A principal dancer (often shortened to principal) is a dancer at the highest rank within a professional

dance company A dance troupe or dance company is a group of dancers and associated personnel who work together to perform dances as a sport, spectacle or entertainment. There are many different types of dance companies, often working in different styles of dan ...

, particularly a

ballet company A ballet company is a type of dance troupe which performs classical ballet, neoclassical ballet, and/or contemporary ballet in the European tradition, plus managerial and support staff. Most major ballet companies employ dancers on a year-round ba ...

. A principal may be male or female. The position is similar to that of '' soloist''; however, principals regularly perform not only solos, but also pas de deux. Principal dancers can be hired into a dance company or can also be a company dancer that is a corps de ballet dancer that gets promoted from within the company. That process can take multiple performance seasons or even years to achieve based on skill level and company interest. It is a coveted position in the company and the most prominent position a dancer can receive. The term is used mostly in ballet but can be used in other forms as well, such as

modern dance Modern dance is a broad genre of western concert or theatrical dance which included dance styles such as ballet, folk, ethnic, religious, and social dancing; and primarily arose out of Europe and the United States in the late 19th and early 20th ...

. They are usually the star of the ballet. The term ''senior principal dancer'' is sometimes used as well.

Synonyms and origin

The Italian derived term ''

prima ballerina A ballet dancer ( it, ballerina fem.; ''ballerino'' masc.) is a person who practices the art of classical ballet. Both females and males can practice ballet; however, dancers have a strict hierarchy and strict gender roles. They rely on ye ...

'' (female dancers) (''primo ballerino'' for male dancers) or the French derived term ''premier danseur'' (male dancers) have been used to denote similar levels of prominence in non Anglo-Saxon companies. In the Paris Opera Ballet, principal dancers receive the title of ''Danseur Étoile''.

Current principal dancers

Royal Ballet

Matthew Ball, Federico Bonelli, Alexander Campbell, Cesar Corrales, Lauren Cuthbertson, Francesca Hayward, Ryoichi Hirano, Fumi Kaneko, Sarah Lamb, Mayara Magri, Steven McRae, Laura Morera, Vadim Muntagirov, Yasmine Naghdi, Marianela Nuñez, Natalia Osipova, Anna Rose O’Sullivan, Marcelino Sambé, Akane Takada

Current principal dancers

American Ballet Theatre

Primas

* Stella Abrera * Isabella Boylston * Misty Copeland * Sarah Lane * Gillian Murphy * Hee Seo * Devon Teuscher * Christine Shevchenko * Skylar Brandt

Primos

* Herman Cornejo * David Hallberg * Daniil Simkin * Cory Stearns * James B. Whiteside * Aran Bell

Martha Graham Dance Company, Martha Graham Modern Dance Company

Primas

* PeiJu Chien-Pott * Xin Ying

Primos

* Lloyd Knight * Ben Schultz

References

Ballet occupations {{dance-stub