VILIA PUTRIUS was born in Lithuania and received her early training at the Vilnius Ballet School. In 1995, following graduation, she joined the Lithuanian National Opera and Ballet Theatre where she was a soloist for five years. In 2001, Ms. Putrius joined Ballet Arlington in Texas as a principal dancer where she performed for three years before joining Boston Ballet in 2004. Favorite roles include Terpsichore in Apollo, Juliet in Romeo and Juliet, Hermia in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Sugar Plum Fairy in The Nutcracker, Coppelia in Coppelia, Dark Angel in Coma, Odette and Odile in Swan Lake, Giselle and Myrtha in Giselle and Nurida in Eldar Aliev’s A Thousand and One Nights, with principal roles in Allegro Brillante, Donizetti Variations, Paquita and Les Sylphides. She also performed the pas de deux from The Sleeping Beauty, Esmeralda, Grande Pas Classique and the Tchaikovsky Pas de Deux. Ms. Putrius joined Festival Ballet Providence in 2006, where she also teaches classical ballet and character dance and has choreographed for Festival Ballet’s Up Close on Hope performance series.