Richmond Ballet Announces Professional Company

The addition of Brosky and Neal to the company roster brings the tally to 19 full company members and five apprentices – a total of 24 dancers for the professional company’s 25th Anniversary Season.

Originally from , Brosky studied at the American Ballet Theatre in their summer intensive and professional training school. In February, Dance Magazine featured Brosky in a story about auditions, which described the determination and perseverance that earned her an audition with Richmond Ballet Artistic Director Stoner Winslett and, ultimately, an apprenticeship with the company. This past season, Brosky perfectly augmented the company casts of Terra, part of the Studio 1 production, and Mozartiana, the Balanchine acquisition featured in Studio 3.

Neal, born and raised in , and earned a BFA in dance from New York In 2007-08, Neal added flair to the all-male piece presented in the Ballet’s inaugural New Works Festival, Chance Favors the Prepared Mind, and rounded out the rest of the To Familiar Spaces in Dream cast for Studio 2.

Both dancers appeared in A Rose for Miss Emily, the Agnes de Mille reconstruction the Ballet brought to the stage for Studio 2, as well as The Nutcracker and A Midsummer Night’s Dream. In addition to notable performances with the , the ease of their integration into the organization made their promotion to the company the logical next step.

Apprentices for the 2008-09 Season are Cody Beaton, Alex Buckner, Trevor Davis, Whitley Saffron and Julie Smith. Buckner returns for his second year as an apprentice; he came to Richmond Ballet from the Virginia School of the Arts in Lynchburg and spent one year as a trainee before moving up to apprentice last year. Both Beaton, who previously studied at the Austin Conservatory of the Arts, and Saffron, who was in the Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre graduate program before coming to Richmond, were promoted to apprentice status after one year as trainees in the School of Richmond Ballet. -- www.richmondballet.com