Svetlana Lunkina


Svetlana Aleksandrovna Lunkina is a Russian-Canadian ballerina who is a principal dancer with the National Ballet of Canada.

Biography

Lunkina was born in Moscow and attended the Moscow Choreographic Academy. Upon her graduation in 1997, she joined the Bolshoi Ballet, where she worked under the tutelage of Ekaterina Maximova. During her first season at the Bolshoi Theatre, she was chosen to perform the title role in Giselle and thus, at the age of 18, became the youngest Giselle in the history of the Bolshoi.
Over her 15-year career with the company, Lunkina danced many leading roles in both classical and contemporary ballets. In 2001, she was a Triumph Youth Award recipient, and the following year, Alexander Grant cast her as Lise in the Bolshoi premiere of Frederick Ashton's La Fille mal gardée. Later, she worked extensively with Roland Petit, who gave her the roles of Liza in La Dame de Pique and Esmeralda in Notre-Dame de Paris in their Bolshoi premieres. She also performed La Rose Malade, which Petit updated for Lunkina for the first time since Maya Plisetskaya danced it. She was promoted to the rank of principal dancer in 2005. That year, Lunkina was awarded the Brilliance of the 21st Century award. During her career, she has performed in such ballets as La Bayadère, The Sleeping Beauty, La Fille du Pharaon, Spartacus and Chroma, and appeared at such theatres as the Berlin and Bavarian State Operas, the Teatro dell'Opera di Roma and with the National Ballet of Japan, among others. In 2006, she appeared as Giselle at the Vienna State Opera opposite Vladimir Malakhov. In 2007, she performed with the Paris Opera Ballet as Lise in Ashton's La Fille mal gardée, opposite Mathieu Ganio, and as Clara in Rudolf Nureyev's The Nutcracker, opposite Jérémie Bélingard. That year, Lunkina was awarded the Prix Benois de la Danse, sharing the prize for best female dancer with Agnès Letestu. In 2008, Lunkina received the title Meritorious Artist of Russia. In 2010, she was awarded with the prize Ballerina of the Decade, along with the three other well-known ballerinas: Diana Vishneva, Alina Cojocaru and Lucia Lacarra.
Lunkina joined the National Ballet of Canada as a principal guest artist in August 2013 and as a permanent principal dancer the following year. With the company her repertoire has expanded to include roles such as Tatiana in John Cranko's Onegin and several ballets choreographed by John Neumeier: as Romola de Pulszky in Nijinsky, Blanche DuBois in A Streetcar Named Desire and the title role in Anna Karenina, which she danced in the company premiere. Having first worked with Christopher Wheeldon during the world premiere of his Misericordes at the Bolshoi in 2007, Lunkina has since performed in his Alice's Adventures in Wonderland as the Queen of Hearts, as Paulina in The Winter's Tale and in his After the Rain with the National Ballet of Canada. She had danced in the Bolshoi premiere of Wayne McGregor's Chroma in 2011 and subsequently reprised that role with the National Ballet, as well as performing in his Genus and as Oryx in MADDADDAM. In addition she has performed multiple ballets by George Balanchine, Kenneth MacMillan, James Kudelka, Alexei Ratmansky and Crystal Pite, including her Emergence and Angels' Atlas. With the National Ballet she has also performed the title roles in La Sylphide and Giselle, in two productions of Swan Lake as Odette-Odile, as Princess Aurora in The Sleeping Beauty and as both the Snow Queen and Sugar Plum Fairy in The Nutcracker.
Lunkina has also continued to appear as a guest artist. In March 2014, she performed Petit's Le Jeune homme et la Mort at the London Coliseum. That year, she was invited as a guest artist in South Korea, and in April 2015, she performed in Taiwan, returning again in August 2017 and October 2025. In 2016 and 2018, she performed with the Asami Maki Ballet Tokyo, starring in Swan Lake and Asami Maki's Asuka. In October 2018, she performed in Singapore. In May 2019, she danced the title role in Neumeier's Anna Karenina with the Hamburg Ballet.
In 2002, Lunkina played one of the main characters in the feature film , by the American director John Daly; the world premiere screening took place in 2003 in Palm Springs, California. In 2004, the Japanese portrait photographer Eichiro Sakata, included Lunkina in his photo gallery called Piercing the Sky as an outstanding contemporary personality. In 2013, Lunkina became the main attraction and the objet d'art of a European art exhibit, created by the artist Anna Gaskell.
On 18 March 2014, Lunkina publicly expressed solidarity with the Ukrainian people following Russia's occupation of Crimea. In response to the Russian occupation of eastern Ukraine, she gave a charity performance of Giselle at the Odesa Opera and Ballet Theater in October 2015. In September 2016, she returned there to dance Odette-Odile in Swan Lake. In April 2022, she performed at a benefit gala in Toronto for Ukrainian war relief. She has also provided material assistance to the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
Lunkina is the artistic director of the Canada All Star Ballet Gala. Its first performance took place on 11 February 2017 at the Sony Centre for the Performing Arts in Toronto, featuring principal dancers from American Ballet Theatre, the Bolshoi Ballet, Rome Opera Ballet, Royal Ballet, Royal Danish Ballet, San Francisco Ballet, Stuttgart Ballet and the National Ballet of Canada.
In 2019, collaborating with scientists and programmers, Lunkina developed the 1on1 Ballet Studio app, an interactive training program designed to develop ballet technique and proper form, which uses AI to analyze execution and offer suggestions on how to improve ballet technique.

