Rachael Hunt- International Artistic Manager of Intensive Courses at The Royal Ballet School

Rachael Hunt received her training at the esteemed Royal Ballet School. After graduating, she was invited to join the English National Ballet company, where she excelled in various roles spanning from corps de ballet to soloist and principal roles. She showcased her talents in a diverse repertoire, including iconic pieces such as Swan Lake, Sleeping Beauty, Giselle, Apollo, and Square Dance. Notably, Rachael had the privilege of having several pieces choreographed specifically for her, including works by renowned choreographers Robert North, Kim Brandstrup, and Mauro Bigonzetti.

Later, Wayne Eagling extended an invitation for Rachael to join the Dutch National Company, where she continued to showcase her versatility by performing works from choreographers such as William Forsythe, Christopher Bruce, Twyla Tharp, and Itzik Galili.

Transitioning from her successful dancing career, Rachael delved into the field of dance education. She pursued further training with the Royal Academy of Dance, earning distinction as a vocational teacher. Rachael gained international recognition as an esteemed educator, imparting her expertise to schools and companies worldwide.

Currently, Rachael serves as the International Artistic Manager at The Royal Ballet School, where she oversees auditions and intensive courses. Additionally, Rachael lends her expertise as an adjudicator for dance competitions on a global scale.

Deborah Hess is an internationally renowned ballet teacher and coach. A senior faculty member at Canada’s National Ballet School (NBS), she also leads NBS’ Student Exchange Program. 

A native New Yorker, Hess is a frequent guest teacher at companies and schools around the world and is a sought-after juror for major international ballet competitions.  

Hess began pursuing her passion for teaching as the Assistant to the Director at the San Francisco Ballet School, following a successful international performing career. She was fortunate to have danced a wide range of roles from Odette in Swan Lake to neo-classical works by choreographers such as Bronislava Nijinska and contemporary works by choreographers like Lar Lubovitch, to name a few. She performed throughout Europe, North America and South America with such luminaries as Rudolf Nureyev and Margot Fonteyn. 

Greatly influenced by her own teachers, Valentina Pereyaslavec, Kathleen Crofton, Asaf Messerer and Anna-Marie Holmes, Hess values most highly the artistic possibilities of dance and strives in her teaching to bring out the individuality of each student, highlighting musicality, generosity of spirit and dynamic range, while respecting the purity of form.

She is delighted that many of the dancers she has trained are now dancing so successfully on stages around the world.

Lynne Charles completed her training at Harkness House for Ballet Arts, the School of American Ballet and the American Ballet Theater School in New York City.

As the creator and teacher of 4pointe, a somatic and mindful method of working on pointe. Lynne has taught 4pointe at English National Ballet, Hamburg Ballet, Badisches Staats Theater, Ballet am Rhein Dusseldorf, Les Ballet des Monte Carlo, Royal Danish Ballet, Bundes Jugend Ballet Hamburg, San Francisco Ballet, as well as Royal Danish Ballet School, San Francisco Ballet School and Folkwang University of the Arts. She also works as a coach with professional dancers from around the world. Find out more at www.4-pointe.com

Lynne began her dancing career with American Ballet Theater 2nd Company and Geneva Ballet, before joining Hamburg Ballet in 1974. During her 12 years at the company, John Neumeier created multiple roles for her in his ballets The Legend of Arthur, The Sleeping Beauty, As You Like It, Petrushka, Giselle, Firebird, The Age of Anxiety and more. She also danced in Bejart Ballet Lausanne, the Ballet National Roland Petit de Marseille (Scheherazade (created for her), Coppelia, L’Arlesienne, Puss in Boots, The Devil in Love, Nutcracker) and as a guest with Birmingham Royal Ballet, Malmo Ballet in Sweden, Columbia City Ballet in the USA, and Aalto Ballet Essen (Germany).

