The standard person is capable of feeling and experiencing so many emotions that common words simply do not do all of them justice sometimes. This led to the creation of various art forms of all kinds. Music, paintings, and performances such as acting are typical ways that people may convey hard to describe feelings. However, there is another art form that has a storied history of true champions: ballet.
Ballet dance has been a favourite art form of many people for an incredible amount of time. This gorgeous and artistic ballet dance style has dominated the hearts of millions for centuries. It’s easy to imagine that in all that time, there have been scores of legends emerge from the shadows. As such, we have decided to shine a spotlight on six famous female ballet dancers and the highlights in their dance careers:
1. Tamara Rojo
Tamara Rojo is a female ballet dancer who has performed with both the Royal Ballet and the National English Ballet where she was named Artistic Director in 2012. It has been an international success and is one of the hardest popular and recognizable faces of modern ballet.
However, her passage to the National English Ballet did not indicate her withdrawal from the stage. She continues to dance as a guest artist, and has been praised both for her undoubted talent and her interpretative skills.
Over the years, she has established a cooperative partnership with Carlos Acosta. The two were recently assembled in Derek Deane’s production of Romeo and Juliet, in which Rojo’s performance was held in high regard by critics.
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2. Daria Klimentova
Daria Klimentová is a famous female ballet dancer with a 25-year career, finally retiring from professional ballet in 2014. The last 18 years of her career have been spent as part of the English National Ballet where she became director in 1996.
A staunch defender of the classics, Klimentová warned of the dangers of interpretation in an interview with the Guardian, where she described famous classical ballets as ‘magical’ and hoped that their importance would not be forgotten by future generations of innovations seeking dancers.
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3. Misty Copeland
A Missouri-born dancer, Misty Copeland is a female ballet dancer with African, German and Italian blood. While her love of dance didn’t truly begin developing until she was a young teen, her education at the School of Ballet of San Francisco helped catch her up quickly.
In the time since she began her studies, Copeland has become the first African-American female ballet dancer to become the American Ballet’s principal dancer. She has also produced a fantastic autobiography that in turn received the documentary treatment, effectively translating her journey to film.
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4. Alina Cojocaru
Alina Cojocaru left the Royal Ballet in 2013, after a bitter incident that led her to toss away 13 years of that service with that company in exchange for the English National Ballet under the artistic direction of Tamara Rojo. It is said that she found Rojo’s vitality intriguing and inspiring. The two competitors have united to create a company with a strange mix of talent that works well together. Cojocaru is one of the main stars of this project, naturally.
Her collaboration with Johan Kobborg has been hailed as one of the most successful in the history of ballet. She was also widely praised for her role in John Neumeier’s Liliom with the Hamburg Ballet. This role was written especially for her, in fact, and saw her win the Benois de la Danse Prize for the second time, the only ballerina to do so.
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5. Zenaida Yanowsky
Originally born in France, Zenaida Yanowsky was the child of two dancers of the Lyon Opera Ballet. As a child, Yanowsky was used to traveling with the company, though she did not decide to pursue ballet until the late age of 14. She has since pursued a remarkable career with the Royal Ballet, which she joined in 1994, being promoted to Director in 2001.
Not only is Yanowsky known for the most classic ballet papers, she has also created roles for several directors, including her Queen of Hearts at Christopher Wheeldon’s Alice Adventures in Wonderland and more recently Paulina in his Winter History.
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6. Natalia Osipova
Born in Moscow, Natalia Osipova is an award-winning dancer who started dancing at the very young age of five. This famous female ballet dancer was trained at Mikhail Lavrovsky Ballet School and has since danced with the world’s leading companies, including the Bolshoi, as well as the Mikhailovsky and even the Royal Ballet, where she became Director in 2013.
She is also a guest dancer with several prestigious companies, including the American Ballet Theatre. Known for its flying jumps, which reach an astonishing height thanks to naturally light frame, Osipova’s repertoire includes the main roles in Romeo and Juliet, Coppelia, Lake Swan and Giselle. She has won the Best Dancer award three times, more than any other female star, most recently in 2013.
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