Miami City Ballet Releases Company Roster for Upcoming Season

Miami City Ballet (MCB) has announced its 50-member roster for the 2016-17 season, which opens on October 23 in Miami, including the promotions of Nathalia Arja to principal soloist and both Chase Swatosh and Shimon Ito to soloists, and the addition of four new dancers: Lauren Fadeley, formerly a principal with Pennsylvania Ballet (PAB) who is joining MCB as a soloist; Amir Yogev, another dancer from PAB who began his career with MCB; and Alaina Andersen and Luiz Silva, both recent graduates of Miami City Ballet School.

Nathalia Arja caps off a tremendous season with a promotion to principal soloist. In addition to several principal and featured roles throughout the past few seasons, Arja gave breakout performances at MCB's Lincoln Center debut in April. The New York Times called her "fabulously fearless" and "exultant." Originally from Rio de Janeiro, she joined MCB in 2009 as an apprentice and has been steadily rising in the ranks since. After her promotion to soloist in 2014, she was featured on the cover of Pointe magazine and was named in Dance magazine as a "Dancer On the Rise."

Chase Swatosh has been promoted to the rank of soloist after performing principal roles in Fancy Free, Barber Violin Concerto, A Midsummer Night's Dream and Serenade during the 2015-16 season. Swatosh grew up in Westlake Village, Calif., and began his dance training at Retter's Academy of Dance when he was 8 years old. Swatosh has danced several soloist and principal roles since joining MCB as an apprentice in 2010 and his promotion to the corps de ballet in 2012.

Shimon Ito has also been promoted to soloist. His featured roles this past season included Puck in A Midsummer Night's Dream and lead roles in Year of the Rabbit, In The Upper Room and Bourrée Fantasque. He began his dance training at his mother's dance academy, Asako Ballet New York in New York City. He joined MCB's corps de ballet in 2011 after dancing for Ballet San Jose for two seasons.

Lauren Fadeley joins MCB as a soloist after nine seasons with Pennsylvania Ballet. Fadeley began her training in Orlando, Fla., at the Orlando Ballet School and the School of Performing Arts in Florida. She trained full time for a year at the School of American Ballet (SAB) before joining New York City Ballet's corps de ballet. After two years with NYCB, she left to attend Indiana University and graduated cum laude in May 2007 with a Bachelor of Science in Ballet Performance with an outside field in Kinesiology. After graduation, Fadeley joined the corps de ballet of PAB, was promoted to soloist in 2011 and to principal dancer in 2012. During her career with PAB, she originated many featured roles, and performed principal and featured roles in ballets by George Balanchine, Jerome Robbins, Christopher Wheeldon, Justin Peck and Trey McIntyre.

Amir Yogev, is rejoining MCB's corps de ballet, where he began his career. Born and raised in Kibbutz Tzuba, Israel, he began his ballet training at the Jerusalem Academy of Music and Dance and went on to train at SAB. He joined MCB's corps de ballet in 2006 and danced for three seasons before joining Pennsylvania Ballet in 2009, where he danced featured roles in much of the company's repertoire.

Alaina Andersen, 18, from Milwaukee, Wis., has joined the corps de ballet after two years as an apprentice with the Company. She came to MCB School in 2014 for the MCB Summer Intensive and was invited to stay for the year-round program. Andersen has performed with the Company in the corps de ballet in George Balanchine's The Nutcracker®, Bourrée Fantasque, Swan Lake and A Midsummer Night's Dream among others. In May she received the Toby Lerner Ansin Scholarship Award, given every year to one of MCB School's most promising dancers to help underwrite the cost of their training.

Finally, Luiz Silva, 20, from Barra Mansa, Brazil, also joins the corps de ballet after one year as an apprentice with the Company. He trained at Escola de dança Fundação Porto Real before coming to MCB School for the 2013 MCB Summer Intensive. He has performed in A Midsummer Night's Dream, George Balanchine's The Nutcracker® and Romeo and Juliet with the Company.

Dancers who departed the Company after the 2015-16 season are corps de ballet dancers Leigh-Ann Esty, Zoe Zien and Sarah McCahill, in addition to principals Jennifer Carlynn Kronenberg and Carlos Guerra.

Dancers' full bios are available at miamicityballet.org. The 2016-17 season opens this October with performances at MCB's home theaters in Miami, Fort Lauderdale, Naples and West Palm Beach. Subscription packages are on sale now at miamicityballet.org or call 305.929.7010, toll-free 877.929.7010.

Photo by Pavel Antonov

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