BALLET HEADLINERS OF THE YEAR
Alina
Cojocaru
THE NEW WORLD BALLERINA
PRINCESS:
Born in Bucharest, she trained in Kiev for seven years before
joining the Royal Ballet School in 1998 on a Prix de Lausanne scholarship.
Upon completion of her training, six months later, she returned to Kiev to
dance with Kiev Ballet for a year. Her repertory with Kiev Ballet included
Kitri (Don Quixote), Aurora, Princess Florine (Sleeping Beauty), Cinderella,
Clara (Nutcracker), Coppélia, peasant pas de deux (Giselle) and pas de trois,
Hungarian Dance (Swan Lake). She joined The Royal Ballet as an Artist in 1999
and was promoted to First Soloist, 2000. Her repertory includes Symphonic
Variations, Ad infinitum, There Where She Loves and the lead female in
Masquerade.
Alina Cojocaru,
a 19-year old ballerina, recently shot to international stardom after
bedazzling audiences with her performance of Giselle. Described by one
spectator as ‘a pocket Venus with pencil-slender wrists and thoughtful brown
eyes’, the Romanian prodigy is already prima ballerina with the Royal Ballet.
Promoted To Prima
If ballet has a fairy godmother, then she must be keeping a
close eye on Alina Cojocaru. Ten years ago, at the tender age of nine,
Cojocaru left her home and family in Bucharest to study ballet in the
Ukrainian capital Kiev. Less than two seasons ago,
she arrived in London to join the Royal Ballet as one of the company’s
ballerinas. But already she has become prima ballerina.
Last month, to general surprise and acclamation, Cojocaru
was made principal dancer after an enrapturing performance as the lead in the
Royal Ballet’s performance of Giselle.
Whilst
the ballet world was already buzzing with whispers about the wonder of
Cojocaru, none were more surprised than the young dancer herself, when she
learnt that she had been promoted just 18 months after joining the company.
Speaking to a British newspaper about her elevated status,
she recalled her delight: "It was the happiest day
of my life. I didn’t think I would ever be a prima ballerina. I was too
shocked to say anything…Even without promotion it is amazing here. I’m not
used to performing before full houses. Indeed Cojocaru has come a long way
fast. The daughter of market stallholders, from a young age Cojocaru
demonstrated a love for gymnastics. On the advice of
a family friend she took her first ballet class in her native Romania. By the
age of nine she had been offered a place at the Kiev Ballet School, 350 miles
away from her parents. It was here that Cojocaru saw
her first ballet. She was ten years old and remembers being mesmerized by the
whole experience: "I knew about pointe shoes, tutus
and nice dancing, but like children you don’t quite realize how important and
beautiful that all is… After I saw my first ballet I realized that it was not
just dance, it is actually art.’ Inspired by what
she had seen, Cojocaru spent the next nine years perfecting her art. She
quickly rose through the ranks to become prima ballerina of the Kiev Ballet
and then took the unusual step of joining the corps de ballet at Covent
Garden, London. It was a brave move to flip from
being a star in Kiev to becoming part of a group in a new city, but Cojocaru
recognized that talent would not be enough to maintain success and that in
order to achieve perfection she would have to train harder. She comments:” I
was the luckiest one to have the talent and to be able to realize that talent
is not enough, that there has to be more than that, you have to work as well.”
‘It
wasn’t as important to be Principal as to keep building something and to make
the dancing better and stronger. I left Kiev to get the opportunity to do more
on stage and to get more experience… Sometimes there you can make mistakes,
but here you can’t. ’There
can be little doubt that Cojocaru’s drive and ambition will surely lead her to
further success. Having already danced for half of her life, she still has
many ambitions to fulfill. However in the meantime she continues to win the
hearts of critics and audiences alike.
Such is her ease and grace that, having witnessed her
Giselle debut, one spectator was recently led to question whether she knew
‘the part from another life’. They were not far from the truth as Cojocaru
explains: "Once you step on to the stage and the
magic is happening, I won’t say that you forget about the audience, but
sometimes it is not you anymore, it is Giselle or Juliet.’
When you see all of the people around you,
you see them not through your own eyes, but through the eyes of Juliet. It
really is an amazing experience and amazing to share with so many people.’