Aaron Anker
Principal
Aaron Anker
Principal
Aaron hails from northern Virginia where he began his ballet training at age 11, studying with renowned ballet teachers such as Violette Verdy, Suzanne Farrell, Jean-Pierre Bonnefoux, and Jacques Cesbron. He completed his training and simultaneously earned bachelor's degrees in Biology and Ballet at Indiana University.
Aaron was invited to join Philadelphia Ballet in 2015 and quickly began performing leading roles there including Basilio in Angel Corella's Don Quixote, Tybalt in Kenneth MacMillan's Romeo & Juliet, and Waltz boy in George Balanchine's Serenade. The formative years of Aaron's career were dominated by opportunities to perform diverse icons of ballet including work by Jerome Robbins, Alexander Ekman, Ben Stevenson, and Christopher Wheeldon.
Aaron joined Alberta Ballet as a soloist in 2021 and is thrilled to be entertaining audiences in his new home in Canada. He is particularly proud of his work as the title role in Jean Grand-Maître's PHI, and the reimagined title role in Annabelle Lopez Ochoa's Botero. Aaron was promoted to Principal Dancer in March 2024.
Alexandra Hughes
Principal
Alexandra Hughes
Principal
Alexandra is originally from Glens Falls, NY, USA. She trained at the North Carolina School of the Arts as well as the School of American Ballet and worked with Philadelphia Ballet (formerly Pennsylvania Ballet) as a soloist prior to joining Alberta Ballet.
She has performed many notable roles while in Philadelphia including Principal roles in George Balanchine’s Theme and Variations, Jewels, and Square Dance, William Forsythe’s Artifact Suite, and Jerome Robbins’ Fancy-Free.
While at Alberta Ballet, Alexandra has continued dancing featured roles in ballets such as Nicolo Fonte’s Rite of Spring, Helen Pickett’s Petal, Alyssa Pires’ Skyward, the Fly in Annabelle Lopez Ochoa’s Botero, and Gretel in Loughlan Prior’s Hansel and Gretel.
Throughout her career, Alexandra has also had the pleasure of dancing prominent roles in ballets choreographed by David Dawson, Nacho Duato, Alexander Eckman, Jiri Kylian, Sir Kenneth MacMillan, Cathy Marston, Trey McIntyre, Sir Wayne McGregor, Matthew Neenan, Justin Peck, Twyla Tharp, Christopher Wheeldon, and Yin Yue. Alexandra was promoted to Principal in March 2024.
Mariko Kondo
Principal
Mariko Kondo
Principal
Mariko is originally from Hiroshima, Japan, and received her ballet training at both the International Ballet Academy in Japan and Canada’s National Ballet School. Before joining Alberta Ballet, she had the opportunity to dance in Germany with Leipzig Ballet as well as with Opera Atelier in Toronto. Now in her Seventeeth season with us, Mariko has brought many wonderful roles to life on stage over the years, including Cio-Cio San in Stanton Welch’s Madame Butterfly, Giselle in Giselle, and Titania in Bruce Wells’ A Midsummer Night’s Dream.
Lang Ma
Principal
Lang Ma
Principal
Lang is from Harbin, China, and began his classical ballet training at The School of Liaoning Ballet at the age of nine. He continued his training at both the Goh Ballet Academy in Vancouver and the Washington School of Ballet before joining Columbia Classical Ballet Company in Washington, DC. During his eight years with Alberta Ballet, Lang has danced many wonderful roles, including Prince Desire in Christopher Anderson’s The Sleeping Beauty, Puck in Bruce Wells’ A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and Renfield in Ben Stevenson’s Dracula.
Luna Sasaki
Principal
Luna Sasaki
Principal
Luna is originally from Kanagawa, Japan, and is in her 12th season with Alberta Ballet. Luna began her ballet training at a local school in Japan. At the age of 16, she received a full scholarship to the Houston Ballet Academy and completed her training at Boston Ballet School as a trainee before joining Alberta Ballet in 2013. She has danced many soloist and principal roles while with the company and was promoted to Principal Dancer in 2023. Some of her favourite roles include the title role of Giselle, Juliet in Romeo & Juliet and Suzuki in Madame Butterfly. Her repertoire includes Sugar Plum Fairy and Klara in The Nutcracker, Cinderella and Spring Fairy in Cinderella, Princess Aurora, Princess Florine and Fairy of Joy in The Sleeping Beauty, Alice Liddle in Alice in Wonderland, Red Women and Pink Women in Jiří Kylián’s Forgotten Land, Cordelia in All of Us and more. She has enjoyed the opportunity to collaborate with many choreographers such as Jean Grand-Maître, Ben Stevenson, Stanton Welch, Cathy Marston, Anne Plamondon, Annabelle Lopez Ochoa, Helen Pickett, Wen Wei Wang, Yukichi Hattori, Garrett Smith, Christopher Anderson, Alysa Pires, Yin Yue, Nicolo Fonte, and Leiland Charles.
Caleb Durbin
Soloist
Caleb Durbin
Soloist
Caleb received his ballet training from the National College of Dance in his home city Newcastle, Australia. In 2013, he won the McDonald’s Ballet Scholarship, Australia’s largest ballet competition, and received the juror award at the Australian Institute of Classical Dance awards. In 2014, he moved to Texas to join Houston Ballet II. His highlights from this time include performing the principal couple in Allegro Brillante and Franz in Coppélia. In 2015, he joined Houston Ballet where he danced for seven years performing in many of the great classical ballets, his favourites being La Bayadère, Don Quixote and Romeo and Juliet. He was also featured in contemporary works such as Stanton Welch’s Powder and Aszure Barton’s Come In. Caleb has also completed his Bachelor’s degree from the University of Canberra.
Scotto Hamed-Ramos
Soloist
Scotto Hamed-Ramos
Soloist
Scotto was born in Akron, OH, and began dancing at age 4 at Nan Klinger’s Excellence in Dance. He continued his training at the Houston Ballet Academy and became a member of Houston Ballet II. He also trained at the Royal Ballet School in Covent Garden, where he earned the Royal Ballet Achievement Award for two consecutive years. In 2018, he joined Alberta Ballet. Scotto has performed notable roles, including the Bluebird in Sleeping Beauty, a soloist in George Balanchine’s Allegro Brillante, and the Bugle Boy in Paul Taylor’s Company B. He has had the pleasure of working with many choreographers, including Jean Grand-Maître, Nicolo Fonte, Helen Pickett, Alysa Pires, Loughlan Prior, Ernst Meisner, and Stanton Welch AM.
Allison Perhach
Soloist
Allison Perhach
Soloist
Hailing from Leesburg, Virginia, USA, Allison trained at The Loudoun School of Ballet and graduated from Indiana University’s Jacobs School of Music, before beginning her professional career as a member of BalletMet’s second company in Columbus, Ohio. Now in her seventh season with Alberta Ballet, her performances in Cathy Marston’s Moving, Still and Gretel in Hansel & Gretel by Loughlan Prior are some of her favorites.
Zara Bailey
Corps de Ballet
Zara Bailey
Corps de Ballet
Zara was born in Melbourne, Australia and began her full-time ballet training at The Victorian College of The Arts Secondary School. She was then accepted into The School of The Hamburg Ballet - John Neumeier, where she had the opportunity to perform with The Hamburg Ballet Company.
After completing her studies, she joined The Junior Company François Mauduit in Toulouse, France and toured alongside the company, before joining Alberta Ballet as a Corps de Ballet Artist in 2024.