistic dots, creating movement and form to communicate stories, emotions and ideas. As Associate Artist of the Royal Opera House for five years (2002-2007), during her six-year tenure directing the Bern Ballet in Switzerland (2007-2013) as well as founding The Cathy Marston Project (UK) and Companie La Ronde (Switzerland) she has developed an artistic signature that fuses British and European theatrical approaches as well as classical and contemporary dance techniques. She lends new perspectives to old narratives, for example in literary works like Jane Eyre, Lady Chatterley’s Lover, Snowblind and Dangerous Liaisons or in biographically-inspired The Cellist and Witch-hunt. Widely recognised for her skill in telling stories through movement, she won the UK National Dance Award for The Suit (Ballet Black) and The Cellist (The Royal Ballet) as well as the South Bank Sky Arts Award for Dance for Victoria (Northern Ballet) in 2020, when she was also given the ‘Excellence in International Dance Award’ by the International Institute for Dance and Theatre.

For the 2022 tour, Cathy Marston’s 2020 piece Moving, Still was restaged by Jenny Tattersall.

Matthew Bourne is firmly established as the UK’s most popular and successful choreographer and director. He is the creator of the world’s longest-running ballet production, a record-breaking nine-time Olivier Award winner, and the only British director to have won the Tony Award for both Best Choreographer and Best Director of a Musical.

Matthew started his dance training at the comparatively late age of 22 and danced professionally for 14 years, creating many roles in his own work. As artistic director of his first company, Adventures in Motion Pictures, from 1987 until 2002, Matthew created many award-winning works. Further hit productions were created when New Adventures was launched in 2002, becoming the UK’s busiest and most successful dance company and the major exporter of British dance across the world. Matthew is also a West End and Broadway choreographer; a 25-year relationship with producer Cameron Mackintosh has resulted in the globally successful musicals Mary Poppins (which is currently enjoying a West End revival), My Fair Lady and Oliver! He has seven honorary doctorates and in 2018 received an honorary degree of Doctor of Letters from University of Oxford. He is also a companion of Liverpool Institute of Performing Arts and a proud patron of many organisations, including Tring Park School of the Performing Arts, Arts Educational Schools London and Laine Theatre Arts.

First presented by Ballet Central on the 2017 tour, Highland Fling was once again performed on the 2021 tour with the kind permission of New Adventures.