Two Guest Artists – lana Salenko & Evgenia Obraztsova – Announced For The Royal Ballet’s Autumn Season

TWO GUEST ARTISTS ANNOUNCED FOR THE ROYAL BALLET’S AUTUMN SEASON

Kevin O’Hare, Director of The Royal Ballet, is delighted to announce that two Guest Artists will be performing with the Company this Autumn.

Iana Salenko, Principal with Staatsoper Ballet Berlin, will dance the role of Kitri in two performances of Carlos Acosta’s new production of Don Quixote with Steven McRae as Basilio on Saturday 5 and Tuesday 8 October.

We reviewed Iana Salenko in St Petersburg recently and here is the masthead picture. Original caption follows… Iana Salenko (with Marian Walter) in Elegie der Herzen. © Nikolai Krusser. (Click image for larger version)

Born in 1983 in Kiev, Iana Salenko trained at the Pisarev Ballet School in Donezk before graduating in 2000 and joining the Donezk Opera House as a Soloist. In 2002, she became a Principal dancer at the National Opera in Kiev before performing with the Staatsoper Ballet Berlin in 2005. Iana has a wide repertory including Giselle, Aurora, Odette / Odile, Kitri, Cinderella, Juliet and Gamzatti amongst others.

Steven will be partnered on Friday 18 October by Royal Ballet Soloist Akane Takada who will make her debut as Kitri.

Evgenia Obraztsova in Emeralds, from Jewels.© Foteini Christofilopoulou. (Click image for larger version) — Evgenia Obraztsova, dancing with the Bolshoi Ballet, in *Emeralds*, from *Jewels*.
© Foteini Christofilopoulou. (Click image for larger version)

Bolshoi Principal Evgenia Obraztsova, who first performed with The Royal Ballet in The Sleeping Beauty in 2009, will return to dance Juliet to Steven McRae’s Romeo in Romeo and Juliet on Tuesday 22 October and Thursday 14 November.

Evgenia Obraztsova trained at the Vaganova Academy, before graduating in 2002 and joining the Mariinsky. She joined the Bolshoi in 2012 and regularly performs as a guest artist with ballet companies around the world.