Quick Facts

Born: Melbourne, Australia
Trained: Karen Curlis School of Dance, Thelma Williams School of Dance, The Victorian College of The Arts and The Australian Ballet School in Melbourne
Joined: 2008
First Soloist since: 2015

Chelsy Meiss is sponsored through Dancers First by Anne-Marie Canning. 

Five Things to Know

1. 1Chelsy started dancing at the age of three, when she took up jazz, tap and ballet at her mother’s studio in Melbourne, Australia – the Karen Curlis School of Dance. She went on to graduate from the Australian Ballet School.
    
2. 2She danced with San Diego Ballet for three years before joining The National Ballet of Canada as a member of the Corps de Ballet in 2008.
    
3. 3In 2011, Alexei Ratmansky cast Chelsy as one of the Juliets in his new production of Romeo and Juliet for the National Ballet. She had worked with Ratmansky on a previous ballet, Russian Seasons, while she was in the Corps de Ballet.
    
4. 4Chelsy performs featured roles such as Myrtha, Queen of the Wilis in Giselle, Snow Queen in The Nutcracker, Queen of Hearts in Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, Bronislava in Nijinsky and Stella in A Streetcar Named Desire, among others.
    
5. 5She was the first woman to perform the tap-dancing role of The Mad Hatter in Christopher Wheeldon’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, which was created for Steven McRae, Principal Dancer with The Royal Ballet.

Full Biography

Chelsy Meiss was born in Melbourne, Australia and trained at Karen Curlis School of Dance, Thelma Williams School of Dance, The Victorian College of The Arts and The Australian Ballet School in Melbourne. She danced with San Diego Ballet before joining The National Ballet of Canada as a member of the Corps de Ballet in 2008 and was promoted to First Soloist in 2015. 

Most recently, Chelsy danced in the world premiere of Wayne McGregor’s MADDADDAM and the Canadian premiere of Alonzo King’s The Collective Agreement. Chelsy has danced roles such as The Mad Hatter in Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland becoming the first female dancer to perform the role, Valencienne in The Merry Widow, Juliet in Romeo and Juliet, the Snow Queen in The Nutcracker, Queen of Hearts in Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, Bronislava in Nijinsky, Dolly in Anna Karenina, Stella in A Streetcar Named Desire, Spanish Soloist in Swan Lake, Petal and Twig in Cinderella, Spring in The Four Seasons and the female lead in Spectre de la Rose and Paz de la Jolla. Her repertoire also includes The Sleeping Beauty, Giselle, Onegin, The Winter’s Tale, Don Quixote, La Fille mal gardée, Manon, Pinocchio, La Sylphide, The Concert, The Four Temperaments, The Dream, Paquita, The Seagull, Carmen, Symphony in C, Serenade, Opus 19/The Dreamer, Allegro Brillante, The Second Detail, The Vertiginous Thrill of Exactitude, Approximate Sonata 2016, Emergence, Angels’ Altas, Chroma, Genus, In The Upper Room, West Side Story Suite, Russian Seasons, Carousel (A Dance), Elite Syncopations, Concerto, Cacti, Being and Nothingness, Skyward, Crepuscular and Night. 

In 2016, Chelsy was awarded the David Tory Award and was the recipient of the Patron Award of Merit in 2009.