Callahan Laird

Callahan Laird performed in Balanchine’s Serenade with the Royal New Zealand Ballet in 2019 on secondment from the New Zealand School of Dance and joined the company as the Todd Scholar in 2020. He was promoted to Artist in 2021. 

In the 2024 season of Russell Kerr’s Swan Lake, Callahan performed in the Hungarian Divertissement in Act III. 2023 saw Callahan dance in Annabelle Lopez Ochoa’s Requiem for a Rose and lead the haka in Moss Patterson’s Te Ao Mārama. In 2022, he performed in Loughlan Prior’s Cinderella, Shaun James Kelly’s The Ground Beneath Our Feet and Olivier Wevers’ The Sofa. He also performed as Tūi in Laura McQueen Schultz and Nick Schultz’s Tāne and the Kiwi. As part of the Ballet Bites digital season, he performed in Sarah Foster-Sproull’s Artemis Rising. Whilst at the RNZB, his other roles have included the Wolf in Act III of The Sleeping Beauty (2020). 

Callahan grew up in Christchurch and trained at Levings School of Dance for ten years under Avril Levings (2006-2015) before attending the Southern Ballet Theatre for two years under Glen Harris and Lioudmila Solovieva (2016-2017). He was a New Zealand School of Dance Scholar and Associate for three years before joining NZSD as a Classical Major in 2018 until 2019, where highlights included Betsy Erickson’s Sfumato and Gerald Arpino’s Round of Angels. 

Callahan attended a six-week exchange with Canada’s National Ballet School, and he also participated in the RNZB’s National Mentor Programme.