Effective July 1, Demi Soloist Alexis Francisco Valdes is promoted to Soloist, and Corps de Ballet members Jacey Gailliard, Leili Rackow, Rubén Cítores Nieto, and Lucas López are promoted to Demi Soloists. SF Ballet Apprentices Anna Chaziroglou, Amelia Soh, Logi Gudmundsson, and Logan Shaw have also been promoted to the corps de ballet. This season, audiences will see Principal Dancer Katherine Barkman in her first full year as a principal, effective in March 2026 after an onstage promotion following her performance as Kitri in Helgi Tomasson and Yuri Possokhov’s Don Quixote.

Joining SF Ballet’s corps de ballet is Christiana de Blank. Born and raised in Hong Kong, de Blank comes to SF Ballet as a former member of the Royal Swedish Ballet. She holds a gold medal from the Asian Grand Prix International Ballet Competition and was a semi-finalist in the 2018 Prix de Lausanne. De Blank received her training at the Royal Ballet School and the Dutch National Academy, where she was awarded a bachelor’s degree of Arts in Classical Ballet Performance and Teaching.

SF Ballet also welcomes a new cohort of apprentices: Julieta Castro, Carly Graham, Luna Mae Pao, Sawyer Jordan, Donghui Kim, and Raúl Noyola Morales. SF Ballet’s roster now includes 72 Company members, six apprentices, and six principal character dancers.