MAY YEN CHEAH
Soloist

May Yen started ballet at the age of 4 in Malaysia and moved to Australia at 6. She studied ballet and contemporary at the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts, where she received the Finley Award, Dame Peggy van Praag Award, and the Leinster Dance Scholarship. She later danced on British Cruise Ship – Saga Ruby (2007); UK Tour of West Side Story (2008/09), Chanoch Rozen’s Wow Love (2009) in Israel, Australian Tour of West Side Story (2010), and Melbourne productions, Release by Adrian Ricks and Choreotopography by Kim Vincs (2011).

May Yen joined SDT in August 2011 and was promoted to Soloist in 2015. Her first feature roles began with Spanish pas de quatre in Swan Lake (2012), Fairy of Abundance and Diamond (pas de trois) in Sleeping Beauty (2012), and Val Caniparoli’s Chant (world premiere 2012). Her repertoire highlights are Dryad Queen and Kitri’s Bridesmaid in Don Quixote, Fate in Romeo and Juliet ,Val Caniparoli’s Lambarena and Swipe, Tim Harbour’s Another Energy (world premiere 2016), Tim Rushton’s Evening Voices (world premiere 2018).

Other soloist roles include pas de trois and Tarantella in Swan Lake,  pas de trois in Paquita, Señorita in Bournonville Divertissements, Spanish & Chinese Flowers in The Nutcracker, Schubert Symphony, and Autumn pas de deux in Natalie Weir’s 4Seasons. She has also danced in Coppélia, Giselle, Serenade, Theme and Variations, Fives,  Waiting…, ZIN!,  Absence of Story, Organ Concerto, Jabula, Age of Innocence, Divertimento No. 15, Slide, Opus 25, Traces We Left Behind, Bliss, Midnight Waltzes, Piano Concerto No.2, Opus 102, Symphony in Three Movements, Shadow’s Edge, Incomparable Beauty, 13th Heaven, Triptych, The Four Temperaments,  Linea Adora, Blue Snow, Sync, The Light Behind Us, The Third Reset, Variations From A Distance, Quiver and Ibsen’s House.

May Yen most recently performed in Choo San Goh’s Momemtum and In the Glow of the Night .