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Daria Pavlenko


Daria Pavlenko was born in Moscow on 19 November 1978. Following the example of her older sister, she went training at the Vaganova Academy in then Leningrad. She completed the full eight-year course with Olga Iskanderova and, for the last three years, with Yelena Yevteyeva. Upon graduation in June 1996, Daria Pavlenko joined the Mariinsky Ballet as a member of the corps de ballet.

Never much publicized, Daria Pavlenko nonetheless developed into one of the company's most fascinating talents of recent years. Physically gifted and cast in a more traditional mould than most of her colleagues of her generation, Pavlenko quickly revealed herself as a superb stylist, equally at home in the traditional, classical repertoire as in the new choreographies the Mariinsky is adopting. She approaches her roles with an agreeable respect for the style and colour of the piece, while her characters come alive with a dramatic eloquence providing a welcome relief for the empty brilliance frequently seen with many dancers of her age.

Daria Pavlenko's career followed a more traditional path than is common in the Mariinsky Ballet, where stars are now often made overnight. In her case the daily corps de ballet work preceded the more prominent assignments. In her second season at the Mariinsky she began to prepare her first soloist roles, mainly under the guidance of Gabriella Komleva, one of the most distinguished ballerinas of the previous generation. In 1998 Pavlenko danced Maria in Zakharov's dram-ballet Fountain of Bakhchisarai, the Lilac Fairy in the old Konstantin Sergeyev production of The Sleeping Beauty, and Gamzatti in La Bayadère. At the end of that year she was also cast in Alexei Ratmansky's challenging Middle Duet with Islom Baimuradov. In April 1999 Pavlenko was selected to dance the 3rd Act of The Sleeping Beauty in the Gala evening dedicated to her repetiteur Gabriella Komleva.

In her fourth season Daria Pavlenko, now a soloist, made her debut as Odette-Odile in Swan Lake and danced the second ballerina role in Rubies. During the large-scale Summer engagement in London's Covent Garden in June 2000, she particularly distinguished herself by accepting and learning the lead in Balanchine's Diamonds in less than a day. By also learning Emeralds later that year, Pavlenko became one of the very few ballerinas who tackles with equal success the principal parts in all three sections of Jewels, a rare feat that perfectly illustrates her versatility.

Pavlenko's range was even more revealed by some remarkable debuts during her fifth and sixth seasons at the Mariinsky. In August 2001 she danced her first Giselle, followed by The Legend of Love in November of that year, the Siren in Balanchine's Prodigal Son in December 2001, and Raymonda in January 2002.

Her Giselle, thankfully avoiding the pitfall of artificiality, conveyed an attractive simplicity, while the vulnerability of the character was much enhanced by her careful and delicate acting. Her Mekhmene Banu in The Legend of Love is by all means a fine achievement. Pavlenko blended the orientalizing angularities and sharpness of Grigorovich's choreography with the more lyrical passages extremely well, investing the character with a powerful tragic undertone.

During the second Mariinsky Ballet Festival in March 2002, she danced the Siren to Paris Opera Ballet guest star Nicolas Le Riche's Prodigal Son.

Daria Pavlenko has been touring worldwide with the Mariinsky Ballet. Among her dancing partners are Danila Korsuntsev, Viktor Baranov, Igor Zelensky, Igor Kolb, Andrei Merkuriev, Alexander Kurkov, and Leonid Sarafanov. Her partners from outside the Mariinsky include Roberto Bolle (La Scala), Nicolas Le Riche (POB), Ethan Stiefel (ABT), and Nikolai Tsiskaridze (Bolshoi). In her fifth season at the Kirov she started working again with her teacher from the Vaganova Academy, Yelena Yevteyeva. In early 2003 Pavlenko became a first soloist; in February 2004 she was promoted to principal.

In recent seasons Daria Pavlenko further demonstrated her versatility and affinities with contemporary choreography. She became one of the Mariinsky's ablest dancers of the Forsythe repertory. During the 5th International Ballet Festival at the Mariinsky in March 2005 she created roles in David Dawson's Reverence and Kirill Simonov's Daphnis and Chloe. She also successfully danced the title role in Alexei Ratmansky's version of Cinderella and premiered two one-act ballets by Alexei Miroshnichenko, Wie der Alte Leiermann... and The Ring during the 7th edition of the Mariinsky's International Ballet Festival.

