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Press Release

Press Release

SAN FRANCISCO BALLET ANNOUNCES APPOINTMENT OF JULIAN MACKAY, PRINCIPAL DANCER

SAN FRANCISCO, CA, June 22, 2020—San Francisco Ballet and Artistic Director and Principal Choreographer Helgi Tomasson announce the appointment of Julian MacKay, 22, as Principal Dancer, joining the Company in the 2021 Season. A native of Montana, MacKay trained at the Bolshoi Ballet Academy and became the first American to complete both the upper and lower-level school. MacKay medaled in the Prix de Lausanne and won gold medals at the Istanbul International Ballet Competition and Youth American Grand Prix, also winning bronze at Young Ballet of the World (Sochi) and the Beijing International Ballet Competition.  At the age of 17, he made his professional debut as Siegfried in Swan Lake with the Russian State Ballet in Berlin, later joining The Royal Ballet as their 2016 Prix de Lausanne prize winner. Shortly after, upon personal invitation from Mikhail Messerer, MacKay joined the Mikhailovsky Theatre in St. Petersburg as a Second Soloist, later receiving a promotion to First Soloist.

MacKay is fluent in Russian and received his bachelor’s degree in Ballet Master Art and Choreography from GITIS University (Russian Institute of Theatre Arts) in Moscow, Russia.

MacKay’s full repertory and biography is available by request; please contact Kate McKinney, SF Ballet PR & Communications Manager, with inquiries at kmckinney@sfballet.org.

Photo: Julian MacKay © Nicholas MacKay