Principal dancer of the American Ballet Theatre Polina Semionova

Dancer

Prize-winner at several international competitions, among them the Ballet Dancers’ Competition in Moscow (2001), the Nagoya Competition (Japan, 2002) and the Vaganova-Prix (St Petersburg, 2002). Recipient of the Daphne Berlin Theatre Lovers’ Prize (2004) and the Zukunft Union of German Critics’ award (2005). She was named “Dancer of the Year” in 2007 by German critics.

Born in Moscow. In 2002 she graduated from the Moscow State Academy of Choreography and was invited by Vladimir Malakhov to join the Staatsballett in Berlin, where she is currently a Principal Dancer. Her repertoire includes: Swan Lake (Odette-Odile), Patrice Bart’s The Nutcracker (Masha), Rudolf Nureyev’s The Sleeping Beauty (Aurora), Vladimir Malakhov’s La Bayadère (Nikia), lead roles in the ballets Giselle, Manon, Cinderella and Sylvia in addition to the roles of Tatiana in John Cranko’s Onegin and Sieglinde and Brünnhilde in Maurice Béjart’s Ring um den Ring. She has performed solo roles in ballets by Jiří Kylián, George Balanchine, Uwe Scholz, Jerome Robbins, Roland Petit, William Forsythe and Clark Tippet. Her partners include Roberto Bolle, Jose Carreño, Mathieu Ganio, Vladimir Malakhov, Denis Matvienko and Igor Zelensky.