Miyako’s last dance
Principal Guest Artist Miyako Yoshida retires after 25 years dancing.
The time has come to say our final goodbye to Principal Guest Artist Miyako Yoshida. She dances her last ever performance with The Royal Ballet today (29 June) – in Tokyo, the city where she first began her ballet training as a little girl. After 25 years dancing with The Royal Ballet companies, 15 of which she spent with The Royal Ballet, she is now hanging up her professional pointe shoes.
Miyako’s final moments onstage will be in Romeo and Juliet with Steven McRae at the Bunka Kaikan theatre in Tokyo as part of The Royal Ballet’s summer tour. MacMillan’s Juliet is a role she has performed many times both with The Royal Ballet and its sister company Birmingham Royal Ballet, where she was a principal before coming to Covent Garden.
“I have had a wonderful time in the great family of The Royal Ballet and I will take many precious memories and experiences with me. This feels like the perfect way to end my career with the Company, saying a final farewell in my home country of Japan. I’d like to thank all the people who have supported me and made my career so special; all the dancers, directors and support staff of the Royal Opera House, as well as the fans who have come to see me dance.”
Many ardent ballet fans have made the pilgrimage to see Miyako’s final curtain call after being so moved by her last performance on the Covent Garden main stage as Cinderella this April. She received a shower of flowers in April, flung by adoring fans, and will surely get a loving send-off in her homeland.