Personal life

Lunkina is married to Ukrainian-born producer Vladislav Moskalev and has two children: Maxim, born in January 2004, and Eva, born in April 2009.

Repertoire

  • La Sylphide : Sylph
  • La Sylphide : Sylph
  • Giselle : Giselle
  • Giselle : Giselle
  • Giselle : Giselle
  • Giselle : Giselle
  • Giselle : Giselle
  • Giselle : Giselle
  • Giselle : Giselle
  • Giselle : Giselle
  • Giselle : Giselle
  • Don Quixote : Kitri
  • La Bayadère : Nikiya, D'Jampe
  • Swan Lake : Odette-Odile, Russian Bride
  • Swan Lake : Odette-Odile
  • Swan Lake choreography by Galina Samsova, after Marius Petitpa and Lev Ivanov): Odette-Odile
  • Swan Lake : Odette-Odile
  • Swan Lake : Odette-Odile
  • Swan Lake : Odette-Odile
  • Swan Lake : Odette-Odile
  • Swan Lake : Odette-Odile
  • Swan Lake : Odette-Odile
  • The Sleeping Beauty : Princess Aurora, Fairy of Tenderness, Silver Fairy
  • The Sleeping Beauty : Princess Aurora
  • The Nutcracker : Masha
  • The Nutcracker : Marie
  • The Nutcracker : Clara
  • The Nutcracker : Sugar Plum Fairy, Snow Queen
  • The Nutcracker : Snow Queen/Sugar Plum Fairy
  • Raymonda : Clémence
  • Raymonda : Raymonda
  • Le Corsaire : Medora
  • Esmeralda : Esmeralda
  • La Fille mal gardée : Lise
  • La Fille du Pharaon : Aspicia
  • Notre-Dame de Paris : Esmeralda
  • Spartacus : Phrygia
  • Anyuta : Anyuta
  • Asuka : Sugaru-Otome
  • Onegin : Tatiana
  • Manon : Lescaut's Mistress
  • Nijinsky : Romola de Pulszky, Eleonora Bereda
  • A Streetcar Named Desire : Blanche DuBois
  • Anna Karenina : Anna Karenina
  • The Bright Stream : Zina
  • Illusions perdues : Coralie
  • Romeo and Juliet : Juliet
  • Alice's Adventures in Wonderland : Alice's Mother/Queen of Hearts
  • The Winter's Tale : Paulina
  • Le Petit Prince : The Snake
  • MADDADDAM : Oryx
  • Le Jeune Homme et la Mort : la Mort
  • La Dame de Pique : Liza
  • Carmen Suite : Carmen
  • The Lesson : Pupil
  • Les Sylphides : Prelude and 7th Waltz
  • Le Spectre de la Rose
  • The Dying Swan
  • Gaîté Parisienne : Glove Seller
  • Les Présages : Passion
  • Apollo : Terpsichore
  • Serenade : Waltz Girl
  • Symphony in C : First Movement, Second Movement
  • The Four Temperaments : Sanguinic
  • Jewels : "Emeralds", "Diamonds"
  • Pas de Quatre : Carlotta Grisi
  • Suite en Blanc : La Cigarette, Adage, La Flûte
  • The Leaves Are Fading : third duet
  • Afternoon of a Faun : Young Girl
  • La Rose Malade
  • Passacaille : soloist
  • Concerto : Second Movement
  • Elite Syncopations : Stop-Time Rag
  • Sentimental Waltz
  • Petite Mort
  • Approximate Sonata 2016
  • The Collective Agreement
  • Jeu de cartes
  • Piano Concerto no. 1
  • After the Rain : Third Couple
  • Misericordes
  • Chroma
  • Genus
  • Dream of Dream
  • …black night's bright day
  • Passion : Contemporary Woman
  • Emergence
  • Angels' Atlas
  • Watch her
  • Unearth
  • The Dreamers Ever Leave You
  • Orpheus Alive : Final Apparition
  • Being and Nothingness
  • Dark Angels
  • ''On Solid Ground''

Filmography