Year Programme

Septime Webre is an internationally recognised ballet director, choreographer, educator and advocate. He joined Hong Kong Ballet as its Artistic Director in July 2017 after 17 years as Artistic Director of The Washington Ballet in Washington DC, US from 1999-2016. Previously he served as Artistic Director of the American Repertory Ballet, based in Princeton, New Jersey, US from 1993-1999. In addition, Webre has served as the Artistic Director of Halcyon, a Washington DC-based foundation, launching an annual international Festival for Creativity in Washington DC in June 2018.

During Webre’s tenure at The Washington Ballet, the institution’s budget grew by 500%, and it enjoyed unprecedented advances in the scope and quality of its work on stage, in the size and reach of its professional school and in the development of several far-reaching community engagement programmes that he founded. Webre also launched an array of artistic initiatives, including The American Experience, which developed great works of literature like The Great Gatsby and Hemingway’s The Sun Also Rises into full-length ballets.

As a choreographer, Webre’s works appear in the repertoires of ballet companies throughout North America, including Pacific Northwest Ballet, Les Grands Ballets Canadiens, Colorado Ballet, Ballet West, Atlanta Ballet, Cincinnati Ballet, Ballet Austin, Ballet Memphis, Milwaukee Ballet, Kansas City Ballet, Ballet Concierto de Puerto Rico, and many others, and he has worked frequently in theatre as well as opera. His new work for HKB, Romeo + Juliet, set in 1960s Hong Kong, will have its world premiere in June 2021. As a dancer, Webre was featured in solo and principal roles from the classical repertoire as well as in contemporary works by choreographers such as Twyla Tharp, Paul Taylor and Merce Cunningham. He has served on the board of Dance/USA and on the juries of a number of international ballet competitions, including those in Varna, Bulgaria, Istanbul, Cape Town, New York and Seoul. Webre's work has received numerous honors, grants and awards. He holds a degree in History/Pre-Law from the University of Texas at Austin and is the seventh son in a large, boisterous Cuban-American family.

Born in Mayaguez, Puerto Rico, Luis R. Torres was previously the Ballet Master with Les Ballets Jazz De Montréal. He graduated from Arizona State University with a degree in Interdisciplinary Studies in Dance and Psychology and completed a Master of Fine Arts from George Mason University. Torres has enjoyed an extensive dance career with Ballet Arizona, Ballet Theatre of Maryland and The Washington Ballet, where he performed as a Soloist and Principal Dancer. Torres created roles in many works by world renowned choreographers and has held the positions of Ballet Master at Chamber Dance Project, The Washington Ballet’s Studio Company and Trainee Program, Adjunct Professor at George Mason University and Repetiteur for Annabelle Lopez Ochoa and Septime Webre as well as Guest Teacher/Choreographer.

Born in Hunan, China, Xuan Cheng trained at Guangzhou Arts School and Xinghai Conservatory of Music. She joined Guangzhou Ballet in 2000 and later become a Principal Dancer. She was invited to join La La La Human Steps, Canadian contemporary dance company, and later danced with Les Grands Ballet Canadiens and Oregon Ballet Theatre before joining Hong Kong Ballet (HKB) in 2022 as a Principal Dancer and Ballet Mistress.

Cheng’s notable principal roles include Odette/Odile in Christopher Stowell’s and Kevin Irving’s Swan Lake, and she was the first Chinese dancer to perform the role of Teresina in August Bournonville’s full-length Napoli. Additionally, she has performed almost all the lead roles in classical ballets like La Sylphide, The Sleeping Beauty, The Nutcracker, Giselle, Cinderella, Don Quixote, Romeo and Juliet, La Bayadere and ALICE (in wonderland) and has danced leading and original roles created by world class choreographers, including George Balanchine, William Forsythe, Nacho Duato, Jiří Kylián, Édouard Lock, Nicolo Fonte, Trey McIntyre and Val Caniparoli. With HKB, Cheng has danced the principal role of Nikiya in Vladimir Malakhov’s La Bayadere, Juliet in Webre’s Romeo + Juliet, the leading role in Webre’s Carmina Burana and HKB Presents American Ballet Theatre Studio Company Ballet Superstars of The Future. With La La La Human Steps, she toured 20 countries across Europe, Asia and North America. Cheng also guest performed with Barak Ballet and HKB and in the International Ballet Gala IX with Ballett Dortmund in 2009.

