| Ryoichi Hirano 平野 亮一 | |
| Birth Place: | Osaka, Japan |
| Occupation: | ballet dancer |
| Years Active: | 2001-present |
| Current Group: | The Royal Ballet |
Ryoichi Hirano (平野 亮一, born 1983/84) is a Japanese ballet dancer who is currently a principal dancer with the Royal Ballet in London.
Hirano was born in Osaka. He had his ballet training at his mother's dance school. His brother was a dancer with the National Ballet of Canada.[1]
In 2001, after Hirano competed at the Prix de Lausanne, he became an apprentice with The Royal Ballet in London. He made his stage debut as a corps dancer in the third act of Cranko's Onegin.[2] He joined the company as an Artist in 2002, then became a First Artist in 2007, Soloist in 2008 and First Soloist in 2012.[3] In 2016, at age 32, Hirano was promoted to Principal Dancer.[4] He and Akane Takada, who was promoted the same year, are the third and fourth Japanese principal dancers in the company, after Tetsuya Kumakawa and Miyako Yoshida.[5]
In an October 2018 review in The Guardian, Luke Jennings called Hirano "a dashing dancer and fine actor", but that he and Natalia Osipova were "uneasy bedfellows" in MacMillan’sMayerling.[6]
In a February 2019 review of Hirano's performance as Espada the Matador in Don Quixote, Laura Freeman in The Spectator wrote, "Ryoichi Hirano is the Mata-phwoar. The corps de ballet swoon and flutter. He is sexy, even caddish. I was a Hirano doubter, but this was a magnificent performance: athletic power matched by classical control. A bullfighter one moment, ballerino the next."[7]