Anna Rose O'Sullivan

Anna Rose O’Sullivan is an English Principal of The Royal Ballet and one of the clearest examples of the company’s internal training and promotion pathway at work. The Royal Ballet and Opera’s official biography notes that she trained at The Royal Ballet School, joined the Company in December 2012 as an Artist, and rose steadily through the ranks to First Artist in 2016, Soloist in 2017, First Soloist in 2019 and Principal in 2021.

Born in Harrow, O’Sullivan began dancing aged two and trained locally before entering The Royal Ballet School at White Lodge. Her student career combined strong institutional training with early performance experience: she danced the lead role of Sara Crewe in A Little Princess for London Children’s Ballet and appeared on the West End as Cosette in Les Misérables and in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. At school she performed a principal role in Alastair Marriott’s Simple Symphony, danced pas de deux from Don Quixote at La Fenice in Venice, and performed pas de deux from Rhapsody at Buckingham Palace.

Her awards and distinctions during those years point to a dancer marked out early for both promise and stage presence. The official biography lists the April Olrich Award for Dynamic Performance, the Phyllis Bedells Bursary, a finals place in the 2010 Genée International Ballet Competition, and in 2011 The Royal Ballet School Achievement Award, the Director’s Prize for most promising student, and Young British Dancer of the Year.

Since joining the Company, O’Sullivan has developed into a notably versatile principal whose repertory ranges from major classical heroines to sharply defined dramatic and contemporary roles. Officially listed roles include Cinderella, Kitri, Odette/Odile, Aurora, Swanilda, Alice, Olga, Clara and the Sugar Plum Fairy, Juliet and many important supporting roles in works such as Mayerling, Onegin, Enigma Variations and The Unknown Soldier. She has also created Gertrudis in Like Water for Chocolate and roles in newer works including Multiverse, Woolf Works and The Dante Project, making her one of the Royal Ballet artists most visibly at ease across both inherited repertory and contemporary creation.