Ms. Salenko was born in 1983 in Kiev, Ukraine. She attended the Pisarev Ballet School in Donezk starting in1995 and graduated in 2000 as a professional dancer.
She danced at the Donezk Opera House as a soloist from 2000-2002 and afterwards as a Principal Dancer at the National Opera in Kiev. In 2005, she joined the Berlin State Ballet as a demi-soloist, was promoted one year later to soloist, in 2007 to first soloist and in 2010 to Principal.
She has won many prestigious competitions including first prize and the “Diaghilev Prize” at the 2002 Kiev Competition; first prize the Vienna and Perm (Arabesk) & “Makarova Prize” and the third prize at the International Ballet Competition in Varna in 2004; and First Prizes at the International Ballet Competition in Helsinki and at the at the International Ballet Competition in Nagoya, Japan. In 2010, she was given the “Deutscher Tanzpreis Zukunft”, a prize recognizing the most exciting dancer of the year.
She is a frequent guest artist at galas and with major international companies.
Q&A with Iana Salenko from Indianapolis City Ballet on Vimeo.