Houston Ballet is pleased to announce the addition of Beckanne Sisk and Chase O’Connell to the Company as Principal Dancers for the 2022-2023 season. They will join the Company in July for the start of next season.
Sisk began her ballet training with Longview Ballet Theater at the age of five. She studied there until 13 when she moved to Philadelphia, PA to attend The Rock School for Dance Education on scholarship. She was a part of the Rock Academic Program Alliance (RAPA) for four years. While there, Sisk won the Jerome Robbins award in 2007, and competed at the Youth America Grand Prix (YAGP) from 2007-2010, placing in 1st and 3rd. Artistic Director Adam Sklute invited her to join Ballet West II in 2010 after seeing her compete at YAGP.
“I first saw Beckanne competing in YAGP at the age of 16. A colt of a dancer, she was an astonishingly beautiful girl with an amazing combination of bravura, line, and coolness. I offered her a position with Ballet West II and she joined at 17. At age 18, I nominated her for a Princess Grace Award in Dance and she won, becoming only the second dancer in Ballet West history to win this prestigious award (the first being Jeff Rogers in the 80s). At the Award Celebration in New York, I told her that there would come a time when she could go to any company in the world,” says Sklute. “She joined Ballet West that year and was catapulted to stardom first by being thrown in, last minute, to the demanding leading role of Kitri in our production of Don Quixote, and then by being featured in our television docuseries Breaking Pointe on the CW network.”
Sisk has performed the female principal roles in Anna Marie Holmes’ Don Quixote, John Cranko’s Romeo and Juliet and Onegin, as well as Adam Sklute’s adaptations of Giselle, The Sleeping Beauty and Swan Lake.
Sisk has been noticed by The Washington Post in William Christensen’s The Nutcracker, “one of the most charming and beguiling ballerinas to embody the role in recent memory. She was every bit the fairy-tale queen of one’s dreams – regal but warm, expressive but subtly so, who sustained her balances as if mere air held her up, and yet paradoxically, her dominant quality was softness.” Also, her performance in Cranko’s Onegin was recognized by Pointe Magazine as one of the Standout Performances of 2019.
Original principal roles have been created on her by many renowned contemporary choreographers such as Nicolo Fonte, Val Caniparoli, Edwaard Liang and Matthew Neenan. She has since become an international guest star.
Chase O’Connell was born in Fredericksburg, Virginia and started taking dance classes at the age of 2. At age 13, he received a scholarship to train at the Kirov Academy of Ballet in Washington, D.C. He studied under Vladimir Djoulouhadze and Anatoli Kucheruk from 2007 to 2009. In 2009, he received a scholarship to train at the Royal Ballet School in London, England. There, he studied under Meelis Pakri and David Peden. While at school he had the privilege to perform with English National Ballet in their 2010 Nutcracker.
“Out of over 300 dancers vying for exactly three spots available in Ballet West II, he was one of two men to whom I offered contracts,” says Sklute. “Very tall, with matinee idol good looks, elegance, and a pristinely clean technique. He, too, quickly moved through the ranks becoming a principal in 2016. An exceptional partner, he has become the perfect danseur noble.”
After studying at the Royal Ballet School for 2 years, O’Connell joined the world-renowned Paris Opera Ballet to perform in their 2011 production of Rudolf Nureyev. In 2012 he began his contract with Ballet West II. He was promoted into the main company in 2013 then promoted to Principal in 2016. O’Connell has danced in galas internationally and his performance in Onegin was one of Pointe Magazine’s top performances in 2019.
Sisk and O’Connell met at Ballet West and grew to become a partnership on-stage and off. Engaged since 2019, their wedding had to be postponed due to COVID-19.
“I support Beckanne and Chase in this move. These are world-class artists who deserve to be experienced by audiences around the world,” says Sklute. “I am proud and honored that Ballet West and I could help guide them on their journey as they grew to this outstanding level. While I hope they will always call Ballet West and Salt Lake City home, Houston is just the beginning for them as I see it.”
Photo Credits:
Beckanne Sisk & Chase O’Connell in SWAN LAKE – Photo by Beau Pearson. Courtesy of Ballet West.
Beckanne Sisk in GISELLE. Photo by Beau Pearson. Courtesy of Ballet West.
Chase O’Connell in APOLLO. Photo by Beau Pearson. Courtesy of Ballet West.
Written by Christina Ferraz