Yaoqian shang wearing a pink and yellow leotard leaps in the air

Yaoqian Shang promoted to Principal at Birmingham Royal Ballet

We are thrilled to offer our warmest congratulations to alumna Yaoqian Shang who has been promoted to Principal at Birmingham Royal Ballet.

Yaoqian trained at both Beijing Dance Academy and The Royal Ballet School before joining Birmingham Royal Ballet in 2013. She was promoted to Soloist in 2016 and First Soloist in 2018.

Yaoquin shared a few words with us about her promotion and her experience to date:

I feel extremely lucky and truly grateful to everyone who has helped and believed in me throughout my career. I am very thankful to Carlos Acosta, David Bintley and Ms Stock, who have changed my life, and every single teacher and coach from the School and the company. 

I am having a great time at Birmingham Royal Ballet. I enjoy the variety of our repertoire and have the chance to dance my dream roles in both classical and contemporary. I am learning from the best and most importantly working with dancers who are very talented, truly inspirational as well as incredibly kind and fun!

My advice for young dancers today is to discover and consistently work on yourself. What I realise now is that you have to find out who you are and be sure and true to yourself. This has made the biggest impact on me: whether things are going high or low, knowing who you are will always help you find your way in life.

We are incredibly proud of Yaoqian for this outstanding achievement.