ENSEMBLE LEADERSHIP

ARTISTIC DIRECTOR
FRANCESCO VENTRIGLIA

Francesco is an Italian former ballet dancer with Teatro alla Scala in Milan, a choreographer, and artistic director. In 2010 he was appointed as Europe's youngest artistic director, at the age of 32, by the Florence Opera House where he held the role of artistic director and principal choreographer for MaggioDanza until 2013. In 2014 he was named artistic director of Royal New Zealand Ballet. He held that appointment until June 2017. From January 2018 he was adjunct artistic director of the National Ballet of Uruguay.

MANAGING DIRECTOR
NEIL CHRISTOPHER

Neil Christopher has been working in the arts sector since 1994, first as an actor and then as an arts administrator. Having studied at the University of NSW with a major in Theatre, Film & Dance, he then worked for Sydney Theatre Company, the Sydney Opera House, and UNSW. He then migrated his live performance experience into production and administration, working as a freelance stage and production manager, and later in ticketing and operations with Sydney Theatre Company and the Sydney Opera House.

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FORMER ENSEMBLE FOR GRIMM

                              Ariella Casu

Born in the United States and raised in Italy, Ariella trained in both countries, including at Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater. She started her professional career as a soloist with Stadttheater Klagenfurt in Austria, after which she joined Staatstheater am Gärtnerplatz in Munich.

She has worked on productions by many leading choreographers including Alexander Ekman, William Forsythe and Edward Clug and participated in a project for Jo Strømgren Kompani in Oslo before moving to Sydney in 2018 to join Sydney Dance Company. For SDC she appeared in works by Melanie Lane, Gabrielle Nankivell, Prue Lang, Anthony Hamilton and Rafael Bonachela.
 
Most recently she took part in the creative process for Carmen, a contemporary version of Bizet’s opera filmed in Australia early this year. She performed and doubled as Carmen for Benjamin Millepied, making his directorial debut.
 
Ariella’s choreographic credits include Arise for the Sydney Dance Company ensemble.

                              Izzac Carroll

Izzac Carroll was born in New South Wales, Australia. At 14, he moved to Brisbane to pursue a career as a performing artist. Izzac completed the Sydney Dance Company Pre-Professional course.

Izzac began his professional career with Sydney Dance Company in 2016 working as a full time company member from 2017-2018, performing in repertory works such as Rafael Bonachela’s Anima and 2 One Another, Gabrielle Nankivell’s Wildebeest and Cheng Tsung-lung’s Full Moon.
 
Izzac moved to London and joined Company Wayne McGregor in 2019 and returned to Sydney 2021.

                             Victor Zarallo

Originally from Barcelona, Victor began studying classical ballet at the John Cranko School in Stuttgart before joining the Royal Ballet School in London, from which he graduated in 2008.
 
Victor joined Scottish Ballet in 2008 and was promoted to soloist in 2014. For Scottish Ballet Victor appeared in a wide variety of works including Cinderella, Swan Lake, Sleeping Beauty, Nutcracker, Romeo and Juliet, Song of the Earth, Rubies, Rite of Spring and Elite Syncopations.
 
Victor joined Sydney Dance Company in 2018 and performed in Rafael Bonachela’s 6 Breaths, ab [intra], Lux Tenebris and Frame of Mind and Melanie Lane’s WOOF, among others. He later expanded his role to become an in-house and virtual teacher, as well as training SDC’s Pre-Professional Year students. He is currently studying to become a Royal Academy of Dance registered teacher.

                         Brittany-jayde Duwner

Born in Newcastle, Australia, Brittany started ballet at the age of two at Newcastle Dance Academy under the direction of Tracy Ostermann and Roxanne Tagaroulias. She graduated in 2016 with a Certificate IV in Dance.
 
Brittany furthered her training at the New Zealand School of Dance under the direction of Garry Trinder. She graduated in 2019 with a Level 7 qualification in Dance Performance.
 
During her time at the New Zealand School of Dance Brittany danced in works by a wide range of choreographers including George Balanchine, Gerald Arpino and Helgi Tomasson. She toured with the school to perform Balanchine’s Tschaikovsky Pas de Deux and Loughlan Prior’s Curious Alchemy.
 
In her third year with the school Brittany traveled to Korea to take part in the Asian Dance Audition. From there she accepted a contract to join the Leipzig Ballet (Germany) under the direction of Mario Schroeder. Brittany returned to Sydney during 2020 when theatres closed in Europe.

                             Holly Doyle

Dance has been a part of Sydney-born Holly’s life for 25 years. After training with highly respected teachers including Joanne Williamson, Gilli O’Connell, Anton Bogdanovych and Matthew Trent, she joined Sydney Dance Company in 2013.
 
During her seven years with SDC Holly performed in many works by Rafael Bonachela including 6 Breaths, ab [intra], Lux Tenebris, Project Rameau and Frame of Mind. She also appeared in Alexander Ekman’s Cacti, Stephanie Lake’s Elektra, Jacopo Godani’s Raw Models, Gideon Obarzanek’s L’Chaim! and Andonis Foniadakis’s Parenthesis. She toured with SDC extensively nationally and internationally.
 
Holly choreographed out, damn spot! for SDC, and makes work for SDC’s Pre-Professional Year, the full-time dance training centre Ev & Bow and Brent Street. Holly also teaches class to company dancers at Bangarra Dance Theatre and SDC. Most recently Holly was dance rehearsal director for Carmen, Benjamin Millepied’s musical film based on Bizet’s opera, which was filmed in Australia.

                                 Alex Borg

Alex trained at Joanne Williamson Dance Academy in Sydney from 2007-2016 in contemporary dance, classical ballet, jazz and musical theatre, later graduating from the Newtown High School of Performing Arts.
 
Alex began full-time training with Sydney Dance Company’s Pre-Professional Year in 2017, receiving a Diploma in Dance Elite Performance. After further training he was awarded an Advanced Diploma in Dance Elite Performance in 2018. During his studies Alex had the opportunity to work with dance-makers including Rafael Bonachela, Lucas Jervies, Rani Luther, Kristina Chan and Dean Walsh and appear in their works.
 
In 2019 Alex joined SDC and toured nationally, appearing in Melanie Lane’s WOOF, Gabrielle Nankivell’s Neon Aether, Rafael Bonachela’s 6 Breaths, Gideon Obarzanek’s Us 50, Ariella Casu’s Arise and Josh Mu’s Zero.

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