CLASSICAL JUDGES

Educated at The Royal Ballet School’s Upper School, on graduating, Iain Mackay joined Birmingham Royal Ballet, under the direction of Sir David Bintley, where he rose rapidly through the ranks and was promoted to Principal in 2003. He danced with Corella Ballet Spain from 2007 to 2009 before returning to Birmingham Royal Ballet to dance until his retirement in 2017.

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Throughout his career, Iain performed leading roles in a vast range of company repertoire, from heritage classical to modern work. He worked with an extensive list of leading international choreographers, including David Bintley, Christopher Wheeldon, Kim Brandstrup, Angel Corella, Jessica Lang, Natalia Makarova, Nahid Siddiqui and Stanton Welch. He also performed as an international guest artist throughout his career. Alongside this, Iain taught company class, led rehearsals and individually coached dancers for performance.

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After retiring from performing, Iain was Director of the Yorkshire Ballet Seminars, working to expand the charity’s work and steering them through COVID-19. He was appointed The Royal Ballet School’s International Artistic Manager in November 2021, responsible for all international courses and auditions, building partnerships and developing the School’s reach as a globally renowned centre of excellence. He served as a Governor of The Royal Ballet Companies from 2019 – 2021.

Marek Rozycki trained at the State Ballet School in Poznań, Poland and began his career with the Polish Dance Theater During a tour to Italy with the Company, Mr. Rozycki received an invitation from Reinhild Hoffmann to work with the Bremer Dance Theatre. He performed wtih Deutsche Oper Berlin Ballet and the Berlin State Opera (Staatsoper Berlin) where he later became Company Ballet Master and Choreographer. Mr. Rozycki then became a Principal Ballet Master and assistant Choreographer to Peter Schaufuss and his dance company, while choreographing and teaching ballet all over Europe and obtaining his Dance Teacher Diploma at the Centre National de la Danse in Paris. He then became a Guest Ballet Master and Professor for classical dance at the Conservatoire National de Région in Strasbourg. Presently, Mr. Rozycki is Deputy Artistic Director with the National Ballet School Berlin, Germany, and acts as judge on several panels of international dance competitions.

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.

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.

Davit is an acclaimed performer and dance educator, and was appointed Director of School of Philadelphia Ballet beginning with our 2022/2023 season. He previously served as Co-Artistic Director of the Pennsylvania Ballet Academy for five years, preceded by over a decade as a principal dancer with San Francisco Ballet.

Born in Yerevan, Armenia, Karapetyan received his training at the Armenian School of Ballet and the Schweizerische Ballettberufsschule in Zurich, Switzerland. His extensive experience includes 12 years as a principal dancer with the San Francisco Ballet, and six as a soloist with the Zurich Ballet. Karapetyan served on the jury for Prix de Lausanne in 2018, and has been a guest teacher with San Francisco Ballet, Boston Ballet, Philadelphia Ballet and more.

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Davit has performed principal roles in Helgi Tomasson’s 2004 Nutcracker (Nutcracker Prince and King of Snow), Christopher Wheeldon’s Cinderella (Prince Gillaume), John Cranko’s Onegin (Onegin), among others, and created principal roles in Helgi Tomasson’s On a Theme of Paganini, Caprice, and On Common Ground.

Giuseppe Canale is currently the Artistic Director of GCDANCEVENTS and a former international dancer. He began his training in Italy at ArtGarage under Emma Cianchi and later pursued advanced studies at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater in Munich and the Palucca Hochschule für Tanz in Dresden. Professionally, Canale has danced with several world-renowned ballet companies, including: Les Grands Ballets Canadiens de Montréal (Canada) West Australian Ballet (Perth, Australia) Sofia Opera and Ballet (Sofia, Bulgaria) Israel Ballet (Tel Aviv, Israel) National Moravian-Silesian Theatre (Ostrava, Czech Republic) Throughout his career, he has collaborated with internationally acclaimed choreographers such as Jiří Kylián, Mauro Bigonzetti, and Marcia Haydée. In 2019, he founded GCDANCEVENTS, an international dance agency dedicated to guiding dancers through the audition process and securing professional opportunities worldwide.

The agency represents prominent choreographers such as Garrett Smith and Ken Ossola, promoting their creations globally, as well as acclaimed principal dancers for international opportunities. The agency also organizes audition events, galas, and artistic interventions during major festivals in Italy, Japan, Korea, Argentina, Canada, and the Philippines. As Artistic Director of GCDANCEVENTS, Canale works closely with prestigious academies and companies worldwide, serving as an international recruiter to identify and promote talented dancers for study and employment opportunities.