ARTISTS

Ruaidhri Maguire is a choreographer and classical dancer from County Derry and County Cavan.

​

His choreography has been performed on stages across Ireland, the UK, Poland and Japan. Ruaidhri's choreographic practice has received support from the Arts Council of Northern Ireland, Galway Dance Project and Dance Ireland. 

As a dancer, Ruaidhri is currently the youngest male principal dancer at the Baltic Opera Ballet (Gdansk, Poland) where he has been part of the company since 2017. Highlighted roles include 'Albrecht' in Giselle, 'Espada' in Don Quixote and Lysander in A Midsummer Night's Dream.

​

Learn more about Ruaidhri here.

Amelia is a composer from County Down who creates music for dance, stage and concert hall. Her creative practice is centred on navigating potent political issues, juxtaposing folk and classical influences in her approach.

​

Amelia’s work has been performed across the UK and Ireland by performers including Crash Ensemble, Hard Rain SoloistEnsemble, the Royal Air Force and at Opera Holland Park, Kings Place, the South Bank Centre and Wigmore Hall. 

Amelia is the current Mendelssohn Scholar for her PhD at the Royal Northern College of Music. She has received support from the PRS Foundation, ACNI, Vaughan Williams Foundation and Hinrichsen Foundation. 

Hailed by Bernard Haitink for the “infectious joy in his conducting and music making”, Jonathan is in demand as both performer and music educator. He has conducted extensively internationally with recent collaborations as diverse as the Thailand Philharmonic Orchestra, Chineke! Youth Orchestra (London) and the Arad State Philharmonic Orchestra (Romania).

​

As founder and Music Director of the Cardiff Sinfonietta, Jonathan Mann oversaw the orchestra’s expansion over a 15 year period. The orchestra broadcast for the BBC and S4C and worked with soloists including Nicola Benedetti, Dame Evelyn Glennie, Benjamin Grosvenor, Sunwook Kim and Dennis O’Neill. At the start of 2020 the Cardiff Sinfonietta merged with the Welsh Sinfonia to form Ensemble Cambrica, an exciting new orchestra aimed at reaching the community in innovative ways.

Leigh Alderson is a ballet dancer, from Portadown, Northern Ireland.

​

Alderson trained at The Royal Ballet School, graduating in 2006. He joined Scottish Ballet dancing works by Ashley Page, Forsythe and Trisha Brown and Pastor and works by Richard Wherlock with New English Contemporary Ballet, later joining Atlantic Ballet Theatre of Canada and guesting with Cork City Ballet. With Les Grands Ballets Canadiens he performed in works by Stijn Celis, Stephan Thoss, The Snake in Didy Veldman's Petit Prince, Jiří Kylián's [Kaguyahime] and The Prince in Mats Ek's Sleeping Beauty.

Later touring With Matthew Bourne's New Adventures in the new Swan Lake, Leigh left to Join The Royal Ballet Fehervar dancing works by Ekman and Lucas Timulak before joining his current position as soloist in Ballett Theatre Nordhausen in Germany.

Danila is an Italian Scots ballet dancer currently working with Baltic Opera Ballet of Gdansk since 2020. Recent soloist roles include the title role in Cinderella, and 'Mercedes' in Don Quixote.

She trained at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland. During her graduate year, Danila toured with Scottish Ballet was selected as one of the top 5 ballet finalists in the televised national dance competition BBC Young Dancer 2019. Following her graduation, Danila has worked with Ballet Cymru, dancing the role of Juliet in an international tour of Romeo and Juliet.

​

Danila's work as a choreographer includes first place in the Annual Choreographic Competition at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, works for Ballet Cymru’s Pre-Professional programme, pieces for the Baltic Opera Ballet's Young Choreographers Evenings and a new work for the International Ballet Competition.

Conan is a Filmmaker, Theatre-maker and Video Artist. His work has been exhibited in cinemas, galleries, festivals, national theatres, broadcast on national television and held in the Arts Council Northern Ireland collection. Conan was nominated for the Best Video Design at The Irish Times Irish Theatre Awards 2022; he received the Visual Artists Ireland Experience Award 2022 with Vivienne Dick; and was British Council Filmmaker-in-Residence at Centre Culturel Irlandais Paris in 2022. Theatre credits include: I Fall Down (The Everyman Cork), Abomination: A DUP Opera (Queen Elizabeth Hall, Southbank Centre London / Theatre Royal, Brighton Festival), The Patient Gloria (The Everyman Cork / Black Box Galway / Project Arts Centre Dublin / St. Ann’s Warehouse NYC), babyGROOVE (Gate Theatre / Irish Tour). Conan received an Arts Council Ireland Theatre Bursary 2022 to expand his practice as a Theatre Director & Designer. His recent sell-out production Waiting For The Offo at The New Theatre Dublin marked his 50th design credit and 1st directing credit for the stage.

High Point Youth Ballet’s mission is to raise awareness of the need for more intensive pre-professional ballet training in Northern Ireland, and to advocate for the creation of a performing arts school which provides dancers with intensive ballet study and classes which they can attend without compromising academic achievement. 

​

Most recently, HPYB staged two special performances of Swan Lake at Theatre at the Mill in honour of the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee.

​

Learn more about HPYB here