Mia Zanardo

Mia Zanardo is a Company Artist with BIG Live. She grew up in Sydney, Australia, where she trained from the age of 3 in classical ballet, contemporary, jazz, Spanish flamenco, musical theatre and tap. Her passion for classical ballet led her to numerous national and international awards, including a Gold Medal at the 2019 Genee International Ballet Competition in Toronto, the Royal Academy of Dance Solo Seal in 2020, and Senior Classical and Contemporary winner at the 2020 Australasian Ballet Competition. Mia trained internationally on scholarship at the Hamburg Ballet School under John Neumeier (2021), Canada’s National Ballet School (2020) and the Palucca University of Dance Dresden (2020), before settling in Brisbane in 2022. She joined the Queensland Ballet Academy Pre-Professional Program on an Energex Scholarship, graduating the same year with the Most Outstanding Result in Classical Ballet and a contract as a Queensland Ballet Jette Parker Young Artist. As a 2023 Young Artist, Mia performed the lead role of the Little Mermaid in Queensland Ballet’s sold-out season of The Little Mermaid, and Clara in Ben Stevenson’s The Nutcracker. She also danced in Sir Kenneth MacMillan’s Elite Syncopations (in Li’s Love & Legacy Gala), Derek Deane’s Strictly Gershwin, Marius Petipa’s Giselle, MacMillan’s Manon, and as the Bird in Greg Horsman’s Peter and the Wolf. Mia joined BIG Live in 2024 and has since toured across Australia and New Zealand, with highlights including Myrtle in Joel Burke’s The Great Gatsby, Clara and the Kissing Doll in The Nutcracker, and a Ghost in Dracula, as well as performances in Romeo and Juliet.