Mime in Motion

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DATE: Wednesday  21st October 2026

TIME: 7.00 - 9pm 🇬🇧

VENUE :  Royal Ballet Upper School, 46 Floral St, London WC2E 9DA

HOSTS : Julie Bowers & Alex Harrison

TICKETS: £20 Open to All

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We are delighted to invite you to MIME IN MOTION, a  special collaboration between the London Ballet Circle and GradPro. The event celebrates the expressive art of mime, exploring its place within the traditions of classical ballet while looking towards its future.

GradPro is an initiative created by former Royal Ballet dancer Julie Bowers and current Ballet Zurich principal dancer Brandon Lawrence, aimed at providing coaching, mentorship, performance opportunities and career development to young dancers as they make the transition from vocational training to professional life.

Rooted in classical ballet, mime has long been a vital part of storytelling, conveying character, emotion and relationships on stage. This event brings together young dancers with experienced former and current artists to explore the importance of mime and its relevance to the future of dance.

Audience members will experience the passing down of knowledge and understanding from one generation to the next as GradPro dancers are coached in mime excerpts from Swan Lake and The Sleeping Beauty, by revered artists Zenaida Yanowsky, Ivan Putrov, Daria Stanciulescu and Alex Harrison

Alongside this, choreographer Daniel Davidson will share a new work created with the GradPro dancers inspired by the gestures and expressive movements found in mime. This fresh perspective demonstrates that mime is a living, breathing art form with relevance to contemporary dancers and dance makers, rather than simply an historical element of ballet’s past. 

Mime in Motion is an exciting opportunity to discover more about the storytelling capabilities of ballet, honouring its past while inspiring its future.”

We do hope you will join us.

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Zenaida Yanowsky

Spanish dancer Zenaida Yanowsky was born in France, and trained with Carmen Robles and Anatol Yanowsky at Centro Choreografico in Gran Canaria. After being a finalist in Pix de Lausanne and winning a Silver medal at Varna in 1991 she joined Paris Opera Ballet and moved to the The Royal Ballet as a First Artist in 1994 and was promoted to Principal in 2001. 

Her  numerous principal roles included: Odette/Odile (Swan Lake), Sylvia, Sugar Plum Fairy (Nutcracker),Marguerite (Marguerite and Armand) , Manon, Natalia Petrovna (A Month in the Country) and Principal roles in Balanchine ballets and Robins. 

She has worked and created roles for numerous choreographers including  Will Tuckett, Christopher Wheeldon, Christopher Bruce, Liam Scarlett, Kim Brandstrup, Ashley Page, Mats Ek, Jiri Kylian, William Forsyth, Twyla Tharp, Wayne McGregor, Nacho Duato, Flemming Flindt, Jonathan Watkins, Ed Liang, Yury Yanowsky , Alexei Ratmansky, Siobhan Davies, Glen Tetley and Cathy Marston amongst others.

In 2012, she won the Spanish Nacional Cultural Award for contribution to Dance.

She has won Best Female Dancer (2003), Outstanding Female Performance for her role of Elizabeth (2016) and Grishko Award Best Female Dancer (2017) at the National Dance Awards Critics Circle and was  nominated for an Olivier Award in 2017. She retired from the stage in 2018.

In 2021 Zenaida was selected to be part of the National Portrait Gallery exhibit, portraying Women of Influence.

She now teaches and coaches in numerous International Dance Companies and is a senior guest coach with The Royal Ballet. She actively engages in the new generation of dancers by, being a speaker with organisations like DCD. She has also been personally involved in outreach, learning and participation, and disability programs under the umbrella of both, Sadlers Wells and ROH. In 2021 she was appointed Guest Artistic Coach for the Royal Ballet School and at the trainee program at ENBS

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Ivan Putrov 

Born in Kyiv, Ukraine to a ballet family, Ivan trained at The Kyiv State Choreographic Institute and at The Royal Ballet School, London. Upon graduation Sir Anthony Dowell invited him to join The Royal Ballet, where Ivan became a Principal dancer after three seasons.

His repertoire includes Principal roles in all the classics and ballets by Ashton, MacMillan, Balanchine, Nijinsky, Tetley, Cranko, Robbins, De Valois, Goleizovsky, McGregor, Forsythe, Kylián, Maliphant, Bourne, De Frutos, Petit and Duato. International appearances include leading roles with the National Ballet Companies of Cuba, Hungary, Ukraine, Lithuania, England, Mexico, Georgia, Vienna Staatsoper and Asami Maki Ballet Theatre.

Ivan has been appointed an Honorary Artist of Ukraine. Awards include Premier Prix at the Prix de Lausanne, Gold Medal at the Serge Lifar International Ballet Competition (Kyiv), Gold Medal at the Nijinsky Festival (Kyiv), Critics’ Circle National Dance Award (UK), Medal for Work and Achievement from the President of Ukraine and Order of Merit III Class.

He has collaborated with Mario Testino, Johnnie Shand-Kidd, Philip Haas, Nick Knight, Gary Hume, Sam Taylor-Johnson, Philip Treacy and the Pet Shop Boys on photographic, film and other creative projects.

