Polina Semionova

Born in Moscow in 1984, Polina Semionova studied at the Bolshoi Ballet School. Graduating in 2002, Semionova was invited to join the Berlin State Opera Ballet as a Principal Dancer, becoming at the age of 17, the youngest Principal in the company's history. During her first season she danced the leading roles in The Nutcracker and La Bayadère and Tatiana in Onegin.

Semionova's repertoire includes Odette-Odile in Swan Lake, Nikiya in La Bayadère, Marie in The Nutcracker, Princess Aurora in Sleeping Beauty, Swanilda in Coppélia, Kitri in Don Quixote, Giselle in Giselle, Tatiana in John Cranko's Onegin, Sieglinde and Brünhilde in Maurice Bejart's Ring um den Ring, Manon in Manon, Juliet in John Cranko's Romeo and Juliet, Cinderella in Vladimir Malakhov's Cinderella, Carmen in Roland Petit's Carmen and Sylvia in Sir Frederick Ashton's Sylvia. She performed principal roles in Jerome Robbins' Afternoon of a Faun, George Balanchine's Ballet Imperial, Apollo (Terpsichore), A Midsummer Night's Dream, Tchaikovsky Pas de Deux, and Diamonds pas de deux, William Forsythe's The Vertiginous Thrill of Exactitude and Jiří Kylián's Return to the Strange Land. She has also appeared in works by Mauro Bigonzetti, Renato Zanella, Uwe Scholz and Christian Spuck. Semionova created Cinderella in Malakhov's Cinderella and Creativity in Bigonzetti's Caravaggio.

Semionova has appeared as a guest artist with the English National Ballet in Swan Lake; Tokyo Ballet in Ashton's Sylvia; Teatro alla Scala as Nikiya in La Bayadère, Carmen in Petit's Carmen, Titania in Balanchine's Midsummer Night's Dream; Vienna State Opera Ballet as Swanilda in Coppélia and Giselle in Giselle; Maryinsky Ballet as Nikiya in La Bayadère, Zobeide in Fokine's Scheherezade, Giselle in Giselle and Odette-Odile in Swan Lake; Bolshoi Ballet as Odette-Odile in Swan Lake and Nikiya in La Bayadère; The Stuttgart Ballet as Tatiana in Cranko's Onegin, and joined the California Ballet.

Semionova stars as Odette-Odile in the Zurich Ballet production of Swan Lake which was recently filmed and released on DVD by Bel Air Classiques. She appears as the ballerina in Herbert Grönemeyer's music video Demo (Letzter Tag) and is one of the featured artists in EuroArts DVD Divine Dancers Live from Prague, in which she dances the pas de deux from the ballet Manon.

Semionova's awards include a gold medal at the Moscow International Ballet Competition in 2001, First Prize at the Vaganova-Prix Ballet Competition in St. Petersburg and the Junior Prize at the Nagoya International Ballet Competition in 2002, Daphne Prize (2004), German Critics Choice Award (2005) and the Dance Open Award (2010).

She first appeared as a Guest Artist with ABT in 2011 and joined the Company as a Principal Dancer in September 2012. Her repertoire with the Company includes Terpsichore in Apollo, Nikiya in La Bayadère, Kitri in Don Quixote, Myrta in Giselle and Odette-Odile in Swan Lake.

Since the beginning of the 2012/2013 season Polina Semionova is a frequent guest with Bavarian State Ballet. She already performed several leading roles, e.g. in Neumeier's The Nutcracker and Petipa's/Bart's La Bayadère and, in the 2013/2014 season, the part of Titania/Hippolyta in Neumeier's A Midsummer Night's Dream and in The Lady of the Camellias.