Alina Cojocaru (born May 27, 1981) is a female principal dancer with The Royal Ballet.
Early years
Alina Cojocaru was born and raised in Bucharest, Romania. She has one sister. From a young age she studied gymnastics, ten dance and later began ballet classes, despite never having seen a live ballet.Training
At the age of 10, Cojocaru applied for a place at the Kiev Ballet School in the Ukraine and was one of 9 students from the Ukraine to be accepted into the school. She left her family to train at the school, and did not speak any Russian. Initially, Cojocaru and the other Romanian students were taught separately, before being integrated with the other students in the third year.The ballet school gave a public performance every six months and it was in one of these performances that cojocaru made her debut, dancing the role of Amor in Don Quixote.
In January 1997, aged 16, she competed in the Prix de Lausanne, a prestigious international ballet competition. She won the gold medal, winning a six month scholarship to train at the Royal Ballet School in London. She moved to London that same year to commence her training, but did not speak any English.
Professional career
After completing her six months training with the Royal Ballet School, Cojocaru was offered a contract to join The Royal Ballet as a member of the corps de ballet. She was also offered a contract to join the Kiev Ballet as Principal. She subsequently joined Kiev Ballet in November 1998, believing she would gain greater experience as a Principal dancer. She stayed for one season, dancing a variety of roles.Whilst dancing with Kiev Ballet, Cojocaru re-applied to the Royal Ballet in London, but was only invited to audition for the corps de ballet. She attended an audition for the company whilst on leave from Kiev Ballet and was offered a contract. Doubtful of development opportunities elsewhere, she accepted the contract and joined the company in November 1999. She was then promoted to Principal at the Royal Ballet in London in 2001.
Cojocaru's early appearances with the company included performing in the opening gala for the refurbished Royal Opera House, plus appearances with the corps de baller in the Kingdom of the Shades from La Bayadere, as a snowflake in the Nutcracker and as a doll in Coppelia.
Sources
Ballet.co.uk - Interview with Alina CojocaruExternal links
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Last updated on Tuesday July 22, 2008 at 07:44:01 PDT (GMT -0700)
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