Jayda Zhu (she/her) is a dance artist who grew up in Vancouver, BC. She began her training through musical theatre, where she performed with Theatre Under the Stars and Perry Ehrlich’s Showstoppers before focusing on dance at Goh Ballet and Poirier Productions. In 2022, she joined the Arts Umbrella Dance Company as a Pre-Grad and went on to graduate from the Post-Secondary AU/VCC Dance Diploma Program in 2025. She was also a member of the AUTour Dance Company. Jayda is grateful to have received the Developing Artist Grant from The Hnatyshyn Foundation, along with Arts Umbrella Creative Launchpad Scholarships.

During her time at Arts Umbrella, Jayda worked with many choreographers, including Crystal Pite, Ella Rothschild, Cyril Baldy, Astrid Boons, Fernando Magadan, Ethan Colangelo, and Felix Landerer, and performed works by William Forsythe, Sharon Eyal, Marco Goecke, Marcos Morau, and Aszure Barton. In 2025, she choreographed her own piece for the Young Choreographers Showcase, “As People Part,” mentored by Crystal Pite.

In her final year at Arts Umbrella, Jayda had the privilege of touring with Ballet BC to perform Frontier by Crystal Pite, and BOLERO X by Shahar Binyamini across Germany and Luxembourg. She has also performed and participated in the Nederlandse Dansdagen Festival in Maastricht, with the AUTour Dance Company. This is Jayda’s first season with Ballet BC.