In advance of next year’s season, Ballet West has announced promotions from within the main company as well as those moving up from Ballet West II and others who will be joining the second company.
David Huffmire will be a Principal Artist, joining Emily Adams, Katlyn Addison, Hadriel Diniz, Adrian Fry, Tyler Gum, Jenna Rae Herrera, Amy Potter, and Jordan Veit at the most upper rank.
Currently Corps Artists Lillian Casscells and Rylee Rogers will be Demi-Soloists.
And Ballet West II dancers Alexis Bull, Utah native Kai Casperson, Mikayla Gyfteas, Schuyler Lian, and Utah native Lexi McCloud have all been promoted to the main company as Corps Artists.
Ballet West Has Announced Promotions for Upcoming Season
David Huffmire
David Huffmire is from Reno, Nevada. He became a Ballet West Academy Trainee in 2014, and he joined Ballet West II in 2016. He was then promoted to the main company in 2018 and to Soloist in 2022. With Ballet West, David has danced the leading roles of Renfield in Ben Stevenson’s Dracula, Mercutio in Michael Smuin’s Romeo + Juliet, George Balanchine’s Tarantella, and Anton Dolin’s Variations For Four, among others.
“I am so proud of David and all his hard work,” says Sklute of Huffmire. “He has truly risen through every level of the company and this season it was undeniable that he was ready to take on the mantle of Principal Artist. I look forward to collaborating with him, as I do with all our Principals, in making great art.”
Lillian Casscells
Lillian Casscells was born in Houston, Texas where she began her training at The Houston Ballet Academy. She moved to Washington, D.C. and continued her training at the Washington School of Ballet under the direction of Kee Juan Han. Lillian finished her training in New York City at The School of American Ballet.
Upon graduation, Casscells accepted an apprenticeship at the SemperOper Ballet in Dresden, Germany. There she performed works by Sir Kenneth MacMillan, George Balanchine and Aaron Watkin. In 2017 Lillian joined Ballet West as a member of corps de ballet dancing in works by Frederick Ashton, John Cranko, Twyla Tharp, and others.
Rylee Rogers
Rylee Ann Rogers is from Orem, Utah where her ballet training began at the age of 3 with the Barlow Arts Conservatory and The Dance Club. She spent summers training with the School of American Ballet and went on to become a two-time recipient of the Grand Prix Award at the Youth America Grand Prix. Rogers has danced the role of Clara in Ballet West’s The Nutcracker and in the Radio City Christmas Spectacular.
Rogers joined Ballet West II in 2020 and was promoted to the main company in 2022. She has danced roles in Jerome Robbins’ Glass Pieces, Willam Christensen’s The Nutcracker, Michael Smuin’s Romeo + Juliet, Ben Stevenson’s Dracula, and others.
Ballet West II dancers Alexis Bull, Utah native Kai Casperson, Mikayla Gyfteas, Schuyler Lian, and Utah native Lexi McCloud have all been promoted to the main company as Corps Artists.
Also joining the main company are Taylor Fikes, who hails from Maryland and recently danced with the Romanian National Opera Ballet, along with former Cincinnati Ballet 2 dancer James Jobson-Larkin from New York City.
Joining Ballet West II, Ballet West’s pre-professional company, are Ballet West Academy alumni Callie Herbert, Tea Hinchley, and Adrian Fite, as well as Ava Gray-Bobbitt, Sophia Nanni, and Kazakhstani native Arif Toleugazin, who are new to the organization.
Ballet West Dancers Departing
Several dancers will be leaving Ballet West at the end of the 2023-2024 season including First-Soloist Chelsea Keefer, Soloist Brian Waldrep, Demi-Soloists Olivia Gusti and Kazlyn Nielsen, and Corp Artists Stella Birkinshaw and Beau Chesivoir.
Ballet West II Artists Luca Freudenberg, Philipp Mergener, and Kaeli Ware will also be moving on.
Featured Photo of Ballet West‘s Rylee Ann Rogers in Ulysses Dove’s Red Angels. Photo by Beau Pearson.
