Opening Night

Isabella Boylston

Lil Buck

Adji Cissoko

Adji Cissoko was born and grew up in Munich, Germany, where she trained at the Ballet Academy Munich and graduated with a diploma in dance. Cissoko attended the Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis School at American Ballet Theatre in New York City on full scholarship before joining the National Ballet of Canada in 2010. In 2012, she was awarded the Patron Award of Merit by the Patrons’ Council Committee of The National Ballet of Canada. Cissoko joined LINES Ballet in 2014. Since then, she’s originated many central roles and guested for galas worldwide. Cissoko has given multiple master classes and taught classes around the world as part of the company’s outreach program. In 2020, she became certified in health/life coaching and ABT’s National Training Curriculum. Cissoko choreographed her first piece, “AZIZ,” for Ballet X in 2021. She is also a 2022 recipient of the Toulmin Fellowship and was the Artist-in-Residence for Vail Dance Festival in 2023. 

Youba Cissokho

Michelle Dorrance

Michelle Dorrance

Shuaib Elhassan

Shuaib Elhassan, from Manhattan’s Lower East Side, began his formal dance training at The Ailey School under the co-direction of Tracy Inman and Melanie Person on a full scholarship. Elhassan has also trained at intensives such as Earl Mosley’s Institute of the Arts, Jacob’s Pillow, and Complexions Contemporary Ballet. Elhassan was a member of Complexions Contemporary Ballet during their 2012–2013 season. Additionally, Elhassan has performed with Life Dance Company, Zest Collective, Dance Iquail, and the Von Howard Project. Elhassan joined LINES Ballet in 2014. 

Robbie Fairchild

ROBBIE FAIRCHILD made his Tony nominated Broadway debut in 2015 as Jerry Mulligan in the Tony Award-winning musical An American in Paris, which he reprised in London’s West End in 2017. He was awarded the Drama Desk, Outer Critics Circle, Theater World, National Dance and Astaire Award for this performance and was nominated for the Evening Standard and Drama League Awards. From 2009 to 2017, Fairchild performed as a Principal Dancer with the New York City Ballet. His other theater credits include Monster in Mary Shelly’s Frankenstein (Signature Theater, Chita Rivera Award), Harry Beaton in Brigadoon (New York City Center), Will Parker in Oklahoma! (Royal Albert Hall, London), Mike Costa in A Chorus Line(Hollywood Bowl), and Bill Calhoun in Kiss Me Kate (Roundabout Theater Company’s 2017 Gala). Television: Étoile (Prime Video), Soundtrack (Netflix), Mixtape (FOX Pilot), Julie’s Greenroom (Netflix), Oklahoma! (BBC Proms), Romeo in Romeo and Juliet and Carousel Boy in NY Philharmonic’s Carousel (PBS’s Live from Lincoln Center), Dancing With The Stars, The Late Show With Stephen Colbert, Live with Kelly and Michael, CBS Sunday Morning, and 60 Minutes. Film: Tom Hooper’s Cats, An American in Paris Live (West End Production), The Chaperone and NY Export: Opus Jazz. Represented by CAA. @robbiefairchild

Cameron Grant

Cameron Grant is recently retired after 37 years with the  New York City Ballet. As a solo pianist, he performed a vast repertoire for solo piano including the Bach Goldberg Variations, Pictures at an Exhibition, Dances at a Gathering, Polyphonia, In the Night, and numerous other solo premieres.  The concerti he has performed include works by Beethoven, Tchaikovsky, Hindemith, Dohnanyi, Prokofiev, Bartok, MacMillan, Ravel and Gershwin.  He  toured with the company across the globe in theaters in St Petersburg, Athens, Edinburgh, Paris, London, Parma, Taipei, Tokyo and Seoul and has appeared in festivals in New Hampshire, Vail and Nantucket. A renowned collaborative pianist, Cameron has worked and/or recorded with Joel Krosnick, Ronald Thomas, Hiroko Yakima, The Leonardo Trio with Erica Kiesewetter and Jonathan Spitz, and Zina Schiff, among others. Zina and Cameron have collaborated for 30 years and recorded 8 CDs together. He spent five years touring with James Winn as half of the Grant-Winn piano duo, a duo that took top honors at the Munich Competition. Cameron was also a member of the New York New Music Ensemble. In 2004, he won an Emmy Award as a soloist in the Live From Lincoln Center broadcast, “Balanchine at 100,” and was invited to perform at the Kennedy Center Honors with three other members of the New York City Ballet for President Bush.

