Faculty
Septime Webre is an internationally recognised ballet director, choreographer, educator and advocate. He joined Hong Kong Ballet as its Artistic Director in July 2017 after 17 years as Artistic Director of The Washington Ballet in Washington DC, US from 1999-2016. Previously he served as Artistic Director of the American Repertory Ballet, based in Princeton, New Jersey, US from 1993-1999. In addition, Webre has served as the Artistic Director of Halcyon, a Washington DC-based foundation, launching an annual international Festival for Creativity in Washington DC in June 2018.
During Webre’s tenure at The Washington Ballet, the institution’s budget grew by 500%, and it enjoyed unprecedented advances in the scope and quality of its work on stage, in the size and reach of its professional school and in the development of several far-reaching community engagement programmes that he founded. Webre also launched an array of artistic initiatives, including The American Experience, which developed great works of literature like The Great Gatsby and Hemingway’s The Sun Also Rises into full-length ballets.
As a choreographer, Webre’s works appear in the repertoires of ballet companies throughout North America, including Pacific Northwest Ballet, Les Grands Ballets Canadiens, Colorado Ballet, Ballet West, Atlanta Ballet, Cincinnati Ballet, Ballet Austin, Ballet Memphis, Milwaukee Ballet, Kansas City Ballet, Ballet Concierto de Puerto Rico, and many others, and he has worked frequently in theatre as well as opera. His new work for HKB, Romeo + Juliet, set in 1960s Hong Kong, will have its world premiere in June 2021. As a dancer, Webre was featured in solo and principal roles from the classical repertoire as well as in contemporary works by choreographers such as Twyla Tharp, Paul Taylor and Merce Cunningham. He has served on the board of Dance/USA and on the juries of a number of international ballet competitions, including those in Varna, Bulgaria, Istanbul, Cape Town, New York and Seoul. Webre's work has received numerous honors, grants and awards. He holds a degree in History/Pre-Law from the University of Texas at Austin and is the seventh son in a large, boisterous Cuban-American family.
A former coryphée of Hong Kong Ballet who has performed numerous lead roles, Irene Lo has been working closely with HKB for over a decade. Currently, she is the Associate Director of Training for HKB’s Classical Ballet Training Programme and the part-time faculty member at The Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts (HKAPA). In 2022, she obtained her Master of Fine Arts in Dance with distinction at HKAPA with a full scholarship from the Hong Kong Jockey Club Music and Dance Fund.
During 2021-2023, Lo was a Rehearsal Mistress for the children who danced in HKB’s Peter Pan, Cinderella, ALICE (in wonderland) and The Nutcracker. In 2018, she was a project coordinator for Scottish Ballet’s Hansel & Gretel. As a certified yoga and aerial yoga instructor, Lo also teaches ballet and yoga at City Contemporary Dance Company and Hong Kong Dance Company. In the past decade, she has been a guest teacher in Cape Town, Johannesburg, Malaysia, Indonesia and Macau.
Her choreographic work includes the TV ad of a Cheung Kong/ Sun Hung Kai Property Grand Jeté, Hello Hong Kong with Hong Kong Tourism Board featuring celebrities Aaron Kwok, Kelly Chan and Sammi Cheng, True Light College’s 150th anniversary musical and Three As One Theatre’s drama No Name.
Lo’s accolades include ‘Most Promising Dancer’ from Friends of Hong Kong Ballet and ‘Outstanding Performance of the Year’ from Hong Kong Dance Alliance. Additionally, Lo was Chief Executive Manager of the Asian Grand Prix (AGP) in 2013-2015 and served as a jury member in the Manila, Malaysia, AGP, Canaan International Competitions and Dance World Cup.
Lynn Liang trained at Shen Zhen Arts School and further studied in The Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts in 2012. She joined Hong Kong Ballet as a member in 2014. After she left the company she became a ballet teacher in 2019. Current, she is a faculty member of Hong Kong Ballet's Classical Ballet Training Programme. She is also a freelance dancer based in Hong Kong.
During the Academy year, Liang obtained a full Scholarship. Liang won silver prizes in the Junior Group at the Asian Grand Prix in 2011 and at the Japan International Tsukuba Ballet Competition in 2010. She won third prize in performance and the Excellent Performance Prize at Taoli Cup Dance Competition in 2009.
Wu Di was a former member of the Corps de Ballet of Hong Kong Ballet. He received his training at Shanghai Dance School, Houston Ballet’s Ben Stevenson Academy on full scholarship and Royal Swedish Ballet School, where he graduated in 2015.
