Aki Saito appointed as new Classical Ballet teacher at KC Dance

Aki Saito was born in Japan, where she began her ballet training at the age of seven. In 1990, she won first prize at the Japanese Competition for Young Dancers, followed by the Gold Medal at the Concours International de Danse in Houlgate, France. In 1991, she received a scholarship from the Prix de Lausanne, which allowed her to continue her studies at the Royal Ballet School in Antwerp.

She joined Ballet Vlaanderen in 1994 as a demi-soloist, was promoted to first soloist in 1998, and became a principal dancer in 2004. Since then, she has danced most of the company’s principal roles in both the classical and contemporary repertoire, including a new version of Swan Lake created especially for her and her partner Wim Vanlessen by Marcia Haydée.

Her repertoire includes Onegin, Swan Lake, Coppélia, The Nutcracker, Giselle, Romeo and Juliet, La Bayadère, Sleeping Beauty, Don Quixote, The Three Musketeers, Four Temperaments, Theme and Variations, Tchaikovsky Pas de Deux, Divertimento No. 15 and Serenade (George Balanchine), In the Middle, Somewhat Elevated, Artifact and Impressing the Czar (William Forsythe), Sonate (Maurice Béjart), Forgotten Land (Jiří Kylián), Infra (Wayne McGregor), The Grey Area (David Dawson), Lost by Last (Jorma Elo), and Orpheus (Michael Corder).

Aki has also served as a jury member at the Prix de Lausanne in 2003, 2005, 2007, 2017, and 2024, and at the Prix Carpeaux in 2009. In 2007, she was awarded the Ballet 2000 Critics Award in Cannes and was invited to teach at several international dance workshops. In 2015, she was named Outstanding Performance by Dance Europe for her interpretation of Tatiana in John Cranko’s Onegin and in Love Fear Loss by Ricardo Amarante. In 2016, she was honoured as Knight in the Order of Leopold.

We are delighted to welcome Aki Saito to KC Dance!