Kayla Mak

Kayla Mak (she/her) grew up in Rye Brook, NY and studied at Westchester Dance Academy and Ballet Academy East. As a BFA student at The Juilliard School under the direction of Alicia Graf Mack and Mario Alberto Zambrano, she performed works by Justin Peck, Caili Quan, Sidra Bell, Shen Wei, and Jamar Roberts, amongst others. Kayla is also currently a member of ABT Studio Company under the direction of Sascha Radetsky and is performing works by George Balanchine, Jerome Robbins, Houston Thomas, Yannick Lebrun, Kevin McKenzie and more. Kayla participated in NBC’s World of Dance and has had other professional performance opportunities with choreographer Juliano Nunes in Switzerland and Mexico. Mak is incredibly grateful for all who have supported her along the way and looks forward to her future in dance.

Sara Mearns

SARA MEARNS, Columbia, SC, principal dancer New York City Ballet since 2008. Originated roles with choreographers Justin Peck, Kyle Abraham, Alexei Ratmansky, Pam Tanowitz, Bobbi Jene Smith, Christopher Wheeldon, Guillaume Cote, Beth Gill, among others. Guest Performer: Paul Taylor Dance Company, The Cunningham Centennial Celebration, Jodi Melnick Dance, Bill T Jones/Lee Ming Wei, and Wang Ramirez. At NYCC, she starred in Matthew Bourne’s The Red Shoes, Encores! I Married An Angel, and Twyla Now as well as multiple Fall for Dances, and performed Dances of Isadora Duncan at Lincoln Center. At The Joyce in 2022, Sara performed a full evening with five world premier pieces, titled “A piece of Work”, awarded the Bessie Award for outstanding performer in 2018, awarded the Dance Magazine Award in 2019, and an Honorary Doctorate University of South Carolina in 2019. 

Roman Mejia

Roman Mejia is a Principal Dancer with New York City Ballet. He was born in Fort Worth, Texas and began studying ballet at age 3 with his mother and father. At age 13, he entered the Mejia Ballet Academy. He attended summer courses at the School of American Ballet, NYCB’s official school, in 2014 and 2015, before entering SAB full-time for the 2015 winter term. In August 2017, he became an apprentice with NYCB and he joined the Company as a member of the corps de ballet in November 2017. He was promoted to Soloist in October 2021 and to Principal Dancer in February 2023. His repertory with NYCB includes featured roles in numerous ballets by George Balanchine, Jerome Robbins, Peter Martins, Justin Peck, Alexei Ratmansky, and Christopher Wheeldon, and he has also originated featured roles in ballets by Kyle Abraham, Silas Farley, Edwaard Liang, Peck, Ratmansky, and Gianna Reisen. 

Outside of NYCB, Mejia was the 2022 Vail Dance Festival Artist in Residence, and he has appeared in Twyla Tharp’s TWYLA NOW and with Tiler Peck at New York City Center and Sadler’s Wells in London.  

In 2019, Dance Magazine featured Mejia as one of their “25 To Watch,” and he was also the recipient of the Princess Grace Foundation-USA Dance Fellowship. In 2020, Mejia was a finalist for the Clive Barnes Award. 

Dario Natarelli

Dario Natarelli is a performer, choreographer, and dance educator specializing in tap dance based in New York City. He is honored to be a part of the Vail Dance family since 2016. Some of his credits include: Illinoise (Justin Peck), The Tap Dance Kid (New York City Center Encores!), Oliver! (Encores!), Tappin’ Thru Life (Off-Broadway), Ayodele Casel’s Artists At The Center (performer and co-choreographer with Michelle Dorrance), Assistant choreographer to Michelle Dorrance at Vail Dance, Maestro (Bradley Cooper and Justin Peck), The Kennedy Center (soloist, choreographer), Saturday Night Live, Amazon, national commercials, and more. He is grateful to his family, friends, and mentors for their unconditional love and support. Respect the dance; go in rhythm. @dario_natarelli

Tony Siqi Yun

The Canadian-born pianist Tony Siqi Yun, Gold Medalist at the inaugural China International Music Competition (2019) and recipient of the Rheingau Music Festival’s 2023 Lotto-Förderpreis, is rapidly establishing himself as a sought-after soloist and recitalist. Praised as a “poet of the keyboard” (Pianist Magazine), his performances have drawn acclaim for their thrilling artistry and “interpretive flashes that point to an emergent big personality: moments of grandness or deep expressivity” (The Philadelphia Inquirer).

