Ana Gallardo Lobaina

Ana Gallardo Lobaina joined the Royal New Zealand Ballet in January 2020 and was promoted to Soloist in December 2020 and Principal in May 2024, after making her debut as Odette/Odile in Swan Lake. 

Ana’s other highlights at the RNZB include creating the title role in The Firebird (2021 and 2025), Titania in Liam Scarlett’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream (2021 and 2024), and Juliet in Romeo & Juliet (2023), and being part of the creation of To Hold (2024) The Autumn Ball (2022) and Ultra Folly (2021) by RNZB Choreographer in Residence Sarah Foster-Sproull. Since making her debut as both the Lilac Fairy and Carabosse in The Sleeping Beauty (2020) she has performed featured roles in Alice Topp’s Aurum (2021 and 2022), Logos (2023) and High Tide (2024) as well as Wayne McGregor’s Infra (2024), ‘Dark Angel’ in Balanchine’s Serenade (2023), Twyla Tharp’s Waterbaby Bagatelles™ (2021 and 2022) and Christopher Wheeldon’s After the Rain pas de deux (2022 and 2023). 

Other recent roles include the Sugar Plum Fairy in Ty King-Wall’s The Nutcracker (2025), Cinderella and Stepmother in Loughlan Prior’s Cinderella (2022) Juliet and Lady Capulet in Romeo and Juliet (2023) and Requiem for a Rose by Annabelle Lopez Ochoa (2023).  

Born in Holguín, Cuba, Ana attended a regional ballet school, studying full-time at the Cuban National Ballet School in Havana from the age of 14 and later at the Miami City Ballet School and at the Boston Ballet School. In 2012 she joined Cincinnati Ballet as a Second Company member and in 2013 she was promoted to full company member. Her featured roles in Cincinnati included Olympe in The Lady of the Camellias by Val Caniparoli and Minus 16 by Ohad Naharin. In 2017 Ana joined West Australian Ballet, where her featured roles included one of the solo Shades in La Bayadère by Greg Horsman. 

Ana is supported by Ann-Louise and Campbell Gower.