Francesca Velicu - Junior Soloist and RMB guest artist
Junior Soloist of the English National Ballet
Former soloist of the Romanian National Opera and Ballet
Francesca was born in Bucharest, Romania and began her ballet training at the age of 4, attending the Choreography High school in Bucharest until she was 15 years old. After receiving 2nd place at Youth America Grand Prix, she was invited to study at Bolshoi Ballet Academy in Moscow. Following her two years of study in Russia, at the age of 17 she joined the Romanian National Opera and Ballet for one year while studying for her state exams in Bucharest.
She is currently a Junior Soloist with English National Ballet.

Her repertoire includes:
Clara/Sugar Plum in Wayne Eagling's 'Nutcracker',
3rd Principal Couple in Liam Scarlett' s 'No man's land' ,
First Couple in George Balanchine's 'Theme and Variations',
Kitri in Alexander Gorski's 'Don Quijote' ,
Trio Couple in Alexey Ratmansky's 'Concerto DSCH',
1st couple in Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui’s ‘Laid in Earth’,
Henriette in Tamara Rojo’s ‘Raymonda’,
Vegas in William Forsythe’s ‘Playlist’.

In 2018 she won the 'Laurence Olivier Award' for 'Outstanding Achievement in Dance' following her performance of 'The Chosen One' in Pina Bausch' s 'Le Sacre du printemps'. She was chosen to be part of Forbes 30 Under 30 in 2019.
INTENSIVES
Stars Gala (Alicante, Spain)