Upcoming recital highlights include debut performances at Het Concertgebouw Amsterdam, Wigmore Hall London, Koerner Hall Toronto, the Ravinia Festival, and Davies Symphony Hall at the San Francisco Symphony. He will also return to the Vancouver Recital Society and Muziekcentrum Ghent in Belgium. Orchestral engagements feature his debut with the Louisville Orchestra under Robert Spano performing Rachmaninov’s Piano Concerto No. 3, and a return to the Orchestre Métropolitain with Glass Marcano playing Prokofiev’s Piano Concerto No. 3. Recent appearances include performances with the Nashville Symphony, Shanghai Symphony, and New Jersey Symphony, collaborating with conductors Giancarlo Guerrero, Daniel Harding, Jacek Kaspszyk, and Christoph König, among others.

In the 2023–24 season, Mr. Yun made his Carnegie Hall debut with the Orchestre Métropolitain under Yannick Nézet-Séguin, following his 2022–23 debut with The Philadelphia Orchestra. He has also appeared with the Toronto Symphony, Baltimore Symphony, Calgary Philharmonic, Buffalo Philharmonic, Hamilton Philharmonic, and Rhode Island Philharmonic. Past recital engagements in North America include Stanford Live, La Jolla Music Society, the Gilmore Rising Stars Series, 92nd Street Y (New York), the Vancouver Recital Society, and Friends of Chamber Music Denver. In Europe, he has performed at the Elbphilharmonie Hamburg, Gewandhaus Leipzig, Tonhalle Düsseldorf, Philharmonie Luxembourg, Muziekcentrum Ghent, among others.

Mr. Yun graduated from The Juilliard School in 2025 and will return as an Artist Diploma candidate. He is a recipient of the Jerome L. Greene Fellowship and studies with Professors Yoheved Kaplinsky and Matti Raekallio.

Melissa Toogood // Artist-In-Residence

Melissa Toogood has appeared on the Vail stage since 2015. She is a New York Dance and Performance Award (Bessie) winning, internationally recognized dancer and master teacher celebrated for her work most notably with the Merce Cunningham Dance Company, where she was one of the last dancers to work directly with Cunningham himself. A 2013 and 2015 Merce Cunningham Fellow and official stager for the Merce Cunningham Trust, Melissa has taught his technique worldwide since 2007 and continues to stage his work for renowned companies including the Stephen Petronio Company and the Washington Ballet. As a longtime dancer with choreographer Pam Tanowitz, she has served as Rehearsal Director and Artistic Associate for Tanowitz’s company, assisting on new works for major institutions such as The Australian Ballet, Martha Graham Dance Company, and The Royal Ballet. Melissa’s freelance career spans performances with leading artists including Tanowitz, Kyle Abraham, Kimberly Bartosik, Rosie Herrera Dance Theater, Sally Silvers, and the Petronio Company, alongside her own choreographic commissions for Boston Ballet, New York Theater Ballet, and the Vail Dance Festival. She teaches Cunningham Technique at Sydney Dance Company and continues to mentor the next generation of dancers. A prominent voice in the dance community, Melissa has lectured, written for publications like Dance Magazine, and appeared in several films and exhibitions, including the acclaimed Cunningham 3D film.

Joel Wenhardt

New York based Joel Wenhardt is a jazz pianist, and collaborator. While completing his studies at Juilliard (BM ‘18, MM ‘23) he has become a regular presence on the Jazz scene, as well an active participant in multi-medium productions. He has played or recorded with Paul Simon, Wynton Marsalis, Veronica Swift, Caroline Shaw, Claire Chase, and Brooklyn Rider as well as dancers from Juilliard, NYC Ballet, ABT, Alvin Ailey and more. Currently, he is Musical Directing at the McKittrick Hotel, where he can be found in the Manderley Bar leading The Nightingales. This will be Joel’s 4th time in Vail for the dance festival, and is grateful to call this community his artistic family.