Artistic Staff
Jaciel Gomez
Artistic Director
Jaciel trained at the National Ballet School in Cuba and graduated as a professional ballet teacher. As a Principal Dancer with the Cuban National Ballet Company and the Alberta Ballet Company, Jaciel worked with many choreographers including George Balanchine, August Bournonville, Alicia Alonso, Igal Perry, James Kelly and Jean Grand-Maitre among others. He has toured around the world and performed many roles including Swan Lake, Don Quixote, Giselle The Magic Flute, Prolongo Para Una Tragedia, Nocturno, Othello, The Nutcracker, The Four Temperments and Divertiment No. 15, Mozart's Requiem to name just a few.
He has been a guest dancer for many Jeunesse Classique Ballet productions, as well as running rehearsals. Jaciel became artistic director in 2023 following the retirement of JCB founder Umran Sumen.
Yairelys Sosa
Rehearsal Mistress
Yairelys was trained at the Cuban National Ballet where she received classical training in addition to earning her teaching Diploma of classical ballet. As a soloist of the Cuban National Ballet Company, she danced many roles including Alfonisina Pas de deux, Giselle, Sleeping Beauty, Swan Lake, Don Quixote, Romeo and Juliet and many others. She has a solid contemporary, Balanchine and Bournonville repertoire.
As a Dancer with the Alberta Ballet, Yairelys danced in all the major productions including The Nutcracker, Love Lies Bleeding, Cinderella, Madam Butterfly and Fumbling Towards Ecstasy. Yairelys became an RAD Registered Teacher in 2020.
Rachel Mclean
Rehearsal Mistress
Rachel was introduced to ballet at the age of 6, and began dancing with Jeunesse Classique Ballet around the same time. During her time as a dancer with JCB, she danced many roles including Clara and Sugarplum. After achieving distinction on her RAD Advanced 2 exams, she spent a year training at the Goh Ballet Academy before returning to pursue her studies at the University of Calgary where she received a Masters degree in Computer Science.
In 2013 she began to work with JCB as a rehearsal assistant. Since then she has contributed to many productions including The Nutcracker, Coppelia, and Sleeping Beauty as rehearsal mistress and assistant artistic director.
Lauren Saunders
Rehearsal Assistant
Lauren trained at many prestigious ballet schools including the International School of Ballet, Alberta Ballet, and Royal Winnipeg Ballet. In 2019 she competed in The Fonteyn (formerly Genee) International Ballet Competition.
She has danced with Jeunesse Classique Ballet for many years, starting as a Seraphim in The Nutcracker, to Clara to Snow Queen, then all the way to Sugarplum. She has also enjoyed performing in The Sleeping Beauty where she danced as Aurora and most recently Coppelia where she danced as Swanhilda. She also gained professional dance experience performing with the corps in RWB’s The Nutcracker as well as RWB's Swan Lake.
She is currently studying at the University of Calgary where she is majoring in Kinesiology with a minor in Dance.
