Boston Ballet artistic director Mikko Nissinen has announced the company’s 2025-26 roster, which will include a new artistic assistant director, Philip Neal, and two new principals, Madoka Sugai and WanTing Zhao. In all there will be 69 dancers in the main company and the second company, Boston Ballet II (BB2). Fourteen nationalities are represented on the roster; 33 percent of the dancers identify as BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and people of color). Boston Ballet continues to have a strong home base: BB2 alumni make up 43 percent of the company.
Neal was most recently artistic director of Next Generation Ballet in Tampa, Fla., but before that he spent 24 years with New York City Ballet, 17 of them as a principal, and he’s a repetiteur for both the George Balanchine Trust and the Jerome Robbins Rights Trust. He’s no stranger to the company, having been a guest stager on numerous occasions. Neal will be succeeding fellow NYCB alum Russell Kaiser, who joined Boston Ballet as assistant artistic director in 2009. Kaiser will leave after this year’s “Nutcracker” run, though he’ll be back as a guest rehearsal director for Robbins’s “Dances at a Gathering,” which will be part of the company’s “Spring Experience 2026” program.
Sugai, from Atsugi, Japan, joins from Hamburg Ballet. She had won the Prix de Lausanne in 2012 and had been with Hamburg Ballet for 11 years, dancing roles that included Kitri/Dulcinea in “Don Quixote” and the Woman in Apricot in “Dances at a Gathering.” Zhao, from Anshan, China, joined San Francisco Ballet in 2011 and was promoted to principal in 2019; she’s danced the Lilac Fairy in “The Sleeping Beauty” and been featured in Balanchine’s “The Four Temperaments” and “Rubies.”
Boston Ballet had previously announced the promotion of company artists SeokJoo Kim and Gearóid Solan to the rank of second soloist. Last season, Kim was featured in Lia Cirio’s “After” and Solan in Jorma Elo’s “Plan to B” and Balanchine’s “Mozartiana.” Boston Ballet II dancers Layla Porter, Kylie Dyson, and Sebastian Bondar have been promoted to the main company.
Also joining Boston Ballet are Francisco Schilereff (Coronel Suárez, Argentina) as a second soloist and Katie Cerny (Cary, N.C.) and Spencer Wetherington (Bridgeton, N.J.) as artists of the company. Schilereff arrives from Miami City Ballet, where he was a soloist. Cerny comes from Philadelphia Ballet II and last year competed in the Prix de Lausanne; Wetherington comes from Atlanta Ballet and was featured in a 2023 Pointe magazine article.
Seven of the 12 dancers on this year’s BB2 roster will be new. Joining from Boston Ballet’s Donna Egan Graduate Program is Zoe Cartier (Phoenix). Rounding out the list of arrivals are Ethan Collins (Auckland, New Zealand), Aubrey Daniels (Houston), Alberto Gil Vicente (Madrid), Bogyeong Kim (Gimhae City, South Korea), Louis Millard (Petoskey, Mich.), and Alexander Mockrish (Danderyd, Sweden).
Boston Ballet’s season will begin with “Jewels” (Nov. 6-16), continue with the company’s annual production of “The Nutcracker” (Nov. 28-Dec. 28), and conclude next year with “Winter Experience 2026” (March 5-15), “The Dream” (March 19-29), “Spring Experience 2026” (May 7-17), and “The Sleeping Beauty” (May 28-June 7).
Jeffrey Gantz can be reached at jeffreymgantz@gmail.com.