Sara Mearns was born in Columbia, South Carolina and at the age of 13 began training with Patricia McBride at the School of North Carolina Dance Theatre, in Charlotte. Ms. Mearns then entered the School of American Ballet (SAB), the official school of New York City Ballet, full time in the fall of 2001.In June of 2004, Ms. Mearns joined the Company as a member of the corps de ballet.In March of 2006 she was promoted to soloist and in June 2008, Ms. Mearns was promoted to principal dancer.

Stanislav was the winner of the 1st prize of the XII International Ballet Competition in Seoul (South Korea, 2019) and Grand Prix of the 1st International Ballet Festival UA (National Opera of Ukraine, 2021). He graduated from Kyiv State Choreographic School (2011) and worked at the Lviv National Academic Opera and Ballet Theater.  He was the first soloist in 2016 and became a principal dancer at the National Opera of Ukraine in 2018 until 2022. He then joined MCB as a Principal in 2022.

Gonzalez joined American Ballet Theatre Studio Company in September 2015, became an apprentice with the main Company in December 2016, and joined the corps de ballet in June 2017.  He was promoted to Soloist in March 2024. His repertoire with ABT includes the Lead Gypsy in Don Quixote, the peasant pas de deux in Giselle, Harlequin in Alexei Ratmansky’s Harlequinade, and Pedro and Juan Alejandrez in Like Water for Chocolate.

Yuri Kimura was born in Chiba prefecture. She trained under IZUMI Keiko, IZUMI Atsuko and MAKI Asami. After training as preparatory student for 2011-2012, she enrolled at the New National Theatre Ballet School in 2013. She participated in the 240th Aniversary of the Bolshoi Ballet Academy International Ballet School Festival and danced MAKI Asami’s Triptyque in Grand Kremlin Palace in 2013. She joined the National Ballet of Japan as Soloist in 2015. She won the 2017 Dance Critic Circle of Japan’s New Comer Award. She was promoted to First Soloist in 2019 and was subsequently promoted to Principal in 2022.

THE BALLET WORLD DIRECTORY