Daria Klimentová (born 23 June 1971) is a

Czech Czech may refer to: * Anything from or related to the Czech Republic, a country in Europe ** Czech language ** Czechs, the people of the area ** Czech culture ** Czech cuisine * One of three mythical brothers, Lech, Czech, and Rus *Czech (surnam ...

retired ballet dancer, ballet teacher and photographer . She spent most of her career as a lead principal dancer at

English National Ballet English National Ballet is a classical ballet company founded by Dame Alicia Markova and Sir Anton Dolin as London Festival Ballet and based in London, England. Along with The Royal Ballet, Birmingham Royal Ballet, Northern Ballet and Scott ...

. She is currently a teacher at the Royal Ballet Upper School.

Early life and training

Klimentová is from

Prague Prague ( ; ) is the capital and List of cities and towns in the Czech Republic, largest city of the Czech Republic and the historical capital of Bohemia. Prague, located on the Vltava River, has a population of about 1.4 million, while its P ...

, and grew up under the Soviet regime. She was first trained as a gymnast, then switched to ballet as she would have a longer career. Klimentová had her ballet training at the Prague State Conservatoire of Music and Dance for eight years, and graduated with the highest honour. As a student she won

Prix de Lausanne The Prix de Lausanne () is an international dance competition held annually in Lausanne, Switzerland. The competition is for young dancers seeking to pursue a professional career in classical ballet, and many former prize winners of the competition ...

competition (1989, Paris Dance Foundation award) and the Gold medal of the International Ballet Competition in Pretoria.

Career

Dance

In 1989, following her graduation, Klimentová joined National Theatre Ballet in Prague as a soloist, and was promoted to principal dancer a year later. In 1992, she joined Cape Town City Ballet in South Africa as principal. The following year, she joined the

Scottish Ballet Scottish Ballet is the national ballet company of Scotland and one of the five leading ballet companies of the United Kingdom, alongside the Royal Ballet, English National Ballet, Birmingham Royal Ballet and Northern Ballet. Founded in 1 ...

as a principal dancer. In 1996, Klimentová joined the

at the invitation of then-artistic director

Derek Deane Derek Deane (born 18 June 1953) is a British dancer and choreographer. Biography Derek Deane was raised in Redruth, Cornwall and trained in the Royal Ballet School. As a dancer, he eventually became a Principal Dancer with The Royal Ballet, la ...

. She had danced many of the company's repertoire, including Princess Aurora in '' The Sleeping Beauty'', Sugar Plum Fairy in ''

The Nutcracker ''The Nutcracker'' (, ), Opus number, Op. 71, is an 1892 two-act classical ballet (conceived as a '; ) by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, set on Christmas Eve at the foot of a Christmas tree in a child's imagination featuring a Nutcracker doll. Th ...

'' and the title role in ''

Manon ''Manon'' () is an ''opéra comique'' in five acts by Jules Massenet to a French libretto by Henri Meilhac and Philippe Gille, based on the 1731 novel '' L'histoire du chevalier des Grieux et de Manon Lescaut'' by the Abbé Prévost. It was f ...

''. She had created principal roles in ''Camille'', ''The Snow Queen'' and ''Double Concerto''. She also had a close creative relationship with the choreographer of the latter, Christopher Hampson. In 2010, Klimentová rehearsed with

Vadim Muntagirov Vadim Muntagirov is a Russian ballet dancer. He is currently a principal dancer at The Royal Ballet in London and previously a lead principal dancer at the English National Ballet. Early life Muntagirov, was born in Chelyabinsk, Russia. His pa ...

, 19 years her junior, for his debut in ''

Swan Lake ''Swan Lake'' ( rus, Лебеди́ное о́зеро, r=Lebedínoje ózero, p=lʲɪbʲɪˈdʲinəjə ˈozʲɪrə, links=no ), Op. 20, is a ballet composed by Russian composer Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky in 1875–76. Despite its initial failu ...

'', though he was supposed to dance with guest star Polina Semionova. However, Semionova had to withdraw from opening night as she did not have a visa, so Klimentová stepped in and performed. The performance received critical acclaim, and their partnership was compared to

Margot Fonteyn Dame Margaret Evelyn de Arias Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire, DBE ( Hookham; 18 May 191921 February 1991), known by the stage name Margot Fonteyn (), was an English ballerina. She spent her entire career as a dancer with th ...

and

Rudolf Nureyev Rudolf Khametovich Nureyev (17 March 19386 January 1993) was a Soviet-born ballet dancer and choreographer. Nureyev is widely regarded as the preeminent male ballet dancer of his generation as well as one of the greatest ballet dancers of all ...

's partnership. The rehearsals and performance was featured in the

BBC4 BBC Four is a British free-to-air Public service broadcasting in the United Kingdom, public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It was launched on 2 March 2002

documentary ''Agony and Ecstasy: A Year with English National Ballet''. Since then, the two were paired together frequently. Klimentová noted it is a partnership she waited 20 years for. In 2014, Klimentová announced she would retire from dancing, due to age and "just been doing it for so long." Muntagirov, who announced he would join

The Royal Ballet The Royal Ballet is a British internationally renowned classical ballet company, based at the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden, London, England. The largest of the five major ballet companies in Great Britain, the Royal Ballet was founded ...

around the same time, was consulted. In June, at age 42, Klimentová performed her final performance, which was ''

Romeo and Juliet ''The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet'', often shortened to ''Romeo and Juliet'', is a Shakespearean tragedy, tragedy written by William Shakespeare about the romance between two young Italians from feuding families. It was among Shakespeare's ...

''. Muntagirov returned to ENB to dance with her.

Teaching

In 2003, Klimentová founded International Ballet Masterclasses in Prague, which invite international stars such as

Tamara Rojo Tamara Rojo Order of the British Empire, CBE (born 17 May 1974) is a Spanish ballet dancer. She was the English National Ballet's artistic director and a lead principal dancer with the company between 2012 and 2022. She was previously a principa ...

Nicolas Le Riche Nicolas Le Riche (born 29 January 1972, in Sartrouville, Yvelines) is a French ballet dancer, choreographer and ballet director. Biography Le Riche entered the Paris Opera Ballet school at age ten and joined the corps de ballet six years later; hi ...

and

Julio Bocca Julio Adrián Lojo Bocca (born March 6, 1967) is an Argentine ballet dancer. Bocca spent twenty years as a principal dancer with American Ballet Theatre. From 2010 to 2018, he served as artistic director of the National Ballet of Uruguay, adminis ...

to teach students in Prague. In 2014, she finished training as a teacher at The Royal Ballet School. Later that year, following her retirement as a dancer, she joined the teaching staff of the Royal Ballet Upper School.

Other ventures

In March 2013 Klimentová published her autobiography entitled ''Daria Klimentova – Agony and Ecstasy: My Life in Dance'' in which she detailed both her upbringing in Soviet-era Czechoslovakia and her ballet career. Klimentová is also a photographer.

Personal life

Klimentová has a daughter.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Klimentova, Daria 1971 births Living people Dancers from Prague Prima ballerinas Czech ballerinas English National Ballet principal dancers Scottish Ballet principal dancers Czech expatriates in the United Kingdom 20th-century ballet dancers 21st-century ballet dancers Ballet teachers