Sarah Lamb was born in Boston and trained with Madame Tatiana Nicolaevna Legat at the Boston Ballet School. She was awarded a Gold Medal by President Bill Clinton when she was named a Presidential Scholar in the Arts, and performed Sleeping Beauty Act III at the Kennedy Centre in 1998. Coached by Tatiana Nicolaevna, she went on to win silver medals at the International Ballet Competition in Nagoya, Japan 1999, and the USA IBC in 2002. She was awarded the highest medal at the NYC IBC in 2000. She joined Boston Ballet in 1998, becoming a principal dancer in 2003. In 2004 she joined the Royal Ballet as a first soloist and was promoted to principal after eighteen months.

She has danced all over the world in ballets created on her by Sir Wayne McGregor (Chroma, Limen, Raven Girl, Carbon Life, Multiverse, Tetractys, Woolf Works, Yugen and Beatrice in Dante). The role of Perdita in The Winter’s Tale was created on her by Christopher Wheeldon. She has performed all the major roles of the ballet repertoire, as well as the masterpieces of Sir Frederick Ashton and Sir Kenneth McMillan, her performances of Juliet, Manon and Mayerling were filmed.

She has performed at the World Ballet Festival in Tokyo in 2015, 2018 and 2024, and is known by audiences internationally. In 2023 she received the Positano Award for Best Female Dancer. In 2025 her twentieth anniversary with the Royal Ballet was celebrated onstage following her performance of Cinderella with Steven McRae. In August of 2025 she co-produced “Ballet Supreme” a collaboration between starts of the Paris Opera and Royal Ballet presented by Tokyo Ballet. She continues her career in London as well as a guest artist and teacher around the world. 

Ms Claresta started her training at Marlupi Dance Academy (MDA), she joined Beijing Dance Academy in 2008 with Li Chen Hua, at the same time she received a scholarship from Joffrey Ballet School and was also accepted to American Ballet Theatre Summer Session in the USA.

She began her professional career with Washington Ballet School and Art Ballet Theatre of Florida, under the direction of Kee Juan Han and also Vladimir Isaaev. During the time she has performed in many roles including Issaev's Harlequinade, Fairy Doll, Le Corsaire, Raymonda, Cinderella, The Nutcracker, Little Mermaid in Ballet, Shostakovich (3 Movements), Sleeping Beauty, Aladdin and Edgar Anindo's Fragmentos.

Ms Claresta has groomed many students to international recognition, including being the first Indonesian to be invited to Youth America Grand Prix (YAGP) and winning GOLD MEDAL at the YAGP New York Finals. Her students have not only won numerous awards in international competitions, but also received scholarships to the Royal Ballet School, The Australian Ballet School (full scholarship for the year programme), Princesse Grace Dance Academy, Houston Ballet, Dutch National Ballet, Universal Ballet, The Rock School, etc. 

Ms Claresta is also a well-known international ballet teacher, she has been invited to teach Master classes in the United States, Poland, Singapore, Hong Kong and Malaysia. Many students from all over the world also came and took classes with Ms Claresta and benefited greatly from her coaching.

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 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.
 

Corps de Ballet

MR JUSTIN D'AGOSTINO ARTIST

Born in Hong Kong, Leung Saulong trained at The Hong Kong Camy Academy of Dancing, completed the Gifted Young Dance Program under the directorship of The Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts (HKAPA) and received a Diploma in Performing Arts and a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from HKAPA. Leung joined Hong Kong Ballet as an Apprentice in 2015 and became a member of Corps de Ballet in 2019.

With Hong Kong Ballet, Leung has danced in John Meehan's Swan Lake, Terence Kohler’s The Nutcracker, Septime Webre and Charla Genn's Giselle, Anna-Marie Holmes' Le Corsaire, Nina Ananiashvili’s Don Quixote, Rudi van Dantzig’s Romeo and Juliet, Ronald Hynd's Coppélia, Septime Webre's ALICE (in wonderland) and The Great Gatsby and Pär Isberg’s Pinocchio.

Leung received gold awards at the Open Dance Contest in Hong Kong in 2009 and 2011.

Dawnie Kwok began her ballet training with Cheung Sau Fan, a former Hong Kong Ballet (HKB) dancer. After graduating from Hong Kong Baptist University with a Translation degree, she joined HKB's Education and Community Outreach Department in 2019 and currently serves as a HKB Classical Ballet Training Programme faculty member. In 2024, she was accredited as an Affiliate Teacher through The Royal Ballet School’s Affiliate Training And Assessment Programme. 

As a ballet student, Kwok performed with Teatro alla Scala Ballet in A Midsummer Night’s Dream. In 2015, she obtained Distinction in Royal Academy of Dance Advanced 2 Examination. That same year she became a semi-finalist at Genée International Ballet Competition in London and received the Darcey Bussell Genée Bursary.

Dong Ruixue graduated from Beijing Dance Academy and was a member of The National Ballet of China in 2006. She joined Hong Kong Ballet as a Corps de Ballet member in 2011 and was named Soloist in 2014. After she left the company, she became a ballet teacher in 2021. Currently, she is a faculty member of Hong Kong Ballet's Classical Ballet Training Programme. 

