Promotions to principal at age 21

[FionaM]

Elizaveta Kokoreva and Dmitry Smilevski were both promoted to principals at the Bolshoi last night …. when they performed the lead roles in Pierre Lacotte’s <Pharaoh’s Daughter>
 

These two dancers graduated from the Moscow Academy in 2019 and are age 21.  
 

Many clips on social media. 
https://instagram.com/kokolizik?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=

https://instagram.com/dmitry_smile?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=

[Jan McNulty]

I believe Alina Cojocaru was promoted to principal at the Royal Ballet at the age of 20.

[Diandri]

Darcey Bussell was promoted at 20 as well, first night of Prince of the Pagodas if I recall.

 

The late Beryl Grey debuted in Swan Lake at 15 & then as Giselle on her 17th birthday!

[FionaM]

Alina was promoted at 19 to principal at RB.   Before that she was a principal at age 17 at the National Ballet of Ukraine in Kiev. 

[FionaM]

Anyone promoted to principal before age 25 is pretty exceptional! 

[TSR101]

I think the below is roughly accurate for some more. I think it's actually strange that the Royal Ballet has not promoted anyone so young for quite so time. Ball, Hayward and Naghdi at around 24 are the youngest promotions I think recently. 
 

Svetlana Zakharova 18 Mariinsky Ballet

Sylvie Guillem 19 Paris Opera Ballet

Alina Cojocaru 19 Royal Ballet

Marianela Nunez 20 Royal Ballet

Sergei Polunin 20 Royal Ballet

Darcey Bussell 20 Royal Ballet

Alessandra Ferri 20 Royal Ballet

Mathieu Ganio 20 Paris Opera Ballet

Diana Vishneva 20 Mariinsky Ballet

Manuel Legris 21 Paris Opera Ballet

Viviana Durante 21 Royal Ballet

Ulyana Lopatkina 21 Mariinsky Ballet

Tetsuya Kumakawa 21 Royal Ballet

Alina Somova 22 Mariinsky Ballet

Igor Zelensky 22 Mariinsky Ballet

Laurent Hilaire 22 Paris Opera Ballet

 

In terms of Bolshoi, I think Smirnova was 25, Osipova 24 and maybe Kovaleva 23/4?

 

I think Vadim was 21 at ENB too.  

Edited April 16, 2023 by TSR101

[Angela]

I don't know if this counts as promotion, but Polina Semionova was hired as a principal by Vladimir Malakhov right from the Bolshoi Academy; she had just turned 18, I think, and never spent a day in the corps de ballet.

[Sophoife]

Paris Opéra Ballet 23 years old in the recent past:

Germain Louvet

Hugo Marchand

Paul Marque

Guillaume Diop

 

 

Edited April 17, 2023 by Sophoife
Forgot Paul Marque

[capybara]

Cesar Corrales - 20 at ENB; 24 at the RB

[Emeralds]

Nicolas Le Riche- 21, Paris Opera Ballet

Tiler Peck- 20, New York City Ballet

Paloma Herrera- 19, American Ballet Theatre

Yuan Yuan Tan-20, San Francisco Ballet

David Wall- 20, Royal Ballet (a record at the time, till it was equalled by Alessandra Ferri and Darcey Bussell)

Katherine Healy - 15, Trinidad Sevillano- 16, both London Festival Ballet (now ENB). Like Polina Semionova, not technically promotions, as both were hired by Peter Schaufuss to join LFB as principal dancers (if I recall correctly, it was Healy’s first professional dance company job too).

 

Edited April 17, 2023 by Emeralds

[Bruce Wall]

Mira Nadon whose promotion to principal at NYCB last month (just before coming in Tiler Peck's SW's London show) is 21.  NYCB has a long history of promotions at this age or below.  Darci Kistler was 17 when she was promoted to principal by Balanchine. 

 

 

 

 

Edited April 17, 2023 by Bruce Wall

[TSR101]

5 hours ago, capybara said:

Cesar Corrales - 20 at ENB; 24 at the RB

 

5 minutes ago, Emeralds said:

Nicolas Le Riche- 21, Paris Opera Ballet

Tiler Peck- 20, New York City Ballet

Paloma Herrera- 19, American Ballet Theatre

Yuan Yuan Tan-20, San Francisco Ballet

David Wall- 20, Royal Ballet (a record at the time, till it was equalled by Alessandra Ferri and Darcey Bussell)

Katherine Healy - 15, Trinidad Sevillano- 16, both London Festival Ballet (now ENB). Like Polina Semionova, not technically promotions, as both were hired by Peter Schaufuss to join LFB as principal dancers (if I recall correctly, it was Healy’s first professional dance company job too).

