Houston Ballet is pleased to announce the addition of Skylar Campbell from The National Ballet of Canada as a Principal Dancer. Campbell will join the Company in January 2022, in time for the remaining 5 performances of the 2021-2022 season.
“We are thrilled to announce Skylar Campbell will join Houston Ballet’s 2021-2022 season as a Principal Dancer,” says Stanton Welch AM, Houston Ballet Artistic Director. “He joins us from the prestigious National Ballet of Canada, and we are excited to welcome him to Houston and begin this working relationship.”
A native of Laguna Beach, California, Campbell trained under Victor and Tatiana Kasatsky and David Allen in Orange County before joining The National Ballet of Canada as an RBC Apprentice in 2009. He was promoted to Principal Dancer in 2018. During his tenure at The National Ballet of Canada, Campbell created the title role in the world premiere of Will Tuckett’s Pinocchio and danced the title roles in John Neumeier’s Nijinsky and Guillaume Côté’s Le Petit Prince. His repertoire also includes principal roles such as Hilarion in Giselle, Gurn in La Sylphide, Mercutio and Benvolio in Romeo & Juliet, Peter/The Nutcracker in The Nutcracker, Alain in La Fille mal gardée, Jack/The Knave of Hearts and Lewis Carroll/The White Rabbit in Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, Florizel in The Winter’s Tale, Camille in The Merry Widow, Bluebird in The Sleeping Beauty, Puck in The Dream, Levin in Anna Karenina and Alan in A Streetcar Named Desire.
Campbell has worked with world-renowned choreographers including Christopher Wheeldon, Alexei Ratmansky, Justin Peck, John Neumeier, James Kudelka, Sir Peter Wright, Ronald Hynd, William Forsythe, Crystal Pite, Wayne McGregor, Alex Ekman, Kevin O’Day, Will Tuckett, David Allan, Guillaume Côté, Jiří Kylián and Robert Binet. He has danced featured roles in Etudes, Paquita, Petite Mort, The Vertiginous Thrill of Exactitude, The Second Detail, Chroma, Genus, Tarantella, Chaconne, A Month in the Country, The Concert, Piano Concerto #1, Symphony # 9, Spectre de la Rose, Hamlet, Night, Unearth, Orpheus Alive, The Dreamers Ever Leave You, Being and Nothingness and Frame by Frame. His repertoire also includes Swan Lake, Cinderella, Onegin, Manon, Don Quixote, The Seagull, The Four Seasons, Elite Syncopations, Theme and Variations, Paz de la Jolla, Allegro Brillante, Angels’ Atlas, Emergence and Cacti.
“I am humbled and honored to be joining the Houston Ballet as a Principal Dancer. I have always admired the Company with great passion and I’m very much looking forward to being a part of a phenomenal organization,” says Campbell. “After 12 years with The National Ballet of Canada, I am thrilled to be coming back to my home country to dance with such an inspirational group of artists.”
Campbell’s international accolades include the Bronze Medal in the Pas de Deux category at the Youth American Grand Prix in 2009 and Finalist in the Prix de Lausanne the same year. In 2011, he received the William Marrié Award for Dramatic Excellence for his role as Alain in La Fille mal gardée. He also won the MyTheatre Award for the Best Ballet Performance in Robert Binet’s Unearth and was recognized by Dance Magazine as one of the “Top 25 Dancers to Watch” in 2015.
Campbell is also the Director/Founder of the Skylar Campbell Dance Collective; a nonprofit organization aiming to unite and collaborate with artists from across North America.
To learn more about Houston Ballet’s 2021-2022 Company, please visit houstonballet.org.
Photo credits:
Skylar Campbell in John Neumeier’s Nijinsky. Photo by Bruce Zinger (2012). Courtesy of The National Ballet of Canada.
Skylar Campbell in rehearsal. Photo by Karolina Kuras (2019). Courtesy of The National Ballet of Canada.
Skylar Campbell in Alexei Ratmansky’s Romeo and Juliet. Photo by Karolina Kuras (2020). Courtesy of The National Ballet of Canada.
En Pointe with Houston Ballet 