Jenna Roberts is a retired Australian ballet dancer, formerly a principal dancer with Birmingham Royal Ballet (BRB)
Biography
editRoberts was born in Newcastle, New South Wales, and trained at the Marie Walton-Mahon Dance Academy in Newcastle, Australia, and the Royal Ballet Upper School.[1] Joining Birmingham Royal Ballet in 2003, she quickly rose through the company.[1] In 2006 she starred as Juliet for the "Ballet Hoo!" project, a collaboration between BRB, Channel 4, the charity Youth at Risk and local authorities.[2] She suffered a setback after a severe injury in 2007, returning to achieve a promotion to company principal at the end of the 2011–12 season. Roberts has been acclaimed as a masterful Balanchine interpreter, credited for combining ethereal elegance with outstanding stamina to craft leading roles.[1] After her younger sister Callie Roberts joined the company the two siblings performed together in works including Cinderella.[3]
Roberts has recently created roles in a number of short ballets, working with the contemporary American choreographer Jessica Lang in Lyric Pieces, and dancing as the Fairy in Michael Corder's Le Baiser de la fée.[1] In 2014 The Observer reported that an "incandescent Jenna Roberts steals the show" in Alexander Whitley's new ballet Kin.[4]
Having retired from dancing, she now teaches Pilates, and she and husband Joseph Caley relocated to Australia in 2022, where Caley has become a principal artist with The Australian Ballet[5]
General repertory
edit| Ballet | Role | Choreographer |
|---|---|---|
| Agon | Principal couple | George Balanchine |
| Allegri diversi | David Bintley | |
| Apollo | Terpsichore | George Balanchine |
| Beauty and the Beast | Belle | David Bintley |
| Checkmate | Ninette de Valois | |
| Cinderella | Summer | David Bintley |
| Concerto pas de deux | Kenneth MacMillan | |
| Coppélia | Swanilda's Friends and Prayer | Peter Wright |
| The Dance House | David Bintley | |
| Dante Sonata | Frederick Ashton | |
| Daphnis and Chloë | Chloë | Frederick Ashton |
| Dumbarton Oaks | Michael Kopisnki | |
| E=mc² | Mass | David Bintley |
| Elite Syncopations | Bethena Concert Waltz | Kenneth MacMillan |
| La Fille mal gardée | Lise's Friends | Frederick Ashton |
| Five Tangos | Hans van Manen | |
| The Four Seasons | Oliver Hindle | |
| Giselle | Harvest pas de deux | David Bintley |
| Hobson's Choice | Salvation Army | David Bintley |
| Kin | Alexander Whitley | |
| The Lady and the Fool | John Cranko | |
| Lyric Pieces | Jessica Lang | |
| Monotones II | Frederick Ashton | |
| The Nutcracker | Sugar Plum Fairy, Snow Fairy | Peter Wright |
| The Nutcracker Sweeties | Chinoiserie | David Bintley |
| The Orpheus Suite | David Bintley | |
| The Rite of Spring | Millicent Hodson and Kenneth Archer (reconstruction) | |
| Romeo and Juliet | Juliet | Kenneth MacMillan |
| Scènes de ballet | Frederick Ashton | |
| The Shakespeare Suite | Juliet | David Bintley |
| Solitaire | Girl | Kenneth MacMillan |
| The Sleeping Beauty | Princess Aurora | Peter Wright |
| The Sons of Horus | David Bintley | |
| Symphonic Variations | Frederick Ashton | |
| Symphony in Three Movements | George Balanchine | |
| The Two Pigeons | Frederick Ashton | |
| Western Symphony | First movement | George Balanchine |
References
edit- ^ a b c d "Jenna Roberts", Birmingham Royal Ballet, retrieved 29 October 2015
- ^ Turner, Susan. "Our teen dancers not half Bard!", Birmingham Mail, 29 September 2006.
- ^ "Ballerinas following in their sisters' footsteps", The Birmingham Post, 22 November 2012
- ^ "Birmingham Royal Ballet triple bill review", The Observer, 27 April 2014
- ^ Lambert, Catherine (2022-07-18). "The life-changing moments that brought two dance recruits to Australia". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 2022-11-17.