With HKB, Dong has danced principal and featured roles, including Juliet in Rudi van Dantzig’s Romeo and Juliet, Ballerina and Clara in Terence Kohler’s The Nutcracker, Dai Yu in Wang Xin Peng’s The Dream of Red Chamber, Princess Florine in Cynthia Harvey’s The Sleeping Beauty, Cinderella in Yuri Ng’s Ballet Classics for Children: Cinderella, Peasant Pas de Deux in John Meehan and Lin Mei-fang’s Giselle, Valencienne in Ronald Hynd’s The Merry Widow, Natalia Makarova’s Swan Lake, John Cranko’s Onegin, George Balanchine’s Jewels and Serenade, Wang Xixian’s The Red Detachment of Women, Zhang Yimou’s Raise the Red Lantern choreographed by Wang Xin Peng.

Lucas Michael Jerkander brings a distinguished pedigree in ballet, refined through formal training at the esteemed Royal Swedish Ballet School and over 16 years of principal role experience with prestigious national ballet companies worldwide, such as Slovenian National Ballet, Hong Kong Ballet and Finnish National Ballet.

His journey in dance has seen him grace the stage in principal roles across a repertoire of iconic ballets, including Don Quixote, Cinderella, Apollo, Lady of the Camellias, Serenade, Nutcracker, Romeo & Juliet, La Sylphide, Jekyll & Hyde, The Great Gatsby and Sleeping Beauty, each performance a testament to his artistry and dedication. Under the tutelage of esteemed directors and choreographers. Lucas has not only mastered classical ballet but also explored the realm of contemporary dance, winning accolades for his innovative variations and choreographic endeavours.

Returning to his beloved city of Hong Kong, Lucas is poised to impart his wealth of knowledge and expertise to aspiring dancers. His teaching delves beyond the mere steps, offering insights into the essence of ballet the meticulous preparation, the nuanced engagement of muscles and the journey towards mastery. His teaching philosophy resonates with his belief that ballet is a universal language, accessible to all who seek its beauty and grace.

With a deep-rooted conviction that dance transcends mere physicality, Lucas fosters an environment where students can explore their artistic potential while nurturing their physical and emotional well-being.

Lucas is a Polestar Pilates instructor and GYROTONIC®️ Apprentice at Sovereign Qi in Sai Yin Pun, where he helps address physical challenges and promote wellness.

Born in Hong Kong, China, Leung Sze Chai Cindy received several scholarships and graduated from The Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts with honours with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Dance. She joined Hong Kong Ballet as an Apprentice in 2018 and became a Corps de Ballet member in 2022.

Cheung Hiu Wah, Joyce majored in Ballet and graduated from The Hong Kong Academy of Performing Arts with a Bachelor of Fine Arts (Honors), where she was awarded a dance faculty scholarship. She has participated and won awards at various dance competitions such as the Hong Kong Challenge Cup Competition, the Hong Kong Open Dance Competition and the Hong Kong (Asia) Solo Dance Competition.
Additionally, Joyce has worked with renowned choreographers like Jonathan Watkins, Kinsun Chan and Raymond Chai.
An experienced ballet teacher of 10 years. She is a certified Royal Academy of Dance (RAD) teacher and American Ballet Theatre National Training Curriculum (ABTNTC) teacher.

Noel Pong, joined CCDC in 1997 after graduating from The Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts with first class honours in Modern Dance. She was promoted to Artist in Residence in 2019. She is a homegrown choreographer celebrated for combining elements of dance and drama. Her early choreographic works were staged in ‘Guangdong Modern Dance Festival’ and ‘Hong Kong Dance Festival’, and commissioned by ‘Jumping Frames International Dance Festival’ (later renamed ‘Jumping Frames – Hong Kong International Movement-image Festival’). Later, she staged over 15 original choreographic works in CCDC and was invited to Italy and Germany as a choreographer.

Pong is regarded as one of “Hong Kong’s most promising choreographers” by South China Morning Post (SCMP). Crime Scene was selected by SCMP as one of the “Best Dances” in 2009 and Off Screen received “Outstanding Choreography” at the Hong Kong Dance Awards in 2012. Happy Birthday? was selected as “Best Dance Show” in The Hecklers by HKELD.

Pong was invited by the TTTIFA Taipei to create and perform Bunk Bed in October 2024. 

Peggy Lam graduated from the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts, majoring in Modern Dance and Choreography. She worked as a full-time dancer with the
City Contemporary Dance Company (CCDC) for many years. Lam received the Outstanding Female Performer Award at the Hong Kong Dance Awards 2023 for
her performance in the company’s work “brown.”

She has participated in CCDC's Dance Training Scholarship Program and the youth dance groups "Young Sky" and 'WuDaoQingNian" and has presented several individual and collaborative choreographic works.

In addition to performance, choreography, and creation, Lam focuses on children's physical and mental development through dance-related training. She currently teaches dance classes for both children and adults and is one of the instructors for the CCDC Junior Dance Training Scholarship Program. Furthermore, Lam serves as the Manager of the Education and Outreach Department at CCDC, dedicated to promoting the development of dance education and training.

*By kind permission of City Contemporary Dance Company (CCDC)