Cecilia Iliesiu. She danced briefly as a soloist with the Carolina Ballet before joining PNB in 2015. Since then, Iliesiu has danced as lead and featured performer in numerous PNB programs—and for good reason: she has a powerful stage presence, in part due to her huge extensions, coupled with reliably impressive balance. This was especially evidenced in the June 2020 program, in which Iliesiu was featured in a trio in Price Suddarth’s Signature. Her utterly confident and cunning Emilia in Limon’s The Moor’s Pavane offered the audience both melodrama and connection to character rarely seen.

Photo credit: © Lindsay Thomas.