In this episode Alice is joined by world renowned principal ballet dancer Xander Parish. Xander is a principal dancer for the world famous Marinksky Ballet in St. Petersburg.
He was the first ever British dancer to be asked to join their company and since then has been awarded an OBE for Dance and Russian and British Cultural Relations, when he was just 32 years old.
In this episode we talked all about his journey of what it really took to get him to where he is now, how his faith and determination allowed him to never quit, the importance of just taking small steps, how vital it is to learn to compartmentalise and not let other people's judgement determine your fate and so much more...
Xander was born in East Yorkshire, England, and began dancing at the Skelton Hooper School of Dance in Hull at the age of 8. He joined the Royal Ballet Lower School, White Lodge in 1998 and continued his training at the Royal Ballet Upper School from 2002-2005. While at the Upper School, Xander won the Ursula Moreton Choreographic Award (2003), The Young British Dancer of the Year Award (2nd prize 2004) and a Silver Medal at the Genee International Ballet Competition (Athens, 2004).
Xander joined The Royal Ballet Company in August 2005 along with his sister Demelza. They were the first brother and sister to be members of The Royal Ballet together.
In 2009, Xander was invited to join The Mariinsky Ballet by its ballet director Yuri Fateyev and joined the company in January 2010 aged 23 as its first and only British dancer.
His repertoire includes: Prince Siegfried (Swan Lake), Count Albrecht (Giselle), Prince Desiré (The Sleeping Beauty), Romeo (Romeo & Juliet), The Nutcracker Prince (The Nutcracker ch. Vainonen), Vronsky (Anna Karenina ch. Ratmansky), Jean de Brienne (Raymonda), Male Principal (Le Parc), Vaslav (The Fountain of Bakhchiserai), Andrés (Paquita), The Golden Slave (Scheherazade), The Poet (Chopiniana/Les Sylphides), John the Baptist (Salome ch. Faski), Ashton's Sylvia (Aminta) and Marguerite & Armand (Armand), Balanchine ballets including Apollo, Jewels (Emeralds & Diamonds), Serenade (Waltz, Elegy) and A Midsummer Night's Dream (Demetrius), Hans Van Manen's 'Adagio Hammerklavier' & 'Variations For Two Couples', Millepied's 'Without' & 'La nuit s'achève' and McGregor's 'Infra'. His repertoire as a guest artist also includes Gauthier's 'Ballet 101', 'Le Spectre de la Rose', and Ashton's 'The Dream' (Oberon).
Xander has toured with the Mariinsky Ballet to Canada, China, Denmark, Germany, Italy, Japan, Latvia, Oman, Switzerland, United Arab Emirates, the UK, and the USA, and has been a guest artist with English National Ballet, The Kremlin Ballet, The Ballet Company of the Opera National Bucharest, The Stanislavsky Ballet and has also performed with 'Roberto Bolle and Friends'.
Xander was the recipient of the Taglioni Award in the category “Best Young Male Dancer” (Berlin, 2014), the recipient of the Léonide Massine Prize in the category “Emerging Talent on the International Scene" (Positano, Italy, 2014) and won the UK Critics' Circle National Dance Awards 'Outstanding Male Performance (Classical)' category for 'Apollo' 2014.
In May 2016 Xander made his debut with American Ballet Theatre at The Metropolitan Opera House in New York as an ABT Exchange Artist dancing the role of Aminta in Ashton's 'Sylvia' partnering ABT Principal Isabella Boylston.
In January 2017 The University of Hull bestowed on Xander an Honorary Degree "Doctor of the University, honoris cause". In January 2019 Xander was awarded an OBE in the Queen's New Years Honours list for Services to Dance and UK Russia Cultural Relations.