Principal of New National Theatre Ballet, Tokyo

Ryuji Yamamoto was born in Osaka prefecture, Japan. In 1986, he started to learn both jazz dance and classic ballet under Kaori, Kurumi and Keiko Yagami at the Ballet Studio "K".

In 1993, he attended at the Joffrey Ballet School in New York as a scholarship student, and then joined Joffrey Ballet company. He received the second prize in the Pas de deux category at the Kwangju International Ballet Competition (South Korea) in 1995.
In 1997, he was accepted by New National Theatre Ballet company as a soloist, and then has performed the leading roles in all the ballets of classic and modern repertoire of the company, including Swan lake, The Sleeping Beauty, Nutcracker, Giselle, Don Quixote, La Bayadere, Raymonda, La Sylphide and others.

He has received high reputation for his distinguished dance and his capability for interpreting and profoundly elaborating his role in any works. In particular, he was well recognized for works by modern choreographers, such as Frederick Ashton (Cinderella), Kenneth MacMillan (Romeo and Juliet), Roland Petit (La Chauve-Souri and Coppelia), Asami Maki (La Dame aux Camellias), Dominic Walsh (Orfeo ed Euridice) and so on. With his successful career, he performed additional leading role in "Aladdin" by David Bintley, which was world premiered at the opening performance of 2008/2009 season.

R.Yamamoto received several nationally recognized awards: the Einosuke Nakagwa Prize (2003), the Chieko Hattori Prize (2005), the Akiko Tachibana Prize (2007), the Prize of Minister of Education of Japan "The Art Encouragement Prize for New Artists".