Polina Semionova

Polina Semionova was born in Moscow in 1984. She studied at the Bolshoi Ballet School in Moscow and graduated in 2002. She was invited to join the Berlin State Opera Ballet as a principal dancer and became the youngest principal in the company's history as she was only 17 years old. She showed outstanding talent by winning several international ballet competition awards. She toured Japan dancing the lead roles in The Nutcracker and La Bayadère during her first season. She followed with the role of Tatiana in Onegin, which became her favorite role. In 2003, at the age of 19, Semionova performed with the English National Ballet in Swan Lake. The following year she joined the California Ballet in their production of The Sleeping Beauty. Polina Semionova, now 25 years old is not only a very gifted dancer but also a social media phenomenon. Her appearance in Herbert Groenemeyer’s video Letzter Tag (Last Day) made her a big hit on YouTube and she has close to 40,000 fans on her Facebook page. Her repertoire includes: Odette/Odile in Swan Lake (with ENB), Nikiya in La Bayadere, Marie in Nutcracker, Swan Lake Pas de trois, Aurora in Sleeping Beauty, title role in Malakhov's Cinderella, solo role in Balanchine's Ballet Imperial, and roles in modern works by Uwe Scholz and Christian Spuck. Awards she has won: Gold medal at the Moscow International Ballet Competition 2001. First Prize at the Vaganova-Prix Ballet Competition in St Petersburg 2002. Junior Prize at the Nagoya (Japan) International Ballet Competition 2002.