Charlotte Tonkinson

British dancer Charlotte Tonkinson is a First Artist of The Royal Ballet. She joined The Royal Ballet’s Aud Jebsen Young Dancers Programme from the start of the 2016/17 Season and entered the Company as an Artist from the start of the 2017/18 Season, promoted to First Artist, 2022. She trained at The Royal Ballet Upper School. 

Tonkinson was born in Doncaster. She began dancing aged six and trained locally at Haydon’s Dance Academy. Aged 11 she joined the Academy of Northern Ballet, training with Yoko Ichino, Cara O’Shea, Viki Westall and Simon Kidd, and aged 16 joined The Royal Ballet Upper School. Awards while at the School included reaching the finals of Young British Dancer of the Year 2014. Performances in the School’s annual matinees included in Stijn Celis’s Vertigo Maze, Jerome Robbins’s The Mistake Waltz and David Bintley’s SpringTime. 

Tonkinson’s professional performances while a student included in The Nutcracker with Northern Ballet, Swan Lake and Cinderella on tour with Birmingham Royal Ballet and The Nutcracker and Giselle with The Royal Ballet. 

With the Company, her roles include Kitri's Friend (Don Quixote), Fairy of the Enchanted Garden (The Sleeping Beauty), pas de six (Giselle), Juliet's Friend (Romeo and Juliet ), Prince Siegfried's Sister and Cygnet (Swan Lake), Mirliton (The Nutcracker) and roles in Anemoi, Corybantic Games, Scènes de ballet and Anemoi. She has created roles in Gemma Bond's Boundless, Joshua Junker's Never Known and Untitled, 2023.