Aki Saito

Aki Saito was born in Japan.
In 1991 she was awarded a scholarship at Prix de Lausanne, which allowed her to train at the Royal Ballet School Antwerp.

In 1994, she joined the Opera Ballet Flanders as a half soloist and became a first soloist in 1998. She was promoted to the rank of principal in 2004 and since then she has danced most of the principal roles in the company’s classical and contemporary repertoire, including a new version of Swan Lake created by Marcia Haydée for her and her partner Wim Vanlessen.

In addition, Aki has also served as a jury member with the Prix de Lausanne in 2003, 2005, 2007 and 2017, and with the Prix Carpeaux in 2009.