Marcelino Sambé

Marcelino Sambé is a Principal of The Royal Ballet. He trained at The Royal Ballet Upper School and Escola de dança do Conservatório Nacional in Lisbon.

He joined the Royal Ballet in 2012/13 Season, where he was promoted to First Artist in 2014, Soloist in 2015, First Soloist in 2017 and Principal in 2019.

His repertory with the company includes Crown Prince Rudolf (Mayerling), Romeo (Romeo and Juliet) Prince Siegfried (Swan Lake), Albrecht (Giselle), Franz (Coppélia), Colas (La Fille mal gardée), Oberon (The Dream), Prince/Hans-Peter (The Nutcracker), Lescaut (Manon), Basilio (Don Quixote), Blue Boy (Les Patineurs) and in The Vertiginous Thrill of Exactitude, Tarantella, Jewels, The Human Seasons, Obsidian Tear, Aeternum, Requiem, La Valse, Aeternum, Within the Golden Hour, Multiverse, Elite Syncopations, Tchaikovsky Pas de Deux, Symphony in C, The Human Seasons, Infra, Concerto, Medusa, Dances at a Gathering, Voices of Spring, woman with water, Solo Echo and Rhapsody. He created Pedro in Christopher Wheeldon’s Like Water for Chocolate and roles in Kyle Abraham’s Optional Family: A Divertissement, Crystal Pite’s Flight Pattern, Kim Brandstrup’s Ceremony of Innocence, Marriott’s Connectome, Hofesh Shechter’s Untouchable, Cathy Marston’s The Cellist and Wayne McGregor’s Woolf Works and The Dante Project.

He won several ballet competitions whilst a student, and as a professional he has received several awards including, UK Critics’ Circle National Dance Awards for Outstanding Male Classical Performance (2017) and Best Male Dancer (2019) and Outstanding Male Classical Performance (2020).