Maria Kochetkova and Daniil Simkin in La Sylphide

Maria Kochetkova and Daniil Simkin in La Sylphide, music Herman Severin Løvenskiold, choreography August Bournonville. Russian Ballet Icons Gala 2019 in the Coliseum Theatre, London, 31.3.2019,

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Check out all galleries from Russian Ballet Icons Gala 2019

Maria Kochetkova (Rus. Мария Кочеткова; born 1984 in Moscow, Russia), is a Russian ballet dancer who performed as a Principal Dancer with both the San Francisco Ballet and American Ballet Theatre. Kochetkova trained at the Moscow State Academy of Choreography, in the class of Sofia Golovkina for eight years before dancing with The Royal Ballet and English National Ballet in London. She danced with the San Francisco Ballet as a principal dancer from 2007 and joined the American Ballet Theatre as a principal dancer in 2015. After appearing as a Guest Artist with American Ballet Theatre from 2013 to 2015, she was named a principal dancer at ABT in June 2015. She performed as a principal with both San Francisco Ballet and ABT beginning 2015.

Daniil Simkin (born 1987 in Novosibirsk) is a Russian ballet dancer and principal dancer with American Ballet Theatre. His parents Dmitrij Simkin and Olga Aleksandrova are also ballet dancers. The family left the Soviet Union in 1990. His parents were engaged to dance in Graz, then took engagements in various cities in Germany before settling in Wiesbaden in 1993, where he spent the rest of his childhood. Unlike most professional ballet dancers Simkin did not attend a vocational ballet school. He was coached privately by his mother, who became a ballet teacher after retiring from dancing in 1999. Simkin’s first professional position was with the Vienna State Opera Ballet, where he was a demi-soloist from 2006 to 2008. During this time he made his debut in a principal role as a guest with the Lithuanian National Opera and Ballet Theatre. In 2008 he became a soloist at the American Ballet Theatre in New York, and in 2012 he was promoted to principal dancer.

Photos by Jack Devant ballet photography © with kind permission of the Ensemble Productions, special thanks to Olga Balakleets and Kristina Buravcova.