Xander Parish by Natasha Razina - Principal Dancer
Principal Dancer at Mariinsky Teatre
Dancer at Royal Ballet of London
Graduated at Royal Ballet School
Xander was born in England, and studied at there at the Royal Ballet School. After the School he joined The Royal Ballet Company, in August 2005. Here Xander's repertoire included: 'The Sleeping Beauty' (Lilac Fairy Cavalier), 'The Nutcracker' (Arabian Dance, Waltz of the Flowers), 'Swan Lake' (Cadets, Mazurka), 'La Fille Mal Gardee' (Colas' Friends), 'Les Patineurs' (Brown Boys), McGregor's 'Dido and Aeneas' and Fenton's 'Song Without Words' and 'Seacastles'. Xander created roles in Wheeldon's 'DGV: danse a grand vitesse', Tuckett's 'The Seven Deadly Sins' and Fenton's 'Monument'. He also choreographed for The Royal Ballet's 'Draftworks' program.

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 causa".

More information on the website of Mariisky theatre.