Polina Semionova was born in Moscow in 1984. She trained at the Bolshoi Ballet Academy (class of Sofia Golovkina). Ms. Semionova was recruited by the Staatsballett Berlin while still a student at the Academy, and joined that company as a Principal Dancer following her graduation in 2002. She was 17 years old.
Ms. Semionova’s repertoire includes Odette/Odile in Swan Lake, Nikiya in La Bayadère, Marie in The Nutcracker, Aurora in The Sleeping Beauty, Swanilda in Coppèlia, Kitri in Don Quixote, the title role in Giselle, Tatiana in John Cranko’s Onegin, Sieglinde and Brünnhilde in Maurice Bejart’s Ring um den Ring, Manon Lesco in Manon, Juliet in Cranko’s Romeo and Juliet, Cinderella in Vladimir Malakhov's Cinderella, Carmen in Roland Petit’s eponymous ballet, and the title role in Sir Frederick Ashton’s Sylvia. She performs principal roles in Jerome Robbins’ Afternoon of a Faun; George Balanchine's Ballet Imperial, Apollo (Terpsichore), Midsummer night’s Dream, Tchaikovsky Pas de Deux, Diamonds Pas de Deux; William Forsythe’s The Vertiginous Thrill of Exactitude; and Jiri Kylian’s Return to the Strange Land. She has also appeared in works by Mauro Bigonzetti, Renato Zanella, Uwe Scholz, and Christian Spuck.
Ms. Semionova has created roles in Mr. Malakhov’s Cinderella (Cinderella) and Mr. Bigonzetti’s Caravaggio (Creativity).
As a guest artist Ms. Semionova has performed with Tokyo Ballet (Sylvia in Ashton’s Sylvia), The English National Ballet (Odette-Odile in Swan Lake), Teatro alla Scala (Nikya in La Bayadere, Carmen in Petit’ Carmen, Titania in Balanchine’s Midsummer Night’s Dream), Vienna State Opera Ballet (Swanilda in Coppelia, the title role in Giselle), Mariinsky Ballet (Nikya in La Bayadere, Zobeide in Fokin’s Scheherezade, Giselle, and Odette-Odile in Swan Lake), Bolshoi Ballet (Odette-Odile in Swan Lake, Nikiya in La Bayadere), and The Stuttgart Ballet (Tatiana in Cranko’s Onegin).
Her awards include the Gold medal in the Junior Division at the Moscow International Ballet Competition (2001), the Gold medal at the Vaganova-Prix Ballet Competition in St. Petersburg (2002), Junior Gold medal at the Nagoya International Ballet Competition in Japan (2002), Daphne Prize (2004), German Critic Choice Award (2005), and the Dance Open Award (2010).
She stars as Odette-Odile in the Zurich Ballet production of Swan Lake which was recently filmed and released on DVD by Bel Air Classiques. Ms. Semionova is also the ballerina in Herbert Grönemeyer's music video "Demo (Letzter Tag)".
