Brendan Saye

Brendan Saye was born in Vancouver. He received his education at Canada’s National Ballet School. In 2008 he became a member of The National Ballet of Canada where he was promoted to Principal Dancer in 2019. His extensive repertoire includes main roles such as Albrecht in »Giselle« (Wright), Siegfried in »Swan Lake« (Kudelka), Prince Florimund in »Sleeping Beauty« (Nureyev), Oberon in »The Dream« (Ashton), Romeo and Tybalt in »Romeo and Juliet« (Ratmansky), Lewis Carroll/The White Rabbit in »Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland«, Polixenes in »The Winter’s Tale« and the Pas de deux in »After the Rain« (all works by Christopher Wheeldon), the title role in George Balanchine's »Apollo« and Phlegmatic in his »The Four Temperaments«, Karenin in »Anna Karenina« (Neumeier) and The Man in »The Four Seasons« (Kudelka). Furthermore, he danced in works by William Forsythe, Wayne McGregor, Jiří Kylián, Kenneth MacMillan, Justin Peck, Twyla Tharp, Robert Binet and Guillaume Côté. In 2012, Brendan Saye represented the National Ballet of Canada in The International Competition for The Erik Bruhn Prize and received the Patron Award of Merit. While studying at Canada's National Ballet School, he also received the Peter Dwyer Award and the Christopher Ondaatje Prize in 2008. In the 2022/23 season he joined the Vienna State Ballet as first soloist. He made his debut at the Vienna State Opera as Prince Désiré in the world premiere of Martin Schläpfer's  »The Sleeping Beauty«, followed by the title role in John Cranko's »Onegin«, Duke Albrecht in Elena Tchernichovaʼs »Giselle«, Espada in Rudolf Nureyevʼs »Don Quixote«, Armand Duval in John Neumeier's »The Lady of the Camellias« and and solo parts in George Balanchine's »Symphony in C«, Hans van Manen's »Four Schumann Pieces«, Martin Schläpfer's »Lontano« and Heinz Spoerliʼs »Goldberg-Variationen«.