In April 2002 Daria Pavlenko received a special jury award at the Golden Mask Festival (Moscow) for her performance as the Snow Queen in Shemyakin's Nutcracker and in June 2002 she was awarded the Baltika Prize "Hope" (St. Petersburg). In September 2006 she received the Positano Award "Leonid Massine" (Italy).

In October 2003 Pavlenko guested with the Royal Ballet at London's Covent Garden, dancing the role of Nikiya in Natalia Makarova's production of La Bayadère. Her partner was Roberto Bolle. In October 2006 she danced the title role in Maki Asami's staging of Raymonda with the New National Theatre Ballet in Tokyo.

Official website of Daria Pavlenko.

Marc Haegeman



Her repertory includes:

  • Clémence in Raymonda (Petipa, staged by K. Sergeyev)
  • soloist in Chopiniana (Fokine)
  • Moyna/Zulma in Giselle (Coralli/Perrot, Petipa)
  • Odalisque in Le Corsaire (Gusev after Petipa)
  • Big Swan and pas de trois in Swan Lake (Petipa-Ivanov, staged by K. Sergeyev)
  • Violente in The Sleeping Beauty (Petipa, staged by K. Sergeyev)
  • Maria in The Fountain of Bakhchisarai (Zakharov)(1998)
  • Lilac Fairy in The Sleeping Beauty (Petipa, staged by K. Sergeyev) (1998)
  • Gamzatti in La Bayadère (1998) (Petipa, staged by Ponomarev, Chabukiani)
  • soloist in Middle Duet (Ratmansky) (1998)
  • soloist in Paquita Grand Pas (Petipa, staged by Vinogradov)
  • Calliope in Apollo (Balanchine)
  • 4th movement of Symphony in C (Balanchine)
  • Lilac Fairy and Princess Florine in The Sleeping Beauty (Petipa, staged by Vikharev) (1999)
  • Odette-Odile in Swan Lake (Petipa-Ivanov, staged by K. Sergeyev) (2000)
  • soloist in Rubies from Jewels (Balanchine) (2000)
  • soloist in Diamonds from Jewels (Balanchine) (2000)
  • soloist in Emeralds from Jewels (Balanchine) (2000)
  • Myrtha in Giselle (Coralli/Perrot, staged by Garofoli) (with Arena Ballet, Verona) (2001)
  • Masha, Snow Queen and Oriental Dance in The Nutcracker (Simonov) (2001)
  • the girl in Leningrad Symphony (Belsky) (2001)
  • title role in Giselle (Coralli/Perrot, Petipa) (2001)
  • Mekhmene Banu in The Legend Of Love (Grigorovich) (2001)
  • the Siren in Prodigal Son (Balanchine) (2001)
  • The Dying Swan (Fokine) (2001)
  • soloist in Sounds of Empty Pages (Neumeier) (2002)
  • title role in Raymonda (Petipa, staged by K. Sergeyev) (2002)
  • Nikiya in La Bayadère (Petipa, staged by Vikharev) (2002)
  • soloist in Serenade (Balanchine) (2002
  • soloist in Jeune homme et la mort (Petit) (2003)
  • Terpsichore in Apollo (Balanchine) (2003)
  • Nikiya in La Bayadère (Petipa, staged by Makarova) (with the Royal Ballet) (2003)
  • soloist in Etudes (Lander) (2004)
  • soloist in La Valse (Balanchine) (2004)
  • soloist in Steptext (Forsythe) (2004)
  • title role in Manon (MacMillan) (2005)
  • the girl in Le Spectre de la Rose (Fokine) (2005)
  • soloist (cr) in Reverence (Dawson) (2005)
  • soloist (cr) in Daphnis and Chloe (Simonov) (2005)
  • Zobeide in Scheherazade (Fokine) (2006)
  • Sofi in The Golden Age (Gelber) (2006)
  • title role in Raymonda (Petipa, staged by M. Asami) (with New National Theatre Ballet, Tokyo) (2006)
  • title role in Cinderella (Ratmansky) (2007)
  • soloist (cr) in Wie der Alte Leiermann... (Miroshnichenko) (2007)
  • soloist (cr) in The Ring (Miroshnichenko) (2007)


Copyright © 2001-2007
Text and photos of  Daria Pavlenko Copyright © 2001-2007 Marc Haegeman. All rights reserved.