Maria Kochetkova was born in Moscow in 1984. She received her professional training at the Bolshoi Ballet Academy, graduating in 2002 (class of Sofia Golovkina). She became an apprentice with The Royal Ballet in 2002. A year later she joined English National ballet and was promoted to the rank of Soloist in 2007. The same year she left ENB to join San Francisco Ballet as a Principal dancer.
Ms. Kochetkova’s repertoire includes the title role in Giselle, Aurora in The Sleeping Beauty, Kitri in Don Quixote, Juliet in Romeo & Juliet, Odette-Odile in Swan Lake, Clara and the Sugar Plum Fairy in The Nutcracker, and the title role in Alice in Wonderland. She has also performed principal roles in William Forsythe’s In the middle, somewhat elevated; George Balanchine’s Divertimento No. 15, Jewels (Emeralds and Rubies), Serenade, and Theme and Variations; and in ballets by David Dawson, Derek Deane, Jorma Elo, Mark Morris, Yuri Possokhov, Alexei Ratmansky, Jerome Robbins, Helgi Tomasson, Christopher Wheeldon, and Hans Van Manen.
She has created principal roles in Possokhov’s Diving into the Lilacs and Raymonda Pas de Deux, Helgi Tomasson’s On a Theme of Paganini, and Wheeldon’s Within the Golden Hour.
Ms. Kochetkova has appeared as a guest artist with numerous companies, including the Mikhailovsky Ballet in St. Petersburg and the Moscow Stanislavsky Ballet. In 2009 she performed Kitri in Don Quixote during the opening night of the NBS World Ballet Festival in Tokyo.
Ms. Kochetkova’s prizes and awards include the Bronze medal at the Moscow International Ballet Competition (2001), the Silver medal and the Press Jury Prize at the Varna IBC (2002), the Gold medal at the Prix de Lausanne (2002), the Gold medal at the Prix de Luxembourg International Ballet Competition (2003), the Gold medal at the International Ballet Competition in Seoul (2005), the Gold medal at the International Ballet Competition in Rome (2005), the Gold medal at the International Ballet Competition in Riety (2005), and a Gold medal in the soloist category of NBC’s Superstars of Dance.
Her performance of the Grand Pas de Deux in San Francisco Ballet’s Nutcracker was broadcast on PBS in 2008.
