Jelko Yuresha (9 May 1937 – 8 July 2020) was a British ballet dancer and choreographer. He and his wife, ballerina Belinda Wright, toured internationally as “Ambassadors of Dance” for the United Kingdom from 1966 to 1977. In 1959 he partnered with Wright for the first time at a Royal Command Performance before Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother. Early life Jelko Yuresha was born Željko Jureša in Zagreb, Croatia. His stepfather, Andrija, was a shoemaker and his mother, Slavica, a seamstress. During World War II his family was forced to live in underground bunkers because of the occupation by the German army. Between 1944-1945 Zagreb suffered constant bombing by the Allies and his family survived barely at subsistence level. Despite these hardships Yuresha began performing with the children’s theatre of Zagreb’s Artistic School at age six. He studied dance under choreographer Mile Jovanović in Zagreb. On his eighth birthday in 1945, Yugoslav Partisans liberated his hometown. He studied dance under Mile Jovanović in Zagreb and soon after was accepted by the International Ballet School in Kaštel Kambelovac near Split at the end of 1952 where he came under the tutelage of Ana Roje, the Prima Ballerina of the Croatian ballet. Yuresha advanced rapidly through the corps de ballet to soloist with prominent roles. Professional Career in London In 1958 at age 20, Jelko Yuresha emigrated to England, later gaining United Kingdom citizenship. He studied in Kent at Legat School of Ballet, today part of the St. Bede's School Trust. Yuresha was a student of Russian prima ballerina Nadine Nicolaeva-Legat. Yuresha made his professional debut as a first guest artist with the newly formed Irish Theatre Ballet in Dublin. At the 1959 Hastings Musical Festival held in the White Rock Theatre, Hastings, England, he performed his own choreography in a pas de deux. He was awarded first prize at the festival. He joined London Festival Ballet (today English National Ballet) in 1959. On 23 June 1959, Yuresha partnered with Belinda Wright at a Royal Command Performance before Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother in Manchester. He danced in the BBC Eurovision production of Sleeping Beauty with the legendary prima ballerina Dame Margot Fonteyn starring in the title role on 20 December 1959. Yuresha joined the Royal Ballet in 1962, the same month as another Eastern European émigré, Rudolph Nureyev, joined the company. Wright followed Yuresha to the Royal Ballet, and the pair