Ian Casady

Ian Casady was born in Fairfax, California, and received his dance training there from David Roxander, Jody White, and Georgia Ortega.  In 1998, Mr. Casady studied at Houston Ballet’s Ben Stevenson Academy before joining the company as a member of the Corps de Ballet.  He was promoted to Soloist in 2002, to First Soloist in 2006, and to Principal in 2007.

Over the course of his career, Mr. Casady has danced a wide range of roles in works by some of the most celebrated choreographers, both past and present.  Some of the works in his diverse repertoire include: Swan Song, Sergeant Early’s Dream, Ghost Dances, Rooster, Intimate Pages, Hush*, and Grinning in Your Face by Christopher Bruce; Sinfonietta, Svadebka, Soldier’s Mass, Forgotten Land, Petit Mort, Wings of Wax, and Stepping Stones by Jiri Kylian; In the Middle Somewhat Elevated, The Vertiginous Thrill of Exactitude, and Artifact Suite by William Forsythe; Jardi Tancat, and Without Words by Nacho Duato; Five Tangos, Solo, and Grosse Fugue by Hans van Manen; Fancy Free, The Concert, Afternoon of a Faun, and West Side Story Suite by Jerome Robbins; The Four Temperaments, Emeralds, Serenade, Western Symphony, Theme and Variations, and Symphony in C by George Balanchine; Gloria, Song of the Earth, Manon, and Mayerling by Sir Kenneth MacMillan; Twilight*, Five Poems*, Four Last Songs, Dracula, Cleopatra, Cinderella, Romeo and Juliet, The Sleeping Beauty, and The Nutcracker by Ben Stevenson, O.B.E.; Madame Butterfly, Marie*, Romeo and Juliet*, Giselle*, Swan Lake, La Bayadere, Cinderella, The Nutcracker*, Indigo, Play, Falling, Maninyas, Divergence, Velocity, Tapestry*, and Sons de l’ame* by Stanton Welch, A.M.; La Fille Mal Gardee by Sir Frederick Ashton; A Midsummer Night’s Dream, by John Nuemeier; The Taming of the Shrew by John Cranko; The Merry Widow by Ronald Hynd; Etudes by Harold Lander; Sandpaper Ballet, Pacific, and The Letter V by Mark Morris; Second Before the Ground, The Tinderbox, and Peter Pan by Trey McIntyre; In the Upper Room, and The Brahms-Haydn Variations by Twyla Tharp; La Sylphide staged by Johnny Eliason; and The Tempest by Sir David Bintley, as well as works by Julia Adam, Christopher Wheeldon, Jorma Elo, Nicolo Fonte, Azure Barton, Wayne Macgregor, Edwaard Liang, and Alexander Ekman.   

Mr. Casady has been fortunate enough to have danced on some of the most historic and famous stages around the world including Lincoln Center and the Kennedy Center in New York, the Bolshoi in Moscow, the Champs Elysee in Paris, the Sydney Opera House, Sadler’s Wells in London, and theaters in Hong Kong, Spain, Germany, and Canada. 

Mr. Casady was a finalist at the 2002 International Ballet Competition in Jackson, Mississippi. His wife, Tyann,  is a former soloist with Houston Ballet. They have a daughter, Emily, who wants to be a ballerina and a veterinarian. 

*works in which roles were originated on Mr. Casady