Mariko Sasaki

Japanese dancer Mariko Sasaki is a First Soloist of The Royal Ballet. She trained at The Royal Ballet Upper School and in 2013 graduated into Birmingham Royal Ballet. She joined The Royal Ballet in the 2014/15 Season and was promoted to First Artist in 2021, promoted to Soloist in 2022 and First Soloist in 2024. 

Sasaki was born in Tokyo and trained at the Yuriko Kawaguchi Ballet School. She was a finalist at the 2010 Prix de Lausanne, where she won a scholarship to study at The Royal Ballet Upper School. She also received a scholarship from Ezoe Memorial Recruit Foundation for three years while she studied there.

Her repertory with the Company includes Odette, Prince Siegfried’s Sisters, Polish Princess, Neapolitan, Big Swan, (Swan Lake); Sugar Plum Fairy, Rose Fairy, Mirlitons, Arabian (The Nutcracker); Mercedes, Kitri’s Friend, Queen of Dryads (Don Quixote); Fairy Summer (Cinderella); Fairy of Enchanted Garden, Florestan’s Sisters, Princess Florine (The Sleeping Beauty); Pas de six (Giselle); Inferno, Paradiso (The Dante Project); Katia (A Month in the Country) and roles in Like Water for Chocolate, Rhapsody, Within The Golden Hour, Symphony in C, Les Patineurs, Scènes de ballet, Onegin, Illustrated ‘Farewell’, Jewels, Prima. She created God of Spring in Anemoi and roles in Robert Binet's Dark with Excessive Bright.