The Pet Shop Boys composed The Most Incredible Thing for him which was first performed at Sadler’s Wells in 2011 and was broadcast by the BBC. A year later, Ivan conceived and produced Men in Motion, an exploration of the changing role of the male dancer over the last century. It premiered at Sadler’s Wells Theatre and has had many successful seasons in London as well as in Italy, Russia, Poland and Ukraine. His 2019 production Against the Stream was dedicated to those masters of ballet who were the change-makers and was presented at the London Coliseum to great critical acclaim.

In 2021 he produced the Ukrainian Ballet Gala celebrating the 30-year Independence anniversary of Ukraine by bringing Ukrainian dancers to partner stars of the London ballet scene, putting a spotlight on the tradition of ballet in Ukraine. In March 2022 he co-directed with Alina Cojocaru and produced Dance for Ukraine at the London Coliseum, raising over £160k for Disasters Emergency Committee, Ukraine Appeal.

Ivan produced Dance for Ukraine again in 2024, raising funds in aid of culture in Ukraine, in particular by financing and producing a world heritage ballet, La Fille mal gardée, by Sir Frederick Ashton for the National Ballet of Ukraine. The funds raised also supported dance students in Ukraine with over £166,000 worth of dance wear and pointe shoes, to assist them in continuing their studies during the war.

During his time at the School, he was awarded the April Olrich Award for Dynamic Performance, the Gailene Stock Award for Exceptional Progress and the London Ballet Circle Dame Ninette Award for Most Outstanding Male Graduate. He graduated from The Royal Ballet School in 2023 after eight years of full-time training.  

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DANIEL DAVIDSON

Daniel was born in Edinburgh, Scotland.

He joined Scottish Ballet in 2005 where he performed works by renowned choreographers including Richard Alston, George Balanchine, Matthew Bourne, Trisha Brown, Christopher Bruce, Jorma Elo, William Forsythe, Christopher Hampson, Kenneth MacMillan, Hans van Manen, Annabelle Lopez Ochoa, Ashley Page, Krzysztof Pastor, Stephen Petronio & Twyla Tharp.

From 2014-2022, Daniel danced with Rambert and performed in works by Christopher Bruce, Kim Brandstrup, Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui, Merce Cunningham, Ben Duke, Sharon Eyal, Andonis Foniadakis, Hofesh Shechter, Wayne McGregor, Imre & Marne van Opstal, Jo Strømgren, Marion Motin, Shobana Jeyasingh, Didy Veldman, Wim Vandekeybus & Alexander Whitley amongst others.

Daniel now works as a freelance artist and choreographer. His choreographic work includes pieces for Ballet Jersey, Scottish Ballet’s Youth Exchange and ‘Safe to be Me’ programmes, Rambert School of Ballet and Contemporary Dance, Juilliard, Ballet Nights, Ballet Central, Elmhurst Ballet Company, The Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, National Youth Ballet, The Dance School of Scotland, The National Theatre’s River Stage, Covent Garden Dance Company, Images Ballet Company, London Vocational Ballet School and Dance Studio Scotland. 

In 2023 he joined the creative team of Jean Paul Gaultier’s Fashion Freak Show and in 2025 was promoted to Associate Director. In 2024, he completed an MA in Choreography through Central School of Ballet and University of Kent. 

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ALEX HARRISON:

Born in Cornwall, Alex Harrison trained at Elmhurst Ballet School before beginning his career with the Slovak National Ballet and the Tulsa Ballet. He then joined the Sarasota Ballet, under the direction of Iain Webb and Margaret Barbieri, rising to the rank of First Soloist.

During his time with the Sarasota Ballet he performed a number of lead or featured roles in works by choreographers such as Frederick Ashton, George Balanchine, Kenneth MacMillan, Jerome Robbins, Christopher Wheeldon, Ninette de Valois, Paul Taylor and Will Tuckett. After returning to the UK he performed in several musicals such as Cats, 42nd Street and Top Hat.

Alex is now a full time teacher at Elmhurst Ballet School and a regular collaborator with Grad Pro.

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DARIA STANCIULESCU

Daria was born in Romania and trained at schools in Bucharest, Monte Carlo and Munich. Her dance career started at Bavarian National Ballet in 2006 where she danced roles in Peter Wright’s Giselle, John Cranko’s Onegin and Marius Petipa’s Le Corsaire and Swan Lake.

In 2012 she joined Ballet Zurich, where she danced in works by Christian Spuck, William Forsythe and Heinz Spoerli.

Daria joined Birmingham Royal Ballet in 2014 and promoted to First Artist in 2018 and Principal Character Artist in 2025 and has danced a number of roles from their repertory:

Carlos Acosta: Don Quixote (Dulcinea)

Frederick Ashton: Enigma Variations (Lady Mary Lygon), Façade (Tango Pasodoble)

David Bintley: Cinderella (Stepmother), Carmina burana (Roast Swan)

John Cranko: The Taming of the Shrew (Pas de six)

Kenneth MacMillan: Romeo and Juliet (Lady Capulet)

Hans van Manen: 5 Tangos

Peter Wright: The Nutcracker (Arabian Dance), The Sleeping Beauty (The Fairy Carabosse) and Peter Wright and Galina Samsova's Swan Lake (Spanish Dance, Prince's Companion)

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This event is open to all.

LBC Members may book for themselves and 3 guests and Non- members may book 4 places.