Maria Kochetkova

Maria Olegovna Kochetkova (; born 1984) is a Russian ballet dancer. She was a principal dancer with the San Francisco Ballet between 2007 and 2018, and with the American Ballet Theatre between 2015 and 2017. After that, she became a freelance dancer for several years, before joining the Finnish National Ballet in the 2020/21 season. She danced with the English National Ballet from August 2021 until January 2021. She now works as a freelance ballerina and curator.

Early life Kochetkova was born in Moscow. She trained at The Bolshoi Ballet Academy from 1994 until her graduation in 2002.

Career

After winning the Prix de Lausanne in 2002, Kochetkova danced with The Royal Ballet as an apprentice, then later danced at the English National Ballet for four years, during which she mostly danced corps roles but also the Sugar Plum Fairy in The Nutcracker.

In 2007, after Kochetkova took classes with the San Francisco Ballet, she joined the company as a principal dancer at the invitation of Helgi Tomasson. She also danced the title role in the US premiere of Wheeldon's Cinderella.

Kochetkova performed the Grand Pas de Deux in San Francisco Ballet's Nutcracker which was broadcast by PBS in 2008 and won the solo gold medal in the NBC series Superstars of Dance. She starred as Juliet in the 2015 filmed version of Romeo and Juliet. She also appeared in various music videos and advertisements.

In 2015, Kochetkova joined the American Ballet Theatre but remained a principal dancer in San Francisco Ballet, and split her time between San Francisco and New York City. At ABT, she danced roles such as the title role in Giselle, Medora in Le Corsaire and Nikiya in La Bayadère. She remained a principal of ABT until 2017.

Kochetkova now performs as a freelance dancer. She danced with the Norwegian National Ballet and Dresden Semperoper Ballett as a principal guest artist, and returned to English National Ballet as a guest artist. In 2019, Kochetkova presented her solo program, Maria Kochetkova: Catch Her If You Can at the Joyce Theater. It featured works by David Dawson and William Forsythe, as well as appearances of Sofiane Sylve, Carlo di Lanno and Drew Jacoby. In the 2020/21 season, Kochetkova joined the Finnish National Ballet as a lead principal dancer.

Selected repertoire Kochetkova's repertoire includes: She filed for divorce in October 2020. On February 7, 2023, Kochetkova revealed on Instagram that she was pregnant with her first child.

Awards Prix de Lausanne, 2002 - silver medal Varna International Ballet Competition, 2002 - silver medal and jury prize Isadora Duncan Dance Award, 2008 Superstars of Dance, 2009 - gold medal Prix Benois de la Danse, 2013 - nominated Critics’ Circle National Dance Award (U.K.) for Best Female Dancer, 2014 - nominated Premio Positano, 2017 - Ballerina of the Year Sources: