Ricardo Castellanos

After Ricardo Castellanos' debut in the leading role of Solor in La Bayadère, ClassicalMusic.com wrote the following: «He achieves a weightless height in his leaps, almost seeming to hang in the air, his pirouettes are dead-on and last impossibly long. He conveys the dramatic story with technique and feeling and it is harder to imagine a stronger debut than this.» 
 
He has danced the role of Prince Siegfried in the 2nd act of Makarova’s Swan Lake, Albrecht in Giselle, the main couple in Balanchines Emeralds and Diamonds, the leading male role in Balanchine’s Allegro Brillante and soloist in the 1st movement in Balanchine’s Symphony in C, the title role of Cranko’s Onegin, Romeo in the balcony pas de deux from Corder’s Romeo and Juliet, and Rothbart in Holmes’ Swan Lake. 

He has also danced the role of Des Grieux in MacMillan’s Manon, the Prince in Spuck’s Sleeping Beauty, the Prince in Stevenson’s Cinderella, and starred Mats Ek’s A Sort Of... and Kylián's One of a Kind, No More Play and Symphony of Psalms. 
 
Spanish-Cuban Castellanos (born in 1997) began dancing at the age of nine with La Companya Juvenil de Ballet Clàssic de Catalunya in Barcelona before continuing his studies with his father, Rodolfo Castellanos. He studied at the Royal Ballet School in London and performed in such ballets as Don Quixote, Sleeping Beauty, Giselle and Le Corsaire before joining the Norwegian National Ballet 2 in the autumn of 2016. In 2017, he went on to the main company, where he was promoted Principal Dancer in the autumn of 2022. 

Besides being Principal Dancer with the Norwegian National Ballet, Castellanos has a great international career as a guest artist. Among other things, he danced the male lead role in Balanchine's Theme and Variations at the English National Ballet, in the performance R:Evolution (2025).