Sara Garbowski joined the Royal New Zealand Ballet in 2017 and was promoted to Principal at the beginning of 2021.

In 2018, she danced the lead role of Ada in The Piano: the ballet, performed in Jiří Kylián’s Petite Mort, George Balanchine’s Divertimento No. 15 and made her debut as the Sugarplum Fairy in Val Caniparoli’s The Nutcracker.

Other notable career highlights have been dancing the White Swan in Mário Radačovský’s Black Swan, White Swan and one of the lead couples in William Forsythe’s Artifact II. In 2020, Sara took on the roles of Aurora and the Lilac Fairy in The Sleeping Beauty. The following year she danced the Principal Couple in Paquita (2021). During 2022, Sara performed the roles of Step-Sister Madeleine as well as the Stepmother in Loughlan Prior’s Cinderella. Sara danced featured roles in Alice Topp’s Aurum, Sarah Foster Sproull’s The Autumn Ball and Twyla Tharpe’s Waterbaby Bagatelles™ as part of Venus Rising. Among other roles, Sara performed as Dew Drop in Waltz of the Pohutukawa Flowers during 2022’s Tutus on Tour.

Originally from Canada, Sara is a graduate of Canada’s National Ballet School in Toronto where she won the Peter Dwyer Award before joining the National Ballet of Canada.

In 2010 Sara joined the Royal Ballet of Flanders and was promoted to Demi-Soloist in 2013. Stand out repertoire from her time in Belgium include Balanchine’s Who Cares?, Solo Shade in Cynthia Harvey’s La Bayadère, The Kingdom of the Shades, the White Couple in Jiří Kylián’s Forgotten Land and First Pas de Deux in Wayne McGregor’s Infra. In December 2016, Sara performed the pas de deux I Fall For You by Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui at the Harvard Club of Belgium’s award ceremony.

Sara is supported by an anonymous donor.