Jenna Roberts

Roberts was born in Newcastle, New South Wales, and trained at the Marie Walton-Mahon Dance Academy in Newcastle, Australia, and the Royal Ballet Upper School.[1] Joining Birmingham Royal Ballet in 2003, she quickly rose through the company.[1] In 2006 she starred as Juliet for the "Ballet Hoo!" project, a collaboration between BRB, Channel 4, the charity Youth at Risk and local authorities.[2] She suffered a setback after a severe injury in 2007, returning to achieve a promotion to company principal at the end of the 2011–12 season. Roberts has been acclaimed as a masterful Balanchine interpreter, credited for combining ethereal elegance with outstanding stamina to craft leading roles.[1] After her younger sister Callie Roberts joined the company the two siblings performed together in works including Cinderella.[3]

Roberts has recently created roles in a number of short ballets, working with the contemporary American choreographer Jessica Lang in Lyric Pieces, and dancing as the Fairy in Michael Corder's Le Baiser de la fée.[1] In 2014 The Observer reported that an "incandescent Jenna Roberts steals the show" in Alexander Whitley's new ballet Kin.[4]