Our Team

Dancer (Wingspan)

Ashley Dean

South African dancer Ashley Dean is a First Artist of The Royal Ballet. She trained at English National Ballet School and graduated into The Royal Ballet’s Aud Jebsen Young Dancers Programme in 2014, entering the Company in 2015 and promoted to First Artist in 2019.

Dean started dancing at the age of five and trained at Cape Junior Ballet Company before joining English National Ballet School in 2011.

Roles since joining The Royal Ballet have included Clara (The Nutcracker), White Cat (The Sleeping Beauty), Cygnets (Swan Lake) and in the world premieres of Hofesh Shechter’s Untouchable and Crystal Pite’s Flight Pattern.

Dancer (Wingspan)

Gareth Mole

Gareth Mole is a freelance dance artist and choreographer based in London. He has performed, choreographed and restaged works across the world for companies & artists such as: National Dance Company Wales, DV8, Eddie Peake, Anthea Hamilton, Lynne Page, Aletta Collins, Itzil Galili, Stephen Petronio, Arelene Philips, Jonathon Lunn and Amir Hosseinpour.

Gareth is also a world champion line dancer, undefeated for several years which also led him to train in Latin & Ballroom under Strictly Come Dancing duo, Darren Bennet & Lillia Kopilova.

During lockdown, Gareth has put his textile skills to work producing hand-made face masks to wear, which can be purchased at www.made-by-mole.com

Dancer (Wingspan)

Francisco Serrano

American dancer Francisco Serrano is an Artist of The Royal Ballet. He joined The Royal Ballet’s Aud Jebsen Young Dancers Programme from the start of the 2016/17 Season and entered the Company as an Artist from the start of the 2017/18 Season. He trained at The Royal Ballet Upper School.

Serrano was born in the USA and has a Cuban background. He began his ballet training aged 14 at the Sarasota Cuban Ballet School. He won a scholarship at the 2014 Youth America Grand Prix to train at The Royal Ballet School.

Dancer (Wingspan)

Joseph Aumeer

English dancer Joseph Aumeer trained at The Royal Ballet School and joined Paris Opera Ballet on graduation in 2016. He joined The Royal Ballet as an Artist at the beginning of the 2018/19 Season.

Joseph was born in London and started dancing at the age of nine. He was a Junior Associate before entering full-time training at Elmhurst Ballet School in Birmingham and then moving to The Royal Ballet Upper School aged 16.

Dancer (Wingspan)

Leticia Dias

Born in Brazil, Leticia Dias trained at ‘Petite Danse School of Danse’ in Rio and in 2013 she competed at the Prix de Lausanne, winning the fourth best scholarship in the competition and her offer to join the Royal Ballet School. Joined the Royal Ballet in 2016, and danced some beautiful rep including solos in the production of “The Sleeping Beauty”, “Raymonda act 3” and others.

Musician (Wingspan)

Ania Safonova

Russian violinist Ania Safonova was Associate Concert Master with the Orchestra of the Royal Opera House from 2008 to 2019. During the 2018/19 Season, she was Concert Master for Frankenstein, Don Quixote, Hansel & Gretel, The Nutcracker, Asphodel Meadows, Faust, and Le nozze de Figaro.

In the 2019/20 Season, she returns as Guest Concert Master for The Sleeping Beauty and Otello. Born in Siberia, Safonova started playing the violin at the age of five and made her concert debut aged seven with the Omsk Philharmonic. She emigrated with her family to Israel in 1991 and continued her violin studies at the Tel Aviv Conservatory, later moving to London to study at the Purcell School and the Royal College of Music. She was Associate Leader of the Halle Orchestra 2001–06. Safonova has performed at many international festivals and played as a guest leader with orchestras including the BBC Symphony Orchestra, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, BBC National Orchestra of Wales, Birmingham Royal Ballet, Aurora, and Scottish Chamber Orchestra. She features as Concert Master in the 2009 recording of Kenneth MacMillan’s Mayerling and the 2016 recording of Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor, which are available on DVD by Opus Arte.

Musician (Wingspan)

Judith Busbridge

Judith Busbridge graduated in Music from Birmingham University and completed her viola studies with Thomas Riebl in Salzburg, where she was Solo violist in the Camerata Academica under the directorship of Sándor Végh, a position she held for five years.