 

 

I would add it is difficult to compare companies - even comparing the big four is not that a true like for like. For example Cesar was made a principal at 20 with ENB but when he moved to RB he started at First Soloist. There was a clear expectation that he still had to prove that he was good enough to be a principal at a bigger more prestigious company. That took three years. On the other had, Vadim principal with ENB at 21 joined as a principal directly.

 

Other early promotions:

- Roberto Bolle 20 La Scala

- Sarah Lamb 22 Boston Ballet (although when she joined RB as first soloist and made principal at 25 ROH I believe)

- Johan Kobborg 22 Royal Danish Ballet

[capybara]

34 minutes ago, TSR101 said:

 

I would add it is difficult to compare companies - even comparing the big four is not that a true like for like.

 

 
Agree and it’s difficult to compare eras as well.

 

But all this is very interesting.

[Jane S]

Alban Lendorf 21 Royal Danish Ballet

[TSR101]

In case of interest, I had this discussion a while back with some people and the list (focused on the big four) below is the extension of the one above. Again some ages may be slightly out if promotion date/birthday were unclear but is roughly right.

The Mariinsky definitely appeared to favour earlier promotion. The RB seemingly has pushed back from early promotion and Reece Clarke was doing major principal roles well before he was promoted at 27. POB is renown for the problems caused by its etoile system so based upon how the AD behaves - Guillem, Legris and Hillaire all promoted by Nureyev and make up the bulk of the earliest POB promotions in the list and sometimes involved skipping ranks.  

 

Steven McRae 23 Royal Ballet

Jonathan Cope 23 Royal Ballet

Hugo Marchand 23 Paris Opera Ballet

Paul Marque 23 Paris Opera Ballet

Natalia Osipova 24 Bolshoi Ballet

Isabelle Guerin 24 Paris Opera Ballet

Dorothee Gilbert 24 Paris Opera Ballet

Matthew Ball 24 Royal Ballet

Lauren Cuthbertson 24 Royal Ballet

Francesca Hayward 24 Royal Ballet

Yasmine Naghdi 24 Royal Ballet

Olga Smirnova 25 Bolshoi Ballet

Aurelie Dupont 25 Paris Opera Ballet

Zenaida Yanowsky 25 Royal Ballet

Svetlana Lunkina 26 Bolshoi Ballet

Marcelino Sambe 26 Royal Ballet

Vladimir Skylyarov 26 Mariinsky Ballet

Akane Takada 26 Royal Ballet

Leonore Baulac 26 Paris Opera Ballet

Emilie Cozette 26 Paris Opera Ballet

Anna Rose O’Sullivan 27 Royal Ballet

Matara Magri 27 Royal Ballet

Reece Clarke 27 Royal Ballet

Evgenia Obraztsova 28 Mariinsky Ballet

Valentine Colasante 28 Paris Opera Ballet

Ludmila Pagliero 28 Paris Opera Ballet

Edward Watson 29 Royal Ballet

Fumi Kaneko 29/30 Royal Ballet

Alexander Campbell 30 Royal Ballet

Stephane Bullion 30 Paris Opera Ballet

Myriam Ould-Braham 30 Paris Opera Ballet

William Bracewell 31 Royal Ballet

Sae Eun Park 31 Paris Opera Ballet

Ryoichi Hirano 32 Royal Ballet

[alison]

Talking about Paris Opera Ballet and skipping ranks, should the newly-promoted Monsieur Diop be in there?

[Dawnstar]

17 minutes ago, TSR101 said:

The Mariinsky definitely appeared to favour earlier promotion. The RB seemingly has pushed back from early promotion

 

When Bracewell was promoted last year, I was surprised to discover he was already 31. I know more dancers are dancing for longer, into their 40s, but not all dancers are so if someone doesn't make it to Principal until they're in their 30s then they could only have a few years at that rank. Given some ballets are only revived every few seasons, that could mean dancers miss out on dancing certain lead roles or only get one go at them. Even for the more frequently revived ballets dancers might not get that many goes. For instance, Bracewell didn't get to perform Rudolf in the latest Mayerling run so by the time Mayerling comes round again he'll be about 34 then about 37 and after that 40. So even assuming he gets to do Rudolf next time round he might only get to dance the role 4 or 6 times in his entire career, which doesn't seem much.

[TSR101]

31 minutes ago, alison said:

Talking about Paris Opera Ballet and skipping ranks, should the newly-promoted Monsieur Diop be in there?

Diop's promotion was raised above (my list was put together last year before his promotion and I haven't updated it) 

 

9 minutes ago, Dawnstar said:

 

When Bracewell was promoted last year, I was surprised to discover he was already 31. I know more dancers are dancing for longer, into their 40s, but not all dancers are so if someone doesn't make it to Principal until they're in their 30s then they could only have a few years at that rank. Given some ballets are only revived every few seasons, that could mean dancers miss out on dancing certain lead roles or only get one go at them. Even for the more frequently revived ballets dancers might not get that many goes. For instance, Bracewell didn't get to perform Rudolf in the latest Mayerling run so by the time Mayerling comes round again he'll be about 34 then about 37 and after that 40. So even assuming he gets to do Rudolf next time round he might only get to dance the role 4 or 6 times in his entire career, which doesn't seem much.