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Danced as a Guest Artist with ENB between 1991-1995, performing lead roles in Natalia Makarova’s Swan Lake, Ben Stevenson’s Four Last Songs, George Balanchine’s Symphony in C, John Cranko’s Onegin and The Taming of the Shrew, Rudolf Nureyev’s Romeo & Juliet, and Harald Lander’s Etudes

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Lynne Charles has worked as a Ballet Mistress, Guest Ballet Mistress and Guest Teacher in companies around the world, including Hamburg Ballet, Ballett am Rhein Düsseldorf, San Francisco Ballet, Royal Danish Ballet, Les Ballet de Monte Carlo, Ballet Im Revier, National Ballet of China, Houston Ballet, Alonso King’s Lines Ballet, Royal Danish Ballet, and more.

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She has also created works for Finnish National Ballet, National Ballet of China, Slovenian National Ballet, Dortmund Ballet, Aalto Ballet Essen, Royal Danish Ballet School, Badische Staats Ballet and more.

Between 2014 and 2019, she was professor of Classical Ballet at the Folkwang University.

Cecilia started her professional career in the Gothenburg Ballet under the direction of Ulf Gadd, choreographer and dancer who reformed the modern dance theatre in Sweden. She stayed in the company in Gothenburg as a dancer for 18 years.  Performing a classical repertoire with modern creations. In 1994 the company moved more into the contemporary field. Under the direction of Robert North, Cecilia created many roles in his ballets and later when the company was directed by Anders Hellström new works by Jacopo Godani, Martino Muller and many more. 

Cecilia took on the role as Ballet Master for 2003-2014 working with choreographers such as Jirí Kylian, Izik Galili, Didy Veldman, Mats Ek, Javier de Frutos, Alexander Ekman, Tero Saarinen and others.

In later years she moved into producing and tour direction for the Göteborgsoperans Danskompani. 
Since 2017 Cecilia is the artistic director of The Royal Swedish Ballet School where she once graduated. A vocational education divided into two programmes, Classical Ballet and Contemporary Dance. 

Cecilia has since joining the school initiated an extensive international apprentice programme with Erasmus funding. 
The school is affiliated with The Royal Swedish Ballet and situated in the heart of Stockholm.
Partner school of the Prix de Lausanne.

Olivier Patey studied at the Ecole de Danse de l’Opéra national de Paris, then at the Royal Ballet School in London. 

At the age of sixteen he joined the Paris Opera Ballet and was soon given soloist roles. He has worked with George Balanchine, Jerome Robbins and Roland Petit, among others. In 1983, Olivier Patey was promoted to Premier Danseur and was chosen by Rudolf Nureyev to interpret Franz in Coppélia.

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In 2000, he became Deputy Artistic Director and Chief Ballet Master of the Staatstheater Braunschweig, and in 2013, he became Master of Opera Ballet Vlaanderen.

During his career as a dancer, Olivier Patey has shared the stage with the greatest stars: Rudolf Nureyev, Mikhail Baryshnikov, Vladimir Vasiliev, Ekaterina Maximova, Natalia Bessmertnova and Nina Ananiashvili of the Bolshoi, who recently invited him to Tbilisi to teach at the National Ballet of Georgia.

Olivier Patey has been a member of numerous international competition juries since 1995 (Moscow, Paris, Tokyo).

It is on his initiative that Pathé-Live provides live broadcasts of the Bolshoi ballets to more than a thousand cinemas around the world.

Simona Ferrazza followed her ballet education at the National Ballet Academy in Rome and graduated at the Royal Ballet School of London.

As a student, she often participated in several productions with the Birmingham Royal Ballet, before taking her first contract as a professional dancer with English National Ballet, where she entered as corps de ballet and was promoted to Demi Soloist.

After eight years with the English National Ballet Simona joined the Dutch National Ballet, where she extended her classical repertoire to the neo-classical and modern pieces that characterise this company, such as, Balanchine, Hans Van Manen, Ted Brandsen, David Dawson, Krzysztof Pastor.

After leaving the stage, she followed the Vaganova Course taught by pedagogue, Pieter Silkin and Grigori Tchitcherine. In 2012 Simona started teaching at the Dutch National Ballet Academy in Amsterdam, with the role of classical ballet teacher, for ballet class, pointe work, repertoire and stretching. Simona has taught as a guest teacher for several schools in Europe and represented the Dutch National Ballet Academy as a judge in multiple competitions.