Her accolades include being the silver medalist in the 3^rd Shanghai International Ballet Competition in 2004, the finalist in the 8^th New York International Ballet Competition in 2005 and the gold medalist in the 2006 Taoli Cup Dance Competition. 

Cheng is a guest faculty member of Guangzhou Arts School and the School of Oregon Ballet Theatre. In 2015, she co-founded Oregon International Ballet Academy with her husband Ye Li and served as the Artistic Director, overseeing ballet education programmes and full-length productions.

A former coryphée of Hong Kong Ballet who has performed numerous lead roles, Irene Lo has been working closely with HKB for over a decade. Currently, she is the Associate Director of Training for HKB’s Classical Ballet Training Programme and the part-time faculty member at The Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts (HKAPA). In 2022, she obtained her Master of Fine Arts in Dance with distinction at HKAPA with a full scholarship from the Hong Kong Jockey Club Music and Dance Fund.

During 2021-2023, Lo was a Rehearsal Mistress for the children who danced in HKB’s Peter Pan, Cinderella, ALICE (in wonderland) and The Nutcracker. In 2018, she was a project coordinator for Scottish Ballet’s Hansel & Gretel. As a certified yoga and aerial yoga instructor, Lo also teaches ballet and yoga at City Contemporary Dance Company and Hong Kong Dance Company. In the past decade, she has been a guest teacher in Cape Town, Johannesburg, Malaysia, Indonesia and Macau.

Her choreographic work includes the TV ad of a Cheung Kong/ Sun Hung Kai Property Grand Jeté, Hello Hong Kong with Hong Kong Tourism Board featuring celebrities Aaron Kwok, Kelly Chan and Sammi Cheng, True Light College’s 150^th anniversary musical and Three As One Theatre’s drama No Name.

Lo’s accolades include ‘Most Promising Dancer’ from Friends of Hong Kong Ballet and ‘Outstanding Performance of the Year’ from Hong Kong Dance Alliance. Additionally, Lo was Chief Executive Manager of the Asian Grand Prix (AGP) in 2013-2015 and served as a jury member in the Manila, Malaysia, AGP, Canaan International Competitions and Dance World Cup.

Lynn Liang was a former member of the Corps de Ballet of Hong Kong Ballet. She received her training at Shenzhen Arts School and The Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts, where she earned a full scholarship.  She became a ballet teacher since 2019 and currently serves as a faculty teacher of Hong Kong Academy of  Ballet, in addition to being a certified Classical Pilaties instructor. This year, she was accredited as an Affiliate Teacher through The Royal Ballet School’s Affiliate Training And Assessment Programme.

Over the course of her training, Liang has won several awards, including silver prizes
in the Junior Group at the Asian Grand Prix in 2011 and at the Japan International Tsukuba
Ballet Competition in 2010. She also won third prize in performance and the Excellent
Performance Prize at Taoli Cup Dance Competition in 2009.

Wu Di was a former member of the Corps de Ballet of Hong Kong Ballet. He received his training at Shanghai Dance School, Houston Ballet’s Ben Stevenson Academy on full scholarship and Royal Swedish Ballet School, where he graduated in 2015. 
With HKB, Wu has danced the featured role of Italian Doll in Terence Kohler’s The Nutcracker and performed in John Meehan's Swan Lake, Nina Ananiashvili’s Don Quixote, Anna-Marie Holmes’ Le Corsaire, Rudi van Dantzig’s Romeo and Juliet, Ronald Hynd's Coppélia and Alexei Ratmansky’s Le Carnaval des Animaux . 
He won second prize in the Senior Division of The Nordic Baltic Ballet Competition in 2015 and received an Outstanding Performance Award in the Junior Division at the Taoli Cup Dance Competition in 2012.