Media Release

May 16, 2025… Hope Muir, Joan and Jerry Lozinski Artistic Director of The National Ballet of Canada, shared today the 2025/26 season will welcome three new Principal Dancers: Chase O'Connell and Beckanne Sisk from Houston Ballet and Agnes Su from The Stuttgart Ballet.

“I’m delighted to welcome Chase, Beckanne and Agnes to The National Ballet of Canada,” said Muir. “These exceptional artists bring with them a depth of experience and individuality that will be exciting additions to our roster. I can’t wait to work with them in the studio and to introduce them to National Ballet audiences in the 2025/26 season.”

Chase O’Connell was born in Fredericksburg, Virginia. At age 13, he began training at the Kirov Academy of Ballet in Washington, D.C. He studied under Vladimir Djouloukhadze and Anatoli Kucheruk from 2007 to 2009. In 2009, he moved to London to train at the Royal Ballet School. There, he studied under Meelis Pakri and David Peden. While at school he had the privilege to perform with English National Ballet in their production of The Nutcracker by Wayne Eagling in 2010. After studying at the Royal Ballet School for two years, O’Connell joined Paris Opéra Ballet to perform in their 2011 production of Rudolf Nureyev’s Cinderella. 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. In 2022, he joined Houston Ballet as a Principal Dancer. He has performed principal roles in ballets by Kenneth MacMillan, John Cranko, Sir Frederick Ashton, George Balanchine, Jiří Kylián, Jerome Robbins, Annabelle Lopez Ochoa, Justin Peck, Dwight Rhoden, Silas Farley, James Kudelka, Trey McIntyre, Stanton Welch, Mark Morris and Adam Sklute. He also had contemporary principal roles created on him by Cathy Marston, Nicolo Fonte, Edwaard Liang, Africa Guzman and Val Caniparoli. O’Connell guested with San Francisco Ballet for Kenneth MacMillan’s Song of the Earth. He has appeared in galas internationally and his performance in Onegin was one of Pointe Magazines top performances in 2019.

Beckanne Sisk began her ballet training with Longview Ballet Theater. She studied there until age 13 when she moved to Philadelphia, PA to attend The Rock School for Dance Education. She was a part of the Rock’s RAPA program for four years. While there, Sisk won the Jerome Robbins Award in 2007 and competed at the Youth America Grand Prix winning Gold and Bronze medals. Adam Sklute invited her to join Ballet West II in 2010. She rapidly moved up in the ranks being promoted to New Artist in 2011, Demi-Soloist in 2012, Soloist in 2013 and then Principal Artist in 2015. Sisk was with Ballet West for 12 years and then joined Houston Ballet as a Principal Dancer in 2022. She has performed the principal roles in John Cranko's Romeo and Juliet and Onegin, John Neumeier’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream and The Little Mermaid, Sir Frederick Ashton’s Cinderella and Kenneth MacMillan’s Mayerling. She has also performed the classics such as Giselle, The Sleeping Beauty, Don Quixote and Swan Lake. Original roles have been created on her by many renowned choreographers such as Stanton Welch, Annabelle Lopez Ochoa, Nicolo Fonte, Val Caniparoli, Edwaard Liang and Matthew Neenan. In addition to her dancing, Sisk was featured on the CW’s Breaking Pointe television show for two seasons. She won the Bronze Medal in the Beijing International Ballet Competition in 2012 and was chosen for the 2012 Princess Grace Dance Fellowship award.

Agnes Su was born in Newport Beach, California and trained at the Pacific Coast Academy of Dance and the Southland Ballet Academy under Salwa Rizkalla. From 2008 to 2011, she took part in the Youth American Grand Prix, and along with winning the Hope Award in 2009 and the Junior Grand Prix in 2011 at the regional level, she received full scholarships to the Princess Grace Dance Academy in Monaco and the John Cranko School in Stuttgart, Germany. During her last year as a student at the John Cranko School, she danced in several productions as part of the Corps de Ballet with The Stuttgart Ballet. Su joined the company in 2013 as an Apprentice, one season later she joined the Corps de Ballet. In 2017, she was promoted to Demi-Soloist, in 2019 was promoted to Soloist and was promoted to Principal Dancer in 2021. A consummate dance actress, Su has been praised for her performance in Swan Lake, “[Su] lends her Odette a swaying, elegant character… as if from another sphere, yet still a human being of flesh and blood which she then plays out in a tantalizingly stately manner as [Odile],” (Onlinemerker.com). She has danced leading roles in The Sleeping Beauty, Romeo and Juliet, Onegin, Mayerling, The Taming of the Shrew, Firebird, The Lady of the Camellias, Blake Works I, The Second Detail and more. Su has also performed contemporary works by renowned choreographers Jiří Kylián, Hans van Manen, Akram Khan and Roland Petit, as well as created roles in works by Christian Spuck, Marco Goecke, Demis Volpi and Johan Inger. Su is also a choreographer and has created two works, White Light in 2019 and Resonanz in 2020, for The Stuttgart Ballet. She has performed extensively in international galas all over the world, especially in Europe, Asia and North America.

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2024/25 Season Sponsor: BMO Financial Group

The National Ballet of Canada gratefully acknowledges the ongoing support of the Canada Council for the Arts; the Ontario Arts Council; the City of Toronto through the Toronto Arts Council; the Government of Canada – Department of Canadian Heritage with the Honourable Steven Guilbeault, Minister of Canadian Culture and Identity; and the Government of Ontario with the Honourable Stan Cho, Minister of Tourism, Culture and Gaming and Minister of Sport.

Beckanne Sisk and Chase O'Connell. Photo by Alana Campbell.
Agnes Su. Photo by Roman Novitzky.

For more information, please contact:

Touchwood PR                
Andréa Grau, Founder and Owner
Keira Hunt, Senior Manager of Publicity and Promotions
Chelsea Cabello, Senior Publicist
NBOC@touchwoodpr.com 

The National Ballet of Canada
Catherine Chang, Associate Director of Communications & Content Strategy
Kate Dresser, Communications Manager
Media@national.ballet.ca