Irina Zhelonkina has been a dancer with the Kirov Ballet since 1989. She was born in Tcheboksary and trained at the Vaganova Ballet Academy (pupil of Natalia Dudinskaya) in Leningrad. In 1995 she was made a first soloist.

With dancing that is remarkably restrained in manner and unemphatic in technique, with featherlight, effortless leaps, and flowing movements, Irina Zhelonkina has become a supreme classicist. Her physique combines delicate, feminine charm with an exquisitely refined plastique. Of middle-height, beautifully proportioned, with chiseled legs and arms, in a way a dancer like Irina Zhelonkina looks out of place in the Kirov company of the nineties, dominated by slim, long-limbed ballerinas.

Irina Zhelonkina has never been in the forefront in the Kirov company. Western audiences mainly know her as the tireless soloist, performing in numerous pas deux and solos of the Petipa-classics. Zhelonkina is the Kirov's ideal interpreter of those charming, witty, and virtuoso pieces like Harlequinade and Carnival in Venice, or Street Dancer in Don Quixote (and few will forget with what lightness and ease she skimmed through the solo with the bells in The Fountain of Bakhchisarai), but proves also very much at home in the nocturnal, romantic atmosphere of Chopiniana.

All too occasional appearances in leading roles provided a tantalising glimpse of her artistic potential: she is a true Petersburg Aurora, an aristocratic and proud Gamzatti, a vulnerable Shirin in Legend Of Love, a mischievous Ballerina in Petruskha, a touching Polish princess in The Fountain of Bakhchisarai, and one of the most convincing Giselles in this company.

Irina Zhelonkina prepares her roles with Olga Moiseyeva. On 14 February 2003 Irina Zhelonkina received the title of Honoured Artist of Russia.

Marc Haegeman

Her repertoire includes:

• Aurora, Violente and Princess Florine in The Sleeping Beauty
• title role and Peasant pas de deux in Giselle
• Masha, Pas de trois, and Doll in The Nutcracker
• Gamzatti and 2nd Shade in La Bayadère
• Gulnara and Odalisque in Le Corsaire
• Street Dancer, Queen of the Dryads and Flower Girl in Don Quixote
• Pas de trois in Swan Lake
• Maria and Bell dancer in The Fountain of Bakhchisarai
• Shirin in Legend Of Love
• Mazurka, Waltz and Prelude Girl in Chopiniana
• Ballerina in Petrushka
• Raymonda's friend in Raymonda
• Juliet's friend in Romeo and Juliet
• Variation in Grand Pas from Paquita
• Polyhymnia in Apollo
• Fanny Cerrito in Pas de Quatre
• Pas de trois from The Fairy Doll
• Pas de six from Markitenka
• Pas de deux from Harlequinade
• Pas de deux from Carnival in Venice

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Copyright © 2001-2003
Text and photo of  Irina Zhelonkina Copyright © 2001-2003 Marc Haegeman. All rights reserved.