 

I actually think this highlights how critical early promotion is for those who do have the talent as it allows them to develop in the main roles for longer (it can risk Polunin style meltdowns but that has from the list above been rare). There is also a fine balance between staying at a major company or gaining rapid promotion in a 'lesser' company. Alina and Marianela were both bolstered by performing principal roles in their teens pre-RB and thus this undoubtedly helped when they joined the RB compared to those who came directly from the school to the corps. Likewise would Vadim, be the Vadim of today, if Eagling had not poached him from RBS and then put him repeatedly in the main principal roles? Darcey was promoted because essentially MacMillan picked her out and created Prince of Pagodas on her - would this happen today? 

[Guest oncnp]

11 minutes ago, TSR101 said:

 Likewise would Vadim, be the Vadim of today, if Eagling had not poached him from RBS and then put him repeatedly in the main principal roles? 

 

Not exactly  poached. Neither the RB or BRB wanted him, did they?  

Edited April 17, 2023 by oncnp

[TSR101]

5 minutes ago, oncnp said:

 

Not poached. Neither the RB or BRB wanted him, did they? 

 

I remember Vadim saying somewhere that Wayne had seen him at the school - prior to the point that students would be offered contracts normally and he was offered a place at ENB (potentially higher rank too) and given the certainty over waiting any longer he took it... or something to this effect. 

Edited April 17, 2023 by TSR101

[Guest oncnp]

4 minutes ago, TSR101 said:

 

I remember Vadim saying somewhere that Wayne had seen him at the school - prior to the point that students would be offered contracts normally and he was offered a place at ENB (potentially higher rank too) and given the certainty over waiting any longer he took it... or something to this effect. 

I'll see if I can find the source, but Egling was quoted as saying there was a God because neither the RB or the BRB took him out of school.

However it happened it certainly worked out well!

Edited April 17, 2023 by oncnp

[TSR101]

27 minutes ago, oncnp said:

I'll see if I can find the source, but Egling was quoted as saying there was a God because neither the RB or the BRB took him out of school.

However it happened it certainly worked out well!

 
I may well be misremembering so please do!

 

 

On 16/04/2023 at 15:16, FionaE said:

Elizaveta Kokoreva and Dmitry Smilevski were both promoted to principals at the Bolshoi last night

I have only really watched clips/heard of Kokoreva but from what I have seen she does have incredible technique. What a shame we won't be seeing her over here for sometime it seems. 

[FLOSS]

sDon't you think that whether or not a dancer becomes a principal and when promotion occurs has as much do with whether or not thereis a

vacancy and  the company's ability to pay them the appropriate salary as it does with the individual dancer's suitability for the company's core repertory,their talent and  potential for further development ? Finally there is the minor question  of whether or not the current director likes a particular dancer's performance style and whether it is suited  to the plans the AD has for the company's future. A dance can suddenly find  all routes to further promotion closed to them with a change of director or conversely see their careers suddenly progress.Early promotion does not always do a dancer any favours as it can mean that they have the pressure of learning a great deal of  repertory in a very short time.

I think that Bussell has said that her early promotion was something of a mixed blessing.

 

Once you are a principal there is a great weight of responsibility and expectation to carry. I know that Fonteyn said that she was grateful that she had learned major roles at a time when there was no pressure on her to be an immediate success in each new role she danced. Promotion in  a dancer's mid twenties is a bit easier than promotion at nineteen or twenty. It usually means that the dancer has had the opportunity to learn a lot of the core repertory from the inside before they tackle the  the leading roles and by the time they are promoted they will generally have proved themselves in leading roles in a wide range of the company's core repertory.

 

Moving between companies may hold back a career. It is not unusual at the Royal Ballet for a dancer to be appointed at a lower rank than they had at the company that they have left. This happened to Lamb, Campbell and Bracewell. A problem which has faced at least one senior dancer was  being so useful  in the position that they occupied that management either found it difficult to promote them  because it did not know who would replace them in their specialist roles or could not imagine them dancing other roles. 

 

 

 

[SheilaC]

44 minutes ago, oncnp said:

I'll see if I can find the source, but Egling was quoted as saying there was a God because neither the RB or the BRB took him out of school.

However it happened it certainly worked out well!

Eagling said exactly that to a critic friend of mine, at the time.

And I think that MacMillan suggested Bussell performed for a year at SWRB to gain stage experience before he moved her to the RB in order to create a ballet on her.

[TSR101]

14 minutes ago, FLOSS said:

I think that Bussell has said that her early promotion was something of a mixed blessing.