With HKB, Wu has danced the featured role of Italian Doll in Terence Kohler’s The Nutcracker and performed in John Meehan's Swan Lake, Nina Ananiashvili’s Don Quixote, Anna-Marie Holmes’ Le Corsaire, Rudi van Dantzig’s Romeo and Juliet, Ronald Hynd's Coppélia and Alexei Ratmansky’s Le Carnaval des Animaux .
He won second prize in the Senior Division of The Nordic Baltic Ballet Competition in 2015 and received an Outstanding Performance Award in the Junior Division at the Taoli Cup Dance Competition in 2012.
Dawnie Kwok began her ballet training with Cheung Sau Fan, a former Hong Kong Ballet (HKB) dancer. After graduating from Hong Kong Baptist University with a Translation degree, she joined HKB's Education and Community Outreach Department in 2019 and currently serves as a HKB Classical Ballet Training Programme faculty member. In 2024, she was accredited as an Affiliate Teacher through The Royal Ballet School’s Affiliate Training And Assessment Programme.
As a ballet student, Kwok performed with Teatro alla Scala Ballet in A Midsummer Night’s Dream. In 2015, she obtained Distinction in Royal Academy of Dance Advanced 2 Examination. That same year she became a semi-finalist at Genée International Ballet Competition in London and received the Darcey Bussell Genée Bursary.
Corps de Ballet
Born in Hong Kong, Jeremy Chan started his ballet training at Jean M. Wong School of Ballet and received the Tsinforn C Wong Memorial Scholarship to study at The Royal Ballet School in London. He graduated in 2020 with a Bachelor's degree in Classical Dance and then joined Hong Kong Ballet as a Corps de Ballet member. Chan performed in the 2020 Prix de Lausanne Finals Interludes and won third place in the 2016 Youth American Grand Prix in New York.
Corps de Ballet
MR JUSTIN D'AGOSTINO ARTIST
Born in Hong Kong, Leung Saulong trained at The Hong Kong Camy Academy of Dancing, completed the Gifted Young Dance Program under the directorship of The Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts (HKAPA) and received a Diploma in Performing Arts and a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from HKAPA. Leung joined Hong Kong Ballet as an Apprentice in 2015 and became a member of Corps de Ballet in 2019.
With Hong Kong Ballet, Leung has danced in John Meehan's Swan Lake, Terence Kohler’s The Nutcracker, Septime Webre and Charla Genn's Giselle, Anna-Marie Holmes' Le Corsaire, Nina Ananiashvili’s Don Quixote, Rudi van Dantzig’s Romeo and Juliet, Ronald Hynd's Coppélia, Septime Webre's ALICE (in wonderland) and The Great Gatsby and Pär Isberg’s Pinocchio.
Leung received gold awards at the Open Dance Contest in Hong Kong in 2009 and 2011.
Dong Ruixue graduated from Beijing Dance Academy and was a member of The National Ballet of China in 2006. She joined Hong Kong Ballet as a Corps de Ballet member in 2011 and was named Soloist in 2014. After she left the company, she became a ballet teacher in 2021. Currently, she is a faculty member of Hong Kong Ballet's Classical Ballet Training Programme.
With HKB, Dong has danced principal and featured roles, including Juliet in Rudi van Dantzig’s Romeo and Juliet, Ballerina and Clara in Terence Kohler’s The Nutcracker, Dai Yu in Wang Xin Peng’s The Dream of Red Chamber, Princess Florine in Cynthia Harvey’s The Sleeping Beauty, Cinderella in Yuri Ng’s Ballet Classics for Children: Cinderella, Peasant Pas de Deux in John Meehan and Lin Mei-fang’s Giselle, Valencienne in Ronald Hynd’s The Merry Widow, Natalia Makarova’s Swan Lake, John Cranko’s Onegin, George Balanchine’s Jewels and Serenade, Wang Xixian’s The Red Detachment of Women, Zhang Yimou’s Raise the Red Lantern choreographed by Wang Xin Peng.
Cheung Hiu Wah, Joyce majored in Ballet and graduated from The Hong Kong Academy of Performing Arts with a Bachelor of Fine Arts (Honors), where she was awarded a dance faculty scholarship. She has participated and won awards at various dance competitions such as the Hong Kong Challenge Cup Competition, the Hong Kong Open Dance Competition and the Hong Kong (Asia) Solo Dance Competition.
Additionally, Joyce has worked with renowned choreographers like Jonathan Watkins, Kinsun Chan and Raymond Chai.
An experienced ballet teacher of 10 years. She is a certified Royal Academy of Dance (RAD) teacher and American Ballet Theatre National Training Curriculum (ABTNTC) teacher.
