Yuka Ebihara


Yuka Ebihara is a Japanese ballet dancer. Since September 2011, she has been engaged with Warsaw's Teatr Wielki. Since September 2013, she became a first soloist, and since January 2020 she is a principal dancer of the Polish National Ballet. She ended her stage career on December 22, 2024, saying goodbye to the Warsaw audience in the role of Marguerite Gautier in John Neumeier's The Lady of the Camellias.

Artistic career

Beginnings

Ebihara took up dancing as a 7-year-old in Beijing, where she lived with her family as her father had a temporary working contract. Since 1997, she had continued her training in Iwata Ballet School in Yokohama, and then 2005 in Goh Ballet Academy in Vancouver, Canada. After finishing her training in 2008, she became a soloist of Goh Ballet Youth Company. After one year of dancing with the company, she started to seek her place elsewhere. She was engaged with Norwegian National Ballet, Oslo, performed as a guest dancer with the company of Vienna Festival Ballet in Great Britain, was a soloist with French Compagnie Mezzo Ballet, and danced with the Suzanne Farrell Ballet, USA. Then, for two years, she was engaged as a soloist of Croatian National Theatre, Zagreb, where she discovered the Polish National Ballet – a newly created company in Warsaw's Teatr Wielki under the direction of Krzysztof Pastor – was looking for dancers.

In Poland

In 2011, Ebihara went through audition to Polish National Ballet, and she got a contract. She began as a corps de ballet dancer, but in only 2 years she was promoted twice and in 2013 she became a first soloist, which is the highest rank in the company's structure. In a very short time, she took over many roles in the company's repertoire and began to represent Polish National Ballet on international ballet galas in USA, Russia, Japan, Spain, Netherlands, Sweden, Norway, Germany, Czech, Lithuania and Latvia.

Major achievements

Overseas

With [Polish National Ballet]

Awards

  • 2003: First Prize & Scholarship, Ballet Competition, Yokohama, Japan
  • 2006: First Prize & Scholarship, Surrey Festival of Dance, Surrey, Canada
  • 2006: Senior Ballet Championships Winner & Most Outstanding Dance Award, British Columbia Provincials, Vancouver, Canada
  • 2010: Gold Medal, International Competition of Ballet Dancers Mia Čorak Slavenska, Zagreb, Croatia
  • 2014: Jan Kiepura Theatre Music Award for the best dancer in Poland
  • 2017: Jan Kiepura Theatre Music Award for the best classical dancer in Poland
  • 2019: Silver Medal for Merit to Culture ‘Gloria Artis’ in Poland
  • 2024: Special Award for Dancer of the Polish National Ballet's 15th Anniversary