 

Once you are a principal there is a great weight of responsibility and expectation to carry. I know that Fonteyn said that she was grateful that she had learned major roles at a time when there was no pressure on her to be an immediate success in each new role she danced. Promotion in  a dancer's mid twenties is a bit easier than promotion at nineteen or twenty. It usually means that the dancer has had the opportunity to learn a lot of the core repertory from the inside before they tackle the  the leading roles and by the time they are promoted they will generally have proved themselves in leading roles in a wide range of the company's core repertory.

I would agree it undoubtedly adds huge pressure on the dancer but (with Polunin the exception) - did it really negatively effect any of the others listed at pre-21 promotion range (below) in terms of career prospects? Its more surprising to me that they mostly went from strength to strength in the long run.

 

Promotion to principal after all does not mean you immediately do every role - I remember reading that Nunez had to wait to do R&J for a number of years even as a principal. So I suppose a lot of it also requires the AD to manage the young talent well. 

Svetlana Zakharova 18 Mariinsky Ballet

Sylvie Guillem 19 Paris Opera Ballet

Alina Cojocaru 19 Royal Ballet

Marianela Nunez 20 Royal Ballet

Sergei Polunin 20 Royal Ballet

Darcey Bussell 20 Royal Ballet

Alessandra Ferri 20 Royal Ballet

Mathieu Ganio 20 Paris Opera Ballet

Diana Vishneva 20 Mariinsky Ballet

Manuel Legris 21 Paris Opera Ballet

Viviana Durante 21 Royal Ballet

Ulyana Lopatkina 21 Mariinsky Ballet

Tetsuya Kumakawa 21 Royal Ballet

Alina Somova 22 Mariinsky Ballet

Igor Zelensky 22 Mariinsky Ballet

Laurent Hilaire 22 Paris Opera Ballet

[capybara]

39 minutes ago, FLOSS said:

This happened to Lamb, Campbell and Bracewell.

And Corrales as has already been mentioned.

 

24 minutes ago, TSR101 said:

Promotion to principal after all does not mean you immediately do every role - I remember reading that Nunez had to wait to do R&J for a number of years even as a principal. 

I was at an event featuring Nunez’s debut where she mentioned she had been waiting for 10 years to dance Juliet - presumably from when she joined the RB.

However, these days, it does sometimes seem as if every Principal ‘gets a go’ at most leading roles.

[NiniGabriel]

I seem to remember that at the beginning of the 2012/13 season Elisa Badenes was also appointed principal at the Stuttgart Ballet at the age of 21. At the age of 19 she danced - still as a demi-soloist - a very mature and touching Odette/Odile and a year later at the age of 20 she presented a stunningly brilliant Kitri. But she could also have been a year older, unfortunately I don't know her exact date of birth.

 

In any case, for me and other Stuttgart Ballet fans who were lucky enough to witness the debuts, it quickly became clear what an extraordinary dancer became part of our company.

 

I will never forget her role debut as Cranko's Juliet, back then alongside Daniel Camargo. She showed - as in all her other roles in narrative ballets - such a natural and touching and utterly individual performance that for the first time in years I sat there with tears in my eyes at the end of the performance and it took quite a long time for me to feel my feelings calmed down.

 

As much as I like the other soloists of the Stuttgart company, I still try to attend at least one performance with Elisa Badenes in every series of performances, most recently as Tatiana in October (which I think was also discussed here) and as Marguerite in Neumeier's Lady of the Camellias in February. And I've been completely blown away every time I've been lucky enough to see her dance...

 

 

If I remember correctly, Stuttgart Ballet's Friedemann Vogel and Alicia Amatriain were promoted to principals at the age of 22.

[bridiem]

I think I'm a bit of an underachiever... 🤣

[Sim]

1 minute ago, bridiem said:

I think I'm a bit of an underachiever... 🤣

You and me both, bridiem!!  Although I will be debuting the 32 fouettes in due course.... 😅😅

[bridiem]

1 minute ago, Sim said:

You and me both, bridiem!!  Although I will be debuting the 32 fouettes in due course.... 😅😅

 

Can't wait!

[Sim]

19 minutes ago, bridiem said:

 

Can't wait!

😁😆

[Balletfanp]

I think I might be correct in saying that Daria Klimentova was taken into the Czech National Ballet (or whatever it was called then) as a Principal at the age of 18 and never danced in the corps?

[Sophoife]

...and on the other hand, Isabelle Ciaravola was promoted étoile at POB at the extremely advanced age (for that company) of 37.

 

Eleonora Abbagnato was almost 35 but holds the POB female record of having been première danseuse for 11½ years before being nominated.

 

The POB male record, never to be surpassed, is held by Wilfried Romoli, who achieved premier danseur at 26 in 1989, and (in the days when dancers retired at 45, not today's 42), was eventually nominated étoile 16 years later in 2005, at the age of 42.