Jeremy Raia

Jeremy Raia began his training in Queens, NY and went on to graduate from The Juilliard School with a BFA in 1996. He also studied at the Boston Ballet School and the Koniklijk Conservatory in the Netherlands. In 1996, Raia began his professional career with Ballet Arizona, dancing works by George Balanchine, Michael Uthoff and Daniel Ezralow. After two seasons, he was invited to join Les Grands Ballets Canadiens in Montreal, where he was a premiere soloist until retiring in 2018. A dancer of both classical and contemporary works by a multitude of choreographers including George Balanchine, Jiri Kylian, Mats Ek, Nacho Duato, William Forsythe and Ohad Naharin, Raia has originated roles in world premieres by Stijn Celis, Didy Veldman, Mauro Bigonzetti and Stephan Thoss. He has incarnated Romeo and Mercutio in Jean-Christophe Maillot’s Romeo and Juliet, as well as Leonce in Christian Spuck’s Leonce and Lena.

Raia has taught in schools and conventions around the US, Canada and South America. At Les Grands Ballets he taught company class, worked as an assistant to ballet masters and represented the company by teaching master classes during international tours. He has been an artist-in-residence at Hamilton College in New York and Ballet Metropolitano in Colombia. He also restaged Didy Veldman’s choreography on Germany’s Leipzig Ballet. Raia joined BJM in 2018 as ballet master and from August 2020 to May 2021 was Artistic Director – Repertoire in interim.