Company

Name: Jackson Calhoun

Company Position: Joined as an apprentice in 2024, Promoted to Company in 2025.

Joined Ballet RI: 2024

Hometown: Winston-Salem, NC

Training/Education: UNCSA Dance

Favorite Quote: “When I let go of what I am, I become what I might be.”

Favorite Role or Ballet & Why:
My favorite ballet is Ghost Dances by Christopher Bruce. The breath from the artists of folk group Inti-Illimani, fill the pipe flutes like the wind that blows through an abandoned house, eerie, yet a beautiful memorie of the life that once filled its walls. Telling the reality of normal people getting caught up in the violence of political oppression, Ghost Dances exposes the wicked underbelly of this world while reminding us just how precious life is.

Accomplishment you are most proud of: In 2023 I became a professional choreographer, it is always something I have done and deeply enjoyed.

Fun Fact about yourself: I love art, visual, musical and performative, it is the expression of the human soul that gets me right!

Follow Jackson on Instagram @jacksonbleu

 

 

Name:  Styles Dykes

Company Position:  Company Artist

Joined Ballet RI:  2024

Hometown: Rochester,NY

Training/Education: Odasz Dance Theatre 2018-2021, Tulsa Ballet Center for Dance Education 2021-2022

Favorite Role or Ballet & Why: Colas in La Fille Mal Gardee, it’s a role I’ve always wanted to dance and loved, I think it’s mostly for his charming and jaunty personality.

Accomplishment you are most proud of:  Dancing on stage in a Gala in Italy or getting my first professional contract after having only studied ballet for 3 years.

Fun Fact about yourself: I am left-handed!

Follow Styles on Instagram @styles_davine1

Hometown: Richmond, Virginia

Joined Ballet RI: 2025

Training/Education: School of Richmond Ballet

Favorite Quote: “Believe you can and you are halfway there” – Theodore Roosevelt

Favorite Ballet: Either Romeo and Juliet or Serenade. Romeo and Juliet, because of the story and I got to use a sword.

An accomplishment you’re most proud of: Performing Elegy in Serenade. Doing that role helped see a new light in not only my dancing but how I am as a person.

Fun fact about yourself: This is my first time ever moving out of my hometown.

Name: Jayden Towers

Company Position: Apprentice

Joined Ballet RI: Joined Ballet RI in 2023 as a Junior Apprentice. Promoted to Apprentice in 2024.

Hometown: Coral Springs, FL

Training/Education: Fort Lauderdale Youth Ballet, The Harid Conservatory, Alberta Ballet School, and Ellison Ballet

Favorite Quote: “The best preparation for tomorrow is doing your best today.” ~H. Jackson Brown Jr.

Favorite Role or Ballet & Why: My favorite, currently, is Swan Lake. Dancing in the corps was a challenge, but so fulfilling! I also loved performing  “Ode”; I felt fully immersed in the intensity of the piece every time.

Accomplishment you are most proud of: Graduating from Ellison Ballet at 18 and receiving my first professional contract with Ballet RI straight out of high school!

Fun Fact about yourself: My parents were professional ice skating partners and represented Great Britain in the World Championships!

Follow Jayden on Instagram @jayden.towers

Name:  Anjali Hern

Company Position:  Apprentice

Joined Ballet RI:  Joined Ballet RI in 2023 as a trainee. Promoted to Junior Apprentice in 2024. Promoted to Apprentice in 2025.

Hometown: Valencia, CA

Training/Education: Marat Daukayev School of Ballet, Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre Graduate Program

Favorite Quote:  “There is always a light, if only we’re brave enough to see it. If only we’re brave enough to be it.” – Amanda Gorman

Favorite Role or Ballet & Why:  I loved dancing Godmother Maidens in Yury Yanowsky’s Cinderella. The quick footwork and playful energy of the role challenged me to become a more dynamic dancer. I also enjoyed learning the Act 3 pas de deux from Don Quixote. I love any role that involves a bit of acting, so embodying Kitri’s spunk and sass was a lot of fun.

Accomplishment you are most proud of:  Signing my first contract with Ballet RI!

Fun Fact about yourself: I am half Cuban and speak some Spanish!

Follow Anjali on Instagram @anjalihern

 

Name:  Stephen Gunter

Company Position:  Company Artist

Joined Ballet RI:  Joined Ballet RI in 2023 as an Apprentice. Promoted to Company in 2024.

Hometown: Winston-Salem, NC

Training/Education: Stephen completed his undergraduate and high school training at UNCSA from 2016-2022 and received BFA in ballet performance and pedagogy. He also attended summer intensives at the Bolshoi Ballet Academy, Ellison Ballet and Pittsburgh Ballet Theater.

