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.Iana Salenko
Nata a Kiev il 19 luglio 1983, è la prima ballerina del Balletto Statale di Berlino e ballerina ospite del Royal Ballet di Londra.
Ha studiato alla Pisarev Ballet School di Donetsk, dal 1995 al 2000, anno in cui si è diplomata. Dal 2000 al 2002 è stata solista dell'Opera di Donetsk e successivamente prima ballerina dell'Opera Nazionale di Kiev.
Nel 2005 si unisce al Balletto Statale di Berlino come "demi-soloist", l'anno dopo viene promossa a solista e nel 2007 a prima solista. Ora è prima ballerina.
E' diventata ballerina ospite del Royal Ballet in seguito alla sua performance di Kitri nel 2013 al fianco di Carlos Acosta.
Ha vinto numerosi premi: il premio "Diaghilev" al concorso di Kiev nel 2002, il premio "Makarova" e il premio della IBC Varna nel 2004, i premi all'IBC di Helsinki e di Nagoya nel 2005, e il "Deutscher Tanzpreis Zukunft" nel 2010.
>SITO UFFICIALE (condiviso col marito)
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Sarà in Italia a Napoli dal 30 dicembre al 3 gennaio per "Lo Schiaccianoci"!
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Iana e Marian ne "Lo Schiaccianoci", in attesa della loro performance in Italia... 
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Pochi giri...
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Carinissimo disegno fatto da fan giapponese che la ritrae con Steven McRae. 
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Articolo sulla sua partnership con Steven McRae (Royal Ballet) da Independent UK
The Royal Ballet's star duo reveal how they've become the best pairing in years
The red-haired stars Steven McRae and Iana Salenko praise each other in an exclusive interview at their rehearsal
Iana Salenko and Steven McRae look as if they might have been separated at birth – and not just because they share the same shade of red-gold hair. These star dancers, performing many of their leading roles together this season with the Royal Ballet, are blessed with proportions that match wonderfully; beyond that, so does their dancing. Both possess unquenchable technical strength, with a clean-cut purity of line, precision of detail, and soaring jumps that thrill with a joyous, open-hearted energy.
I’m lucky enough to watch them rehearse George Balanchine’s Tchaikovsky Pas de Deux, which they dance in the Royal Ballet’s cinema relay on 12 November, shown live in more than 1,500 cinemas around the world. They are being coached in its virtuoso challenges by Patricia Neary, a star of the great choreographer’s New York City Ballet in the Sixties. At one point she dissects a complex pattern of footwork in leaping turns that Salenko must execute, involving a linking step that travels further than expected. Salenko masters it in one go. Neary praises her: “Your technique is so strong that it doesn’t even affect you.” As for the partnership, there’s no friction at all. The session is demanding, yet feels unusually relaxed, with smiles and laughter all round. “I can’t wait to see this on stage,” Neary exclaims at the end. “It’s going to be so exciting.”
Even over post-rehearsal tea Salenko and McRae’s outlooks streamline into one: positive, sensible and with wit always at the ready. He speaks with strong traces of an Australian accent; hers is pure Ukrainian; but they still finish each other’s paragraphs.
“The most important thing is the connection with a partner, how we understand each other,” says Salenko. “And then it’s the body and proportions. We are similar size: perfect.” McRae remarks that a photo of them in Don Quixote, showed everything: “We were in exactly the same line and even our facial expressions were the same,” he says. “It’s not something we talk about; it just happens naturally. It’s obvious that it works.”
They first encountered each other around seven years ago, their complementary looks drawing comments from the outset. “People would say, ‘Oh, you look similar, you should dance together,” Salenko recounts. “But it never worked out,” adds McRae. When Alina Cojocaru, who was to have danced Carlos Acosta’s production of Don Quixote with McRae, left to join English National Ballet, Salenko was drafted in to replace her. “At our first rehearsal, for me it was comfortable right away,” McRae says. “For me, too,” Salenko smiles.
