Marianela Nunez and Thiago Soares in Adagio from Swan Lake

Marianela Nunez and Thiago Soares in Adagio from Swan Lake. Music by Pyotr Tchaikovsky, choreography by Lev Ivanov after Marius Petipa. Les Etoiles Gala, shot on 10.1.2015 in Auditorium Conciliazione in Rome, Italy.

Marianela Nuñez is a Principal of The Royal Ballet. Nuñez was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina. When she was six she began training at the Teatro Colón Ballet School, joining the Teatro Colón company aged 14. She took on corps and soloist roles and toured internationally, both with the company and as a guest artist with Maximiliano Guerra. She joined The Royal Ballet School in 1997 and the next year graduated into the Company. After 18 months she was promoted to First Soloist and in 2002 to Principal, aged 20. She has performed all the leading roles in the classical, dramatic and contemporary repertory, including in works by Frederick Ashton, George Balanchine, John Cranko, William Forsythe, Jiří Kylián, Kenneth MacMillan, Wayne McGregor, Ashley Page, Jerome Robbins, Liam Scarlett, Glen Tetley, Will Tuckett, Antony Tudor and Christopher Wheeldon.

Nuñez’s awards include Best Female Dancer at the Critics’ Circle Dance Awards in 2006 and 2013. She received the 2013 Olivier Award for Outstanding Achievement in Dance. She is married to Royal Ballet Principal Thiago Soares, who proposed between curtain calls for a performance of The Sleeping Beauty in which he had danced Prince Florimund to Nuñez’s Princess Aurora.

Thiago Soares is a Principal of The Royal Ballet. Soares was born in Rio de Janeiro and from the age of 12 trained at a circus school. He focused on ballet from the age of 15, training at the Rio de Janeiro Centre for Dance. In 1998 he graduated into the Municipal Theatre Ballet, and moved from there to The Royal Ballet. He joined the Company as a First Artist in 2002 and was promoted to Soloist in 2003, First Soloist in 2004 and Principal in 2006.

Photos by Jack Devant ballet photography © with kind permission of Daniele Cipriani Entertainment and Auditorium Conciliazione, special thanks to Mrs. Simonetta Allder and Mr. Daniele Cipriani.