# Jenna Roberts

Jenna Roberts is a retired Australian ballet dancer, formerly a principal dancer with Birmingham Royal Ballet (BRB)

## Biography

Roberts was born in Newcastle, New South Wales, and trained at the Marie Walton-Mahon Dance Academy in Newcastle, Australia, and the Royal Ballet Upper School. Joining Birmingham Royal Ballet in 2003, she quickly rose through the company. In 2006 she starred as Juliet for the "Ballet Hoo!" project, a collaboration between BRB, Channel 4, the charity Youth at Risk and local authorities. She suffered a setback after a severe injury in 2007, returning to achieve a promotion to company principal at the end of the 2011–12 season. Roberts has been acclaimed as a masterful Balanchine interpreter, credited for combining ethereal elegance with outstanding stamina to craft leading roles. After her younger sister Callie Roberts joined the company the two siblings performed together in works including Cinderella.
Roberts has recently created roles in a number of short ballets, working with the contemporary American choreographer Jessica Lang in Lyric Pieces, and dancing as the Fairy in Michael Corder's Le Baiser de la fée. In 2014 The Observer reported that an "incandescent Jenna Roberts steals the show" in Alexander Whitley's new ballet Kin.
Having retired from dancing, she now teaches Pilates, and she and husband Joseph Caley relocated to Australia in 2022, where Caley has become a principal artist with The Australian Ballet

## General repertory

| Ballet | Role | Choreographer |
| Agon | Principal couple | George Balanchine |
| Allegri diversi | | David Bintley |
| Apollo | Terpsichore | George Balanchine |
| Beauty and the Beast | Belle | David Bintley |
| Checkmate | | Ninette de Valois |
| Cinderella | Summer | David Bintley |
| Concerto pas de deux | | Kenneth MacMillan |
| Coppélia | Swanilda's Friends and Prayer | Peter Wright |
| The Dance House | | David Bintley |
| Dante Sonata | | Frederick Ashton |
| Daphnis and Chloë | Chloë | Frederick Ashton |
| Dumbarton Oaks | | Michael Kopisnki |
| E=mc² | Mass | David Bintley |
| Elite Syncopations | Bethena Concert Waltz | Kenneth MacMillan |
| La Fille mal gardée | Lise's Friends | Frederick Ashton |
| Five Tangos | | Hans van Manen |
| The Four Seasons | | Oliver Hindle |
| Giselle | Harvest pas de deux | David Bintley |
| Hobson's Choice | Salvation Army | David Bintley |
| Kin | | Alexander Whitley |
| The Lady and the Fool | | John Cranko |
| Lyric Pieces | | Jessica Lang |
| Monotones II | | Frederick Ashton |
| The Nutcracker | Sugar Plum Fairy, Snow Fairy | Peter Wright |
| The Nutcracker Sweeties | Chinoiserie | David Bintley |
| The Orpheus Suite | | David Bintley |
| The Rite of Spring | | Millicent Hodson and Kenneth Archer (reconstruction) |
| Romeo and Juliet | Juliet | Kenneth MacMillan |
| Scènes de ballet | | Frederick Ashton |
| The Shakespeare Suite | Juliet | David Bintley |
| Solitaire | Girl | Kenneth MacMillan |
| The Sleeping Beauty | Princess Aurora | Peter Wright |
| The Sons of Horus | | David Bintley |
| Symphonic Variations | | Frederick Ashton |
| Symphony in Three Movements | | George Balanchine |
| The Two Pigeons | | Frederick Ashton |
| Western Symphony | First movement | George Balanchine |