Professional Ballet Dancer

Early Training

Born in Burlington, Ontario, Canada, Tara trained in ballet and rhythmic gymnastics locally from the age of 3. By the age 10, ballet had won her heart and after several audition stages, she was accepted into the prestigious Canada’s National Ballet School in Toronto. While at the school, she demonstrated ballet technique for the publication The Ballet Book, The Young Performer's Guide to Classical Dance. In 2000, she represented her country at the first International Congress of Classical Contemporary Ballet in Mexico, performing as Aurora in the Sleeping Beauty. She was also a part of the 80th birthday celebration of Celia Franca, performing the Chopiniana pas de deux at the gala, alongside some of the great professional Canadian and English ballerinas. She was fortunate to have danced many lead roles in school performances at NBS, including the White Swan pas de deux from Swan Lake, Lead Sylph in La Sylphide, Pyrrhic Dances and 2nd Song in Four Last. In recognition of her talent and hard work, she was awarded the Peter Dwyer scholarship for excellence in dance and in 2001 she won the Erik Bruhn Memorial Award.

Breaking from the tradition of welcoming only French students, following her graduation in Canada, Tara had the pleasure of accepting a personal invitation by the director of the Paris Opera Ballet School in France to further her training in Paris. She performed at the Palais Garnier in December 2001 in Les DÉMONSTRATIONS DE L'ÉCOLE DE DANSE. Her year in Paris was cut short however when an audition in London lead to her first position of employment as a professional ballet dancer with the Royal Ballet, commencing immediately in March 2002.

Career at the Royal Ballet

For over 15 years, Tara has been with the Royal Ballet in London, England. She has performed in over 2000 performances at the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden in almost all the company’s productions. She started out in the corps de ballet but was soon promoted to First Artist and during her tenure has been given some of ballet’s most challenging soloist and principal roles. Her repertory includes:

• Mayerling - Empress Elisabeth
• Sleeping Beauty - Countess & Fairy of the Crystal Fountain
• Giselle – Bathilde
• Romeo & Juliet - Rosaline & Lady Montague
• Cinderella - Fairy of the Spring & Fairy Godmother
• Pavlova's Dragonfly solo
• The Nutcracker - Arabian Dance
• Swan Lake - Spanish Dance & Acts II and IV solo Swan
• Four Temperaments - 'Phlegmatic'
• Les Patineurs - White Principal Couple
• La Bayadère - Lead d'jampé & pas d'action
• Manon - Lead Courtesan
• A Month in the Country - Katia
• Firebird - The Beautiful Tsarvena
• La Valse - Lead Principal Couple
• Anastasia - Anna Vyrubova

Tara has also been lucky to have the opportunity to travel around the World performing with the Royal Ballet in galas and international tours in some of the most famous Opera houses such as the Mariinsky Theatre, Le Palais Garnier and the Lincoln Center. She has danced in various cities in countries such as Australia, Russia, USA, Mexico, Cuba, South Korea, Japan, China, Singapore, Turkey, and, Spain.