Their origins could scarcely be more different. McRae, 29, grew up in the Sydney suburbs; his father was a drag racer and he started off with dance loyalties divided between ballet and tap. Salenko, 32, did not begin ballet lessons until the age of 12 – very late in dance terms – yet such was her determination that only four years later she was performing principal roles.
Even so, occasional similarities in their experiences do emerge. Salenko left home at 14 to study at the Pisarev Ballet School in Donetsk, and was astounded to find its director, Vadim Pisarev, pulling her into the company at only 15. McRae moved to London overnight, aged 17, after winning the Prix de Lausanne and being given a scholarship to the Royal Ballet School on the spot. He had barely been in the UK for a day when he found himself whisked on stage as an extra in The Sleeping Beauty.
“I’d never even seen a ballet live before, only videos – and there I was holding this tray while Darcey Bussell was dancing Princess Aurora,” he says. It took him a while to find his feet in London – “I felt quite lost for about a year,” he admits – but once in the company he flew through the ranks to become one of its best-loved male stars.
Salenko moved to Germany after meeting her husband, the dancer Marian Walter; they are both principals in the Berlin State Ballet and have a seven-year-old son. McRae is married to the Royal Ballet soloist Elizabeth Harrod; they have a 10-month-old daughter. “Even the fact that Iana and I are both parents can help us in working together,” he says. “If I come in exhausted, saying ‘she cried all night’, Iana understands and it’s fine. And I understand now how hard it is for her to be away from her family.”
She says, with some wistfulness, “I would love to be in the Royal Ballet,” but adds that her family commitments in Berlin would make a wholesale move impossible. Nevertheless, alongside Tchaikovsky Pas de Deux she and McRae will dance two performances of Romeo and Juliet in November, perform on opening night of The Nutcracker, then tackle Giselle in the new year. Happily for the audience, they seem to have found a way to enjoy the best of both worlds.
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Dance Magazine cover - November 2015
Articolo all'interno della rivista!
Tiny Dancer, Giant Career
Iana Salenko didn’t let her height keep her from becoming a sought-after guest ballerina.
As she waits for her cover shoot to get underway, Iana Salenko looks tiny and unassuming in the makeup chair. In front of the lens, however, the ballerina that comes out is all glamorous confidence. In a tutu from Don Quixote, her polished lines snap into place for the click. When the photographer suggests a pose, she studies it quietly; she looks ready to whip out triple fouettés, but is equally happy to play on the floor. This good-natured work ethic—along with a technique that seems to combine flowing Russian lyricism with the eerily precise small steps favored in Europe—has made the Ukraine-born ballerina a force to be reckoned with.
At 32, Salenko is a shining example of the jet-setting careers afforded to ballet stars in the 21st century. Contrary to current wisdom, her petite frame (she is a touch over 5′ 2″) has helped make her a sought-after guest ballerina, dancing alongside partners such as Steven McRae and Daniil Simkin. As a principal with the Staatsballett Berlin and regular guest with The Royal Ballet, as well as a staple at galas and festivals worldwide, her life has become a steady balancing act.
Salenko was introduced to gymnastics and folk dancing at a young age by her parents, who worked in a restaurant but loved both disciplines. When her father took her to a dance school in Kiev when she was 12, the teacher asked if she’d be interested in ballet. Despite her late start, Salenko thrived. “I think it was the best age because I knew I wanted to do it, and I gave everything,” she says.
After just two years, she was invited to the Vaganova Ballet Academy, but her mother deemed it too far from home. Instead, Salenko moved to Vadim Pisarev’s school in Donetsk, 400 miles from Kiev, with her brother. It was a lonely environment for the 14-year-old, who was told by one teacher she was too small to become a ballerina, and she developed an eating disorder. “I was really fanatical, and I stopped eating,” she says. She became so weak that she sustained a dangerous back injury. The director of the school, Pisarev’s sister, took her under her wing. “She fed me, took care of me, brought me to therapy. She gave me love, and then I started recovering.”
