Karen Pilkington-Miksa MBE
Founder, Artistic and Executive Director
Karen is the Founding Director of The New English Ballet Theatre. She holds a degree in education and is an Associate of the Royal Academy of Dance (ARAD).
Karen grew up in Washington D.C. She joined Seattle Ballet after finishing her degree in Dance Education at the University of Washington. After leaving Seattle Ballet, Karen moved to England as a freelance dancer and choreographer and opened the Knightsbridge Ballet School, which she ran successfully for 12 years. Parallel to her successful business career, Karen ran her own performance company and has choreographed for ballet, opera and the BBC.
In 2010, Karen founded New English Ballet Theatre (NEBT) as a reaction to a perceived lack of career opportunities for emerging ballet dancers and choreographers. A registered charity, NEBT’s mission is it to nurture and develop young talent in dance, choreography, music and design by providing high quality stage experience in a nurturing company setting. No other UK company is focused solely on contributing to the development of new ballet choreography alongside emerging talent.
Valentino Zucchetti
Creative Producer
Valentino was born in Calcinate and began training locally aged four. Aged 11 he moved to Milan to study at La Scala Ballet School. At 16 he was offered a scholarship to study at The Royal Ballet Upper School and while there won the 2006 Genée International Ballet Competition and the 2007 Solo Seal award. Following training at The Royal Ballet Upper School he joined Zürich Ballet. He joined the Royal Ballet in 2010, promoted to First Artist in 2011, Soloist in 2012 and First Soloist in 2014.
Valentino won the Royal Ballet School’s Ursula Moreton Choreographic Award in 2005. He choreographed Sonata for Six for the School’s 2013 matinee and regularly creates pieces for The Royal Ballet’s Draft Works. His 2020 ballet Scherzo for The Royal Ballet received the South Bank Sky Arts Award for Dance. His ballet Anemoi created for the main stage of the Royal Opera House received its world premiere in June 2021 and won the Critic’s Circle National Dance Award for Best Classical Choreography in 2022. In 2022, he created Prima for The Royal Ballet: A Diamond Celebration.
For NEBT, Valentino created Orbital Motion, which was part of our 2013, 2014 and 2015 seasons, Enticement’s Lure (2016) and Firth of Fifth as part of Genesis Dance Project.
Emily Bridge
Company/General Manager
Originally from Oxford, Emily trained at Elmhurst Ballet School, graduating in 2007 with a National Diploma in Professional Dance.
Over her professional career Emily danced with English National Ballet, Birmingham Royal Ballet and Vienna Festival Ballet.
In 2012 Emily took over as Ballet Mistress of Vienna Festival Ballet where over the next 8 years she re-choreographed many of Vienna Festival’s major productions. including Swan Lake, Coppelia, Giselle and Rhapsody in Blue and also restaged all productions. Emily has taught at London Children’s Ballet, The Northampton School of Dance, and School of Dance Mortlake and held many outreach workshops throughout the country.
She is delighted about joining the team as Company/General Manager at NEBT.
Katie Tucker
Arts Administrator
Andrew Ellis
Lighting Director
His other lighting designs for NEBT include: Into the Spotlight, The Four Seasons, New Works, Remembrance, Quint-Essential, and Tryst.
Alice Pennefather
Film-maker
British film-maker Alice Pennefather spent 6 years travelling and working abroad, focusing on scuba diving and filming underwater. Returning to London in 2011 she rediscovered her love of dance and movement.
With several years’ experience photographing for companies such as The Royal Ballet, Garsington Opera, Ballet Cymru and NEBT, she has also developed her skills with moving image above and below the water on several commercials, major BBC and ITV dramas, short films and major feature films. Her short dance films have gone on to achieve official acceptance to film festivals worldwide and won several awards.
Lisa James
Costume Supervisor
Helga Brandt
Marketing Consultant
Helga has been working in the arts and heritage sectors for more than 20 years; roles including marketing, PR, dramaturgy, public engagement and fundraising.
She has worked with tanzhaus nrw and Ballett Kiel (both Germany), Pavilion Dance South West, Hofesh Shechter Company and Stopgap Dance Company, among others. In 2018, Helga launched her own Arts Marketing Consultancy, The Write Brandt.
Judy Lipsey
Publicist
Judy Lipsey is a dynamic arts and entertainment publicist and is proud to be a member of the New English Ballet Theatre team. Judy has worked for three of the major record labels (Sony, EMI, BMG), co-founded Lipsey Meade PR in the 1990s, The Works PR in the 2000s where she worked with Michael Ball, Elaine Paige, DV8 Physical Theatre, Wynton Marsalis and Steven Berkoff and Premier PR where she was Associate Director. She formed Lipsey PR in 2019.
Her clients include New English Ballet Theatre, Mark Bruce Company, Lost Dog Dance, OVO Theatre Productions, the annual Let’s Dance International Frontiers festival, and Rubicon Dance Company.
José Alves
Social Media Consultant
Born in Brazil, José started ballet at the age of 13 and graduated from the Bolshoi Theatre School in Brazil in 2008.
He danced with the Ballet Company of the Young (Palace of Arts) in Belo, Brazil, and with Teatr Muzyczny w Łódz in Poland, before joining Ballet Black for the 2012/13 season, where he was promoted to Senior Artist in 2014.
José has danced in original choreography by Javier de Frutos, Will Tuckett, Ludovic Ondiviela and created the roles of Demetrius and Bottom in A Dream Within a Midsummer Night’s Dream by Arthur Pita, and The Son in Mark Bruce’s Second Coming.
After a year at Polski Teatr Tańca (Polish Dance Theatre), José returned to Ballet Black in 2016, where he danced roles in Martin Lawrance’s Captured and Annabelle Lopez-Ochoa’s Red Riding Hood and Arthur Pita’s A Dream Within A Midsummer Night’s Dream. He was also one of the lead dancers in the Company’s first live stream on World Ballet Day 2017.
In 2018, he won the 2018 Critics’ Circle National Dance Award for Outstanding Male Classical Dancer for creating the role of Philemon in Cathy Marston’s The Suit. Between 2019 and 2021, José danced in new ballets by Sophie Laplane, Mthuthuzeil November, Peter Leung, Will Tuckett and Martin Lawrance. His biography, A História De Um Bailarino Incomum by Taís Fernanda Reis was published in 2021.
In 2022 José was a guest artist in Ivan Putrov’s Men In Motion gala, performing the stage version of EIGHTFOLD: Love by Peter Leung and Le Train Bleu by Bronislava Nijinska.
Lisa Marie Probert
Head of Dance of our Cultural Partnership at Lyric Hammersmith Children’s classes
Lisa studied at the Royal Ballet School and danced with the Royal Ballet, London City Ballet, then moved to Denmark to dance with the Peter Schaufuss Ballet, followed by 10 years at English National Ballet and guest dancing with Ballet Ireland in the role of Juliet.