Lara Flannery

Lara Flannery joined the Royal New Zealand Ballet as an Apprentice in 2019, performing ballets including Serenade by George Balanchine, Artifact II by William Forsythe and Hansel & Gretel. Lara was one of two Friedlander Scholars in 2020 and was promoted to Company Artist in 2021.

Lara’s early roles with the RNZB include the Fairy of Honesty in The Sleeping Beauty (2020), Zulma in Johan Kobborg and Ethan Stiefel’s Giselle (2021), Coryphée and the third variation in Paquita (2021), and Moth in Liam Scarlett’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream (2021). In 2022, she danced in Cinderella, The Waltz of the Pohutakawa Flowers from The Nutcracker, Olivier Wevers’ The Sofa, Alice Topp’s Aurum and Twyla Tharp’s Waterbaby Bagatelles™. She also performed as the Kiwi in Laura McQueen Schultz and Nick Schultz’s Tāne and the Kiwi. In the digital season Ballet Bites, she performed in Sarah Foster-Sproull’s Artemis Rising and Andrea Schermoly’s Within Without. In 2023, Lara danced as one of Juliet’s Friends in Romeo and Juliet, and in Serenade. For the 2024 revival of Russell Kerr’s Swan Lake, Lara danced as one of the two Big Swans in Act II. In Dazzlehands, RNZB’s 2024 children’s ballet, Lara originated the role of the Cow. She also performed in Sarah Foster-Sproull’s To Hold.

Lara was born in Wellington and began dancing at the age of three. She trained under Paula Hunt at Wellington Dance Academy and went on to join the Scholars and Associates programme at the New Zealand School of Dance. At the age of fifteen, she joined the full-time classical programme at the School. Lara graduated with a Certificate in Dance Performance, then continued training at NZSD before joining the RNZB.

Lara is partnered by the AA.