Royal Ballet School alumna, Alessandra Ferri has won the 2016 Olivier Award for Outstanding Achievement in Dance, for her performances in Chéri and Woolf Works at the Royal Opera House. She collected her award at the ceremony, held at the Royal Opera House, on Sunday 4 April.

Italian dancer, Alessandra Ferri is a former Principal of The Royal Ballet Company. She trained at The Royal Ballet School, joining at age 15 with support from the Prix de Lausanne Scholarship. Upon graduating, she joined The Royal Ballet in 1980, was promoted to Soloist in 1983 and to Principal in 1984 aged just 19.

Ferri returned to The Royal Ballet in 2015 as a Guest Artist to create a role in Wayne McGregor’s Woolf Works, for which she was also awarded the 2015 Critics’ Circle National Dance Award for Best Female Dancer.

Woolf works won the Olivier Award for Best New Dance Production.