Cojocaru to appear as guest artist for Met season 2010

[Dale]

ALINA COJOCARU TO APPEAR AS GUEST ARTIST WITH

AMERICAN BALLET THEATRE

Cojocaru to Give First New York Performance as Princess Aurora in

The Sleeping Beauty, June 19, 2010, at Metropolitan Opera House

Alina Cojocaru, principal dancer with The Royal Ballet in London, will appear as a guest artist with American Ballet Theatre in a performance of The Sleeping Beauty at the matinee on Saturday, June 19, 2010 at the Metropolitan Opera House.

Born in Bucharest, Romania, Cojocaru trained in Kiev for seven years before joining the Royal Ballet School in 1997. She joined the Kiev Ballet as a principal dancer in 1998 and joined The Royal Ballet a year later. Cojocaru was promoted to soloist with The Royal Ballet in 2000 and to principal dancer in 2001.

Cojocaru’s repertory with The Royal Ballet includes Odette/Odile in Swan Lake, Giselle, Juliet in Romeo and Juliet, Princess Aurora in The Sleeping Beauty, Vera in A Month in the Country, Tatiana in Onegin, Cinderella, The Sugar Plum Fairy and Clara in The Nutcracker, Titania in The Dream, Nikiya in La Bayadère, Swanilda in Coppélia, Lise in La Fille mal Gardée and leading roles in Gong, Polyphonia, Symphony in C, Symphonic Variations, The Leaves Are Fading, Other Dances, Voices of Spring, Stars and Stripes, Dances at a Gathering and The Vertiginous Thrill of Exactitude.

Among the roles created on Cojocaru are Christopher Wheeldon’s There Where She Loved, David Bintley’s Les Saisons, Ashley Page’s This House will Burn, Wayne McGregor’s Engram and Chroma and Johan Kobborg’s Les Lutins and La Sylphide.

Cojocaru is the recipient of numerous dance awards and citations including The Nijinsky Award and Benois de la Danse in 2004 for best female dancer and the medal of Cavalier of Romania in 2002 presented by Romania’s president Ion Iliescu.

American Ballet Theatre’s 2010 season marks Cojocaru’s second guest appearance with the Company. She previously performed Nikiya in La Bayadère during ABT’s 2003 Spring season.

Subscriptions for American Ballet Theatre’s 2010 Spring Season at the Metropolitan Opera House are on sale now by phone at 212-362-6000, or online at ABT’s website www.abt.org <http://www.abt.org> .

[richard53dog]

Good new for us in the NYC area!

I saw Cojocaru dance Aurora when the RB brought Sleeping Beauty to DC a few years back and thought she was very fine in the role.

[Drew]

She is an exceptional Aurora. I saw her in the role before her injury and cannot imagine Aurora being better danced. For me it especially came to life in Acts II and III with her emotional responses to her partner (Kobborg) but really I never expect in my life to see Act I danced in more accomplished fashion.

[abatt]

ABT is certainly engaging some excellent female guest artists this season - Osipova, Cojocaru. (I know Vishneva is a regular company member, but I still think of her as a guest artist since she never appears with the company except for the MET season.) I guess after focusing for so long on building an impressive male roster, McKenzie is now focusing on the ladies. Now let's hope all these dancers actually show up as scheduled!

[Ambonnay]

ABT is certainly engaging some excellent female guest artists this season - Osipova, Cojocaru.

Agreed. But if Cojocaru is to provide only one ABT performance this season, should she be scheduled to dance the same Sleeping Beauty ballet for the matinee of the very same day that Osipova is dancing Sleeping Beauty with Hallberg (also Osipova's only Sleeping Beauty of the season, though not Osipova's only performance of this ABT season)?

I am developing a strong interest in ballet, but I don't think I could view two Sleeping Beauties in one day.

[Rosa]

According to the ABT calendar, Carreño will dance with Cojocaru.