Chisato Katsura

Japanese dancer Chisato Katsura is a First Artist of The Royal Ballet. She trained at The Royal Ballet School and graduated into the Company in 2015, promoted to First Artist 2019. 

Katsura was born in Osaka to Chinese parents. She began dancing aged four and went on to train with Zhu Mei Li. She joined The Royal Ballet School White Lodge in 2009 and entered the Upper School in 2012. Her awards include the 2012 Phyllis Bedells Bursary (Royal Academy of Dance) and first prize at the 2013 Young British Dancer of the Year. At the School she won first prize at the 2013 Lynn Seymour Award, the 2014 Director’s Award for the most promising student and the Dame Ninette de Valois Prize most outstanding female graduate. 

Katsura’s roles include Cat (Peter and the Wolf) and principal roles in extracts from Raymonda and La Bayadère at The Royal Ballet School annual matinees. Roles with the company include White Cat and Fairy of the Woodland Glade (The Sleeping Beauty), pas de six (Giselle), Huntress (Sylvia), pas d’action (La bayadère) and roles in Romeo and Juliet, Viscera, Liam Scarlett’s Symphonic Dances, Wayne McGregor’s Infra, Yugen and Inferno, Twyla Tharp’s Illustrated Farewell, and Symphony in C. She represented The Royal Ballet in the Erik Bruhn Competition in 2017.