Yuka Ebihara (Japanese: 海老原由佳, Ebihara Yuka; born 22 October 1986 in Tokyo, Japan) 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.

Yuka Ebihara

Artistic career

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Beginnings

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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 (2008–2009), performed as a guest dancer with the company of Vienna Festival Ballet in Great Britain (2008), was a soloist with French Compagnie Mezzo Ballet (2009), and danced with the Suzanne Farrell Ballet, USA (2009). Then, for two years (2009–2011), 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.[1]

In Poland

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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,[2] 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 begin to represent Polish National Ballet on international ballet galas in USA, Russia, Japan, Spain, Netherlands, Sweden, Norway, Germany, Czech, Lithuania and Latvia.

Major achievements

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Yuka Ebihara as Odetta in Swan Lake by Krzysztof Pastor after Lev Ivanov
 
Yuka Ebihara as Kitri and Paweł Koncewoj as Basilio in Don Quixote by Alexei Fadeyechev after Marius Petipa
 
Yuka Ebihara as Marguerite Gautier and Patryk Walczak as Armand Duval in The Lady of the Camellias by John Neumeier
 
Yuka Ebihara and Vladimir Yaroshenko in Bolero by Krzysztof Pastor
 
Yuka Ebihara and Kristóf Szabó in Świtezianka by Robert Bondara
 
Yuka Ebihara as Mathilde Kschessinska, Vladimir Yaroshenko as Tsarevich Nicky and Robert Bondara as Tsar Alexander in Swan Lake by Krzysztof Pastor

Overseas

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Awards

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  • 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, Kanada
  • 2010: Gold Medal (category 22-28 years), International Competition of Ballet Dancers Mia Čorak Slavenska, Zagreb, Croatia
  • 2014: Jan Kiepura Theatre Music Award for the best dancer in Poland[8]
  • 2017: Jan Kiepura Theatre Music Award for the best classical dancer in Poland[9]
  • 2019: Silver Medal for Merit to Culture ‘Gloria Artis’ in Poland[10]
  • 2024: Special Award for Dancer of the Polish National Ballet’s 15th Anniversary

Bibliography

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References

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  1. ^ "Yuka Ebihara". Teatr Wielki Opera Narodowa. Retrieved 2018-04-21.
  2. ^ "Yuka Ebihara - first soloist of the PNB". Retrieved 2018-04-26.
  3. ^ "A dissolute life makes a splendid ballet: Polish National Ballet in Casanova - CriticalDance". criticaldance.org. Retrieved 2018-04-25.
  4. ^ "Review: Swan Lake by Krzysztof Pastor, Polish National Ballet". www.seeingdance.com. Retrieved 2018-04-25.
  5. ^ "Swan Lake". Teatr Wielki Opera Narodowa. Retrieved 2017-09-14.
  6. ^ "Yuka Ebihara and Vladimir Yaroshenko". Ballet: The Best Photographs. 2018-03-20. Retrieved 2018-04-26.
  7. ^ "The Lady of the Camellias to open on 20 April 2018". Retrieved 2018-04-21.
  8. ^ "News". Teatr Wielki Opera Narodowa. Retrieved 2017-07-17.
  9. ^ "News". Teatr Wielki Opera Narodowa. Retrieved 2017-07-17.
  10. ^ "Yuka Ebihara receives a Silver Gloria Artis Medal". teatrwielki.pl. Retrieved 2019-07-18.