Favorite Quote: “Would you like an adventure now, or would you like to have your tea first?” ~Peter Pan

Favorite Role or Ballet & Why:

Stephen’s favorite role is Mercutio in Romeo and Juliet. He enjoys leaning into his goofy, lighthearted nature while helping portray such a strong story with gorgeous music that is always a hit with audiences. All the sword fighting doesn’t hurt either.

Accomplishment you are most proud of:  Performing in YAGP’s 20th Anniversairy International Dance School Festival, in the cast of Ilya Kozadayev’s Dream(s)pace.

Fun Fact about yourself:  Stephen has worked with the Board of the Angels Race, a nonprofit dedicated to empowering educators and students alike. They offer grants to elementary school teachers, scholarships for high school seniors, and support various youth programs within North Carolina and Virginia.

Follow Stephen on Instagram @sgunter_dance

 

 

 

Yanowsky won First Prize at the Prix de Lausanne and the Silver medal at the Varna and U.S. International Ballet Competitions. He trained with Carmen Delgado de Robles, Anatol Yanowsky, and the Ballet Nacional de Cuba.

Yury’s passion for choreography began early in his dancing career and over the past decade he has had the opportunity to showcase his work around the world. He has been commissioned to create new works for Boston Ballet, Boston Ballet 2, Bundes Jugend Ballet, Jacobs Pillow Gala, Atlanta Ballet, Tulsa Ballet, Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Kansas City Ballet, Portland Ballet, and Festival Ballet Providence. In 2015, he was awarded the Choreographic Prize at the prestigious Erik Bruhn Competition and his ballet Smoke and Mirrors for Boston Ballet was named “Best in Dance for 2016” by The Arts Fuse and hailed as a “visual and choreographic masterpiece”. In 2018 he founded Dance YaNOWsky, a small touring company dedicated to his vision. Yanowsky is focused on creating new works that are relevant and reflective of todays society, oftentimes using unique collaborations to enhance his works.
Yanowsky has served as Movement Consultant for American Repertory Theatre and as Movement Director for The Boston Lyric Opera. He is a frequent teacher at Boston Ballet, Boston Arts Academy, and Centro Coreographico Las Palmas de Gran Canaria. When not choreographing, Yury remains on the Dance Faculty at Harvard University.

@yuryyanowsky
Yuryyanowsky.com

Christopher Anderson trained as a student under the tutelage of Marika Besabrasova at the Academie de Danse de Princess Grace. He also trained at North Carolina School of the Arts and finished his training at San Francisco Ballet School, under the guidance of Richard Cammack and Anatole Vilzak. He joined San Francisco Ballet where he had an illustrious 16-year career as a Soloist, working with and performing works by William Forsythe, David Bintley, Jiri Kylian, George Balanchine, and Mark Morris to name a few. Christopher went on to dance as an International Guest Artist before finishing his dance career as a Principal Dancer with Alberta Ballet. After retiring, he continued his lifelong journey with ballet as a full-time faculty member of Boston Ballet School for 16 years, honing and developing his pedagogical skills before joining the Ballet RI team. At Ballet RI Christopher continues to share his passion for Ballet as an Artistic Coach, Director of SDI and as Principal of the Core Division of the School of Ballet RI.

Name:  Garret McNally 

Company Position:  Company Dancer 

Joined Ballet RI:  2023 

Hometown: New Orleans, LA

Training/Education: Studied for High School & Ballet at University of North Carolina School of the Arts/ studied and achieved a bachelor’s in history at the University of New Orleans 

Favorite Quote:  “Why be mediocre when you can be drop dead gorgeous” -Susan Jaffe 

Favorite Role or Ballet & Why: Favorite ballet is Romeo and Juliet. The tragedy of the Shakespeare’s story and Sergei Prokofiev’s sensational music composition makes for my favorite ballet out there! 

Accomplishment you are most proud of: Graduating from college with a bachelors! 

Fun Fact about yourself:   I was a background dancer in the Netflix original “Tall Girl 2” as well as TNT’s “Claws”

Follow Garret on instagram @gsmcnally 

 

Name:  Alexandria Melina Troianos

Company Position:  Company Dancer

Joined Ballet RI:  2023

Hometown: Pittsburgh, Pa

Training/Education: Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre School for 7 years and Elite Dance by Damian also for 7 years.

 Favorite Quote: “Everything happens for a reason.”

Favorite Role or Ballet & Why:  I loved every role I have performed. I can’t pick a favorite just yet.

Accomplishment you are most proud of:  Performing the role of Cinderella in Yury Yanowsky’s world premiere of Cinderella.

Fun Fact about yourself:  I started dancing in commercial dance competitions when I was 6 and at age 14 I decided to focus on ballet.

Follow Alexandria on Instagram @lexi_troianos