Alina Cojocaru

Alina Cojocaru (born May 27, 1981) is a female principal dancer with the Royal Ballet in London. She was born in Bucharest, Romania. She was trained at the Kiev Ballet and was a principal there for a year before joining the Royal Ballet. She won the prestigious Prix de Lausanne in 1998 and joined the Royal Ballet in 1999. She became a principal dancer in 2001. She has played such classic roles as Clara in The Nutcracker, Odette and Odile in Swan Lake, Aurora in Sleeping Beauty, Kitri in Don Quixote, Juliet in Romeo and Juliet. The role most associated with her is Giselle, because of her delicate, ethereal style of dancing. In addition, Cojocaru has excelled in modern choreography like Kenneth MacMillan's Manon and Mayerling, and Sir Frederick Ashton's ballets. As one of the leads in the contemporary Royal Ballet production of Chroma, (choreographer, Wayne McGregor), she was the inspiration and model for British artist and painter Fletcher Sibthorp's piece entitled Chroma I.

Alina is a very versatile dancer and has played many lead roles since she started dancing for the Royal Ballet in Covent Garden. She is a very good all round technician and is very flexible. She has great stage presence despite being of small stature and exudes an ethereal quality to everything she does. Her frequent partner is the Danish danseur Johan Kobborg, who is also her partner offstage. Kobborg frequently updates his fans about the latest "Johan and Alina". [[1]]