Fumi Kaneko

Japanese dancer Fumi Kaneko is a Principal of The Royal Ballet. She joined the Company during the 2010/11 Season and was promoted to First Artist in 2012, Soloist in 2013, First Soloist in 2018, and Principal, 2021.

Kaneko trained at the Jinushi Kaoru Ballet School, Osaka. She won gold medal at the Varna International Ballet Competition, 2008, and silver medals at the Moscow International Ballet Competition, 2009, and the USA International Ballet Competition, 2010. That year she joined the Jinushi Kaoru Ballet Company, where her roles included Clara and the Sugar Plum Fairy (The Nutcracker) and Kitri (Don Quixote).

Kaneko’s repertory with The Royal Ballet includes Manon, Cinderella, Fairy Godmother (Cinderella), Odette/Odile, Juliet, Kitri, Sugar Plum Fairy, Princess Aurora and Lilac Fairy (The Sleeping Beauty), Gypsy Girl (The Two Pigeons), Myrtha (Giselle), pas d’action (Prince of the Pagodas), Odette/Odile (Swan Lake), Countess Larisch and Mitzi Caspar (Mayerling), Hermione (The Winter's Tale), Polyhymnia (Apollo), Mama Elena (Like Water for Chocolate), third moment (Concerto) and roles in Les Rendezvous, Corybantic Games, Viscera, The Four Temperaments, Sweet Violets, Limen, Infra, ‘Diana and Actaeon’ (Metamorphosis: Titian 2012), Woolf Works, Asphodel Meadows, Symphony in C, Medusa, Dances at a Gathering, Within the Golden Hour, After the Rain, In Our Wishes and Scènes de ballet. She created roles including Jessica Lang's Twinkle, Untitled, 2023, The Dante Project and Prima.

Awards include Critics' Circle National Dance Awards 2023 Best Female Dancer.