Introduced by David Bintley
Born in Australia, Elisha Willis trained at the Australian Ballet School, joining Australian Ballet in 1999 where she was promoted to Soloist in 2001. She joined Birmingham Royal Ballet in 2003 and, following a succession of accomplished debuts in many leading roles, was promoted to Principal in 2004. Elisha is blessed with a fearless technique and has created a number of important roles in the Company’s repertory, most notably the title role in Cinderella, Roxane in Cyrano and Eurydice in The Orpheus Suite. Since joining the Company she has been slowly building her classical repertory having already taken on the roles of the Sugar Plum Fairy, Aurora, Giselle, Juliet and Swanilda. She is also no stranger to the role of Odette, both in Sir Peter Wright’s Birmingham Royal Ballet production and in the version by Graeme Murphy for Australian Ballet, in which Elisha was invited to guest during a visit to London by that company. Recent successes have included the created role of the female fighter in Faster and a beautifully realised Bathsheba Everdene in Far from the Madding Crowd.

REPERTORY INCLUDES
With Birmingham Royal Ballet
Frederick Ashton: La Fille mal gardée (Lise), The Two Pigeons (Gypsy Girl), Enigma Variations (Dorabella) and Scènes de ballet
George Balanchine: Apollo (Terpsichore, Calliope), Serenade and Duo Concertant
David Bintley: Cinderella (title role), Cyrano (Roxanne), Beauty and the Beast (Belle, Fière), The Prince of the Pagodas (Empress Épine), Far from the Madding Crowd (Bathsheba Everdene), Hobson's Choice (Maggie Hobson), The Nutcracker Sweeties (Candy Kane), The Sons of Horus (Isis, Hapi pas de trois, Duamutef pas de trois), E=mc² and Faster, and David Bintley and Galina Samsova's production of Giselle (Giselle, Moyna, 'Harvest pas de deux')
John Cranko: The Lady and the Fool (La Capricciosa)
Mikhail Fokine: The Firebird (title role)
Michael Kopinski: Dumbarton Oaks
Joe Layton: The Grand Tour (Gertrude Lawrence)
Kenneth MacMillan: Romeo and Juliet (Juliet) and Solitaire (The Girl)
Hans van Manen: Five Tangos and Grosse Fuge
Tywla Tharp: Nine Sinatra Songs ('That's Life') and In the Upper Room
Ninette de Valois: Checkmate (Black Queen)
Peter Wright's productions of The Nutcracker (Sugar Plum Fairy), The Sleeping Beauty (Princess Aurora, Enchanted Princess, Fairy of Modesty, Pas de quatre) and Coppélia (Swanilda) and
Peter Wright and Galina Samsova's production of Swan Lake (pas de trois, Hungarian Princess)

With Australian Ballet
In the middle somewhat elevated, Gemini, Études, Other Dances, Por vos muero, In the Upper Room, Vertiginous Thrill of Exactitude, Don Quixote (Queen of the Dryads), Manon (Courtesan), Giselle (Peasant pas de deux, lead Wilis), Spartacus (Cladia) and Swan Lake (Odette).

CREATED ROLES
David Bintley: Cyrano (Roxanne) The Orpheus Suite (Eurydice), E=mc² ('Energy')
Michael Kopinski: Dumbarton Oaks

GUEST APPEARANCES
Graeme Murphy's production of Swan Lake for Australian Ballet.