Once she was healthy, Pisarev decided she was better off finishing her schooling in his company. “I was 16, and he said, You will get everything in the theater,” she says. There, he pushed her, giving her roles like Kitri in Don Quixote. At 18, however, wanting to be closer to her family, she moved back to Kiev, where the National Ballet of Ukraine offered her a position as principal.
She was on course to take over the repertoire when she met her future husband, German dancer Marian Walter, at a competition in Vienna in 2004. Both won first prize, and fell in love in the wings, communicating in broken English. Salenko auditioned for Staatsballett Berlin, where Walter was based, but was refused by director Vladimir Malakhov. Instead of giving up, Walter asked Salenko to marry him. Meanwhile, Diana Vishneva, who had guested with Salenko’s home company, intervened in her favor, telling Malakhov her height would be an asset. Salenko received a contract as demi-soloist in 2005, and proved herself in the title role of Malakhov’s Cinderella, reaching principal status in 2007. “When I got demi-soloist, it made me work harder to improve,” Salenko says. “If you get everything too fast at the beginning of your career, it can get boring.”
Her profile rose with star turns in Berlin’s classical premieres, including reconstructions of La Esmeralda and Nutcracker. Last winter, new Berlin director Nacho Duato chose her as first-cast Aurora for his Sleeping Beauty.
On the side, invitations to guest abroad started piling up, many from friends made at international competitions. In 2013, she was even featured in a Baileys Irish Cream commercial. While she is signed to David Makhateli’s D&D agency, Salenko books most of her gigs on her own. She recently traded her Ukrainian passport for a German one, in part to make travel easier.
Salenko relishes the challenge of getting accustomed to new companies, whether in Croatia, Russia or Italy. “At home, you know everyone, each personality,” she says. “Elsewhere, it’s like the first day of kindergarten: People are curious, excited to see you onstage.” She also thrives on taking corrections from various coaches and dancing with new partners: “It makes my brain work: How can I help him, how can I be more on my leg?”
Her partnership with Steven McRae also grew out of galas. After McRae talked to The Royal Ballet director Kevin O’Hare about Salenko, she guested in London for the first time in 2013 in Don Quixote, and their partnership has blossomed into a meeting of minds as well as body types, as their heights complement each other perfectly. “We challenge each other onstage. We always try to add something extra—more turns, longer balances,” Salenko says. McRae adds, “Stepping onstage with Iana is completely different from anyone else. She is extremely calm. Her relaxed energy is contagious and is truly a wonderful gift.”
Juggling traveling with her life in Berlin is no small feat, however, as Salenko and Walter have a 7-year-old son, Marley, born just after Malakhov promoted her to principal. “It was a big step because I was just 24,” she says, “and it was so hard to come back after, but it’s made me want everything even more in my career.”
Salenko declined a full-time contract with The Royal to allow her son to continue his schooling in Germany, but the company has welcomed her nonetheless as an ongoing guest artist, with debuts scheduled in Romeo and Juliet, Nutcracker and Ashton’s The Two Pigeons this season. She giggles when she explains that she felt right at home at The Royal, a company known for relatively small dancers. Salenko usually has only one week of rehearsals before performances, but finds it actually helps her. “When you prepare for two months, you get too used to the steps.”
Commuting between her quiet Berlin house, next to a forest and just 10 minutes from the theater, and London’s Royal Opera House is made easier by her love of sewing, she says. She likes to replicate costumes from photos, and works on her latest creations on the plane to relax.
And at 32, Salenko is finally at peace with her height. In December, she will guest on the Shanghai Ballet’s Amsterdam tour in Swan Lake; the ballet most identified with tall ballerinas has become one of her calling cards. “Odette/Odile was my biggest dream, and companies now invite me for it,” she says. “I realized I can dance with any guy, tall or small.” In her case, one size fits all.
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