Alina Cojocaru is a Romanian ballerina and one of the most acclaimed international stars. Often compared to Margot Fonteyn, she is known for her interpretative skills and for the elegant stage presence. She is currently the Royal Ballet principal dancer and has more international invitations than any other ballerina.

By Alexandra Fodor

Alina Cojocaru was born in 1981 in Bucharest, Romania. At the age of ten she applied and was accepted for a scholarship to the well-known Kiev Ballet School in Ukraine. After her arrival in Kiev she made her debut as Amor in Don Quixote.

In 1997, she competed in the Prix de Laussane, a prestigious international ballet competition and won a six-month scholarship at the Royal Ballet School in London. After completing her six-month training, Cojocaru was offered a contract to join the Royal Ballet as a member of the ballet team, but she refused and joined the Kiev Ballet as a principal dancer, believing she would gain greater experience.

In 1999, she moved to the London Royal Ballet, going from team member to principal dancer in less than two years, after her performance as Giselle. Her repertoire with the Royal Ballet includes roles such as Odette in Swan Lake, Juliet in Romeo and Juliet, Princess Aurora in the Sleeping Beauty, Vera in a Month in the Country, Tatiana in Onegin, Sugar Plum Fairy in the Nutcracker.

Her guest appearances include performances with the Kirov Ballet, Paris Opera, Bolshoi Ballet, American Ballet Theater, Royal Danish Ballet, Hungarian National Ballet, Vienna State Opera, Zurich Ballet, National Ballet of Portugal, Ballet of Cuba, Teatro Colon, South African Ballet Theater, Zagreb Ballet, La Scala Ballet, National Ballet of China, National Ballet of Finland, Dortmund Ballet and Munich Ballet.

In 2004, she was the winner of the Benois de la Danse Prize as the best female dancer for her performance in Cinderella and was nominated for the Richard Sherrington Award for Best Female Dancer. In 2009, her performance as Giselle ranked tenth in the top of the best ballet shows of the decade (see a video of the performance below).

In 2010, the Guardian newspaper voted her as one of the 10 best dancers alongside Fred Astaire, Michael Clark, Yuri Soloviev, Carlos Acosta and others. The same year she appeared as a guest artist with the American Ballet Theatre in a performance of the Sleeping Beauty, at the Metropolitan Opera House.

Recently, she received the “Ballerina of the Decade” award, at the Stars of the 21st Century International Ballet Gala, held in Moscow. This is one of the worldwide famous ballet shows organized annually, a charity gala-concert featuring ballet superstars from all over the world.

Read more about Alina Cojocaru on her website here.

alex@romania-insider.com