In September 2013 Judith joined the Orchestra of the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden as one of their Principal violas. She has a busy schedule playing for the Opera season as well as for the Royal Ballet.

As a former member of two multi-award-winning chamber music ensembles; the Dante String Quartet and Ensemble 360, Judith has performed at major concert halls and festivals throughout the UK and Europe, regularly broadcasting on BBC Radio 3 and winning the prestigious Royal Philharmonic Society Award for Chamber Music both in 2007 and 2013.

Her varied freelance career includes being Principal viola in the London Mozart Players as well as playing guest principal viola with the English Chamber Orchestra, the Philharmonia Orchestra, London Symphony Orchestra and The Academy of St Martin in the Fields.

She is also Solo viola in John Eliot Gardiner’s Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique, which performs repertoire of nineteenth and early twentieth centuries on period instruments.

Musician (Wingspan)

Sarah McMahon

Sarah McMahon is a passionate chamber musician. As a founder member of the Callino String Quartet, Sarah spent many years studying with members of the Amadeus Quartet, Rainer Schmidt, Erich Höbarth and Gyorgy Kurtàg. The Quartet has toured widely, commissioning numerous compositions, and collaborating with diverse artists such as Ailish Tynan, Edgar Meyer, Arvo Pärt, Barry Guy, John Abercrombie and the Kronos Quartet. Their recent recording for Coro of The Seven Last Words by Haydn has met with critical acclaim. Their recent collaboration with Canadian filmmaker Kaveh Nabatian, performing a live score of this work, was premiered at the International Film Festival in Rotterdam in 2019 and will be touring internationally at festivals in Montreal, Buenos Aires, Bilbao, Kerala, Edinburgh and Moscow.

Aside from the Quartet, Sarah enjoys a busy career playing principal cello with the Academy of Ancient Music, Irish Baroque Orchestra, Ensemble Marsyas and Camerata Kilkenny. She has often appeared as soloist with these ensembles, collaborating with Monica Huggett, Peter Whelan and Richard Egarr amongst others. She is also regularly invited to play as guest principal cello with Florilegium, the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, Arcangelo, The English Concert, Dunedin Consort, The Sixteen, Aurora Orchestra, Royal Northern Sinfonia, and the Scottish Chamber Orchestra.

Sarah is a dedicated teacher and is on the faculty of the Berwick Academy, teaching historical cello and chamber music at the Oregon Bach Festival. Sarah gratefully acknowledges the support of the Arts Council of Ireland through their Capital Awards Scheme.

Musician (Wingspan)

Sarah Sexton

Sarah Sexton studied at the Royal Academy of Music in London with Erich Gruenberg, Lydia Mordkovich and Simon Standage, graduating with a Dip RAM in 2002.

Sarah became the first Irish person to lead the European Union Youth Orchestra in 2001, when she led the orchestra under Sir Colin Davis and Paavo Jarvi in European tours.  Professionally, Sarah has been invited to perform as guest leader of the RTE National Symphony Orchestra, the RTE Concert Orchestra, the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, Camerata Ireland, Classical Opera Company, the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment and currently is the leader of the Orchestra of the Sixteen.

Sarah was a member of the Callino Quartet for 18 years until 2017 and enjoyed performing with them throughout the U.K., Italy, France, Germany, Lithuania, Hungary, Canada and the Netherlands.

Musician (Wingspan)

Katherine Baker

Katherine Baker studied at the Royal Academy of Music and within only 2 years of leaving was made Principal Flute of the BBCNOW in Cardiff. In 2004 she was offered the same post with the Hallé Orchestra in Manchester, a position she held for 14 years. Alongside an orchestral career which has seen her appear as guest principal with all the major orchestras in London, Katherine has been involved in much chamber music at festivals across the country. She loves the contrast of music-making within a more intimate setting and this lead her to encourage her husband to found the Glossop Music Festival in 2012.

In 2018 she was appointed Principal Flute with the Orchestra of the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden. Katherine and her family now live in Kent and would very much like to bring more accessible classical music to the local area, something to enrich people’s lives during this time of uncertainty.

Katherine is flute professor at the Royal Academy of Music and was made an RAM Fellow in 2009.