In Conversation with ALINA COJOCARU OBE … (via Zoom)

Photo credits: 

Headshot ©️ Morgan Norman

Alina and two members of the supporting cast in rehearsal for LA STRADA, with choreographer Natália Horečná  ©️ Vincent Klueger

DATE :  Tuesday 9 January 2024 at 7pm 🇬🇧  

INTERVIEWER :  Daniel Pratt, first soloist of Sarasota Ballet, and, dance writer for Bachtrack, SeeingDance and others. 

Alina Cojocaru OBE, is a former Principal of The Royal Ballet and English National Ballet. After studying at the Royal Ballet School on a Prix de Lausanne scholarship she joined the Kiev Ballet in Ukraine as a principal dancer. Following one season with Kiev, she entered the corps of the Royal Ballet in 1999, was promoted to Soloist at the end of her first season and in April 2001 was promoted to Principal at the age of 19. 

With Royal Ballet Principal Johan Kobborg, she forged an iconic dance partnership, celebrated in their many performances with The Royal Ballet and as guest artists around the world.

Alina left The Royal Ballet at the end of the 2012/13 season to join English National Ballet, where she performed lead roles in all their repertoire and was part of the creative process for Akram Khan’s acclaimed reimagining of Giselle.  Among her numerous awards are Best Female Dancer at the 2002, 2017 and 2018, Critic’s Circle Awards and the 2004 and 2012 Benois de la Danse awards.

Alina is a permanent Guest Principal with John Neumeier’s Hamburg Ballet and continues to dance as a Guest Artist with the world’s foremost ballet companies.  In Hamburg, John Neumeier created the full length ballets Liliom (2012) and The Glass Menagerie (2019) with Alina in the lead female role.

In 2019 she founded her production company ACWorkroom Ltd and in 2022 The Alina Cojocaru Foundation.

Alina last danced in London in 2022, in Alexei Ratmansky’s Giselle and the Nureyev Legend and Legacy galas.

Good news for London … in January 2024, Alina brings a new ballet La Strada, to Sadler’s Wells.  La Strada is commissioned by Alina, based on Federico Fellini’s classic film, in which she plays the waif-like heroine Gelsomina.  In the two lead male roles will be former principal of The Royal Ballet and Royal Danish Ballet, Johan Kobborg (Il Matto, the fool) and former principal of La Scala, Mick Zeni (Zampanò).

Following on in February she will appear in Kim Brandstrup’s new work Metamorphoses in Bath, partnered by Royal Ballet principal Matthew Ball.  In April she makes two guest appearances as Aurora in Birmingham Royal Ballet’s The Sleeping Beauty, again at Sadler’s Wells.

Alina is also scheduled to perform in John Neumeier’s Nutcracker and La Dame aux Camelias in Hamburg in December 2023 and January 2024.

Alina was appointed an Honorary Office of The Order of The British Empire (OBE) in the 2023 Special Honours for services to ballet.