Yohei Sasaki is a fine, elegant dancer with the Royal Ballet. On the couple of occasions I've chatted with him, he also seems very charming. On one occasion he was standing in the ROH stalls circle to see a friend perform a role for the first time. <P><BR><B>Ballet dancer Sasaki attains lofty heights</B> <BR>The Yomiuri Shimbun/Daily Yomiuri - Japan<P><BR>Yohei Sasaki is one of the many Japanese dancers who dreamed of becoming as accomplished as internationally-renowned ballet dancer Tetsuya Kumakawa. But what makes Sasaki different from the others is that he achieved his goal.<P>Last September, the 26-year-old Sasaki secured a place as one of the first soloists in the Royal Ballet in London, the second highest rank among the prestigious company's five-rank hierarchy. Sasaki joined the company nearly a decade ago, and soon after won an award at Prix de Lausanne.<P>"Kumakawa-san told me many things about London so I simply didn't have time to feel homesick," Sasaki reminisced about Kumakawa, who was the first Asian national to join the Royal Ballet. "The only thing that tortured me was the schedule--lessons started at 8:30 in the morning."<P><A HREF="http://globalarchive.ft.com/globalarchive/article.html?id=020207002215&query=ballet" TARGET=_blank><B>click for more</B></A>