April 30, 2008
DANIIL SIMKIN TO JOIN AMERICAN BALLET THEATRE AS SOLOIST
Daniil Simkin will join American Ballet Theatre as a Soloist in October 2008. It was announced today by Artistic Director Kevin McKenzie.
Simkin was born in Russia to ballet dancers Dimitrij Simkin and Olga Aleksandrova and was raised in Wiesbaden, Germany, where the family settled in 1990. From the age of six, Simkin often appeared onstage dancing alongside his father. He began his formal ballet training at age ten, under the direction of his mother, and at age 12 he began participating in ballet competitions and galas around the world.
In 2006, Simkin joined the Vienna State Opera as a demi-soloist. His roles with the company included the peasant pas de deux in Elena Tchernichova’s Giselle, the Nutcracker-Prince in Vasily Vainonen’s The Nutcracker, Benvolio in John Cranko’s Romeo and Juliet and the Beggar Chief in Kenneth MacMillan’s Manon, among others. In 2007, he danced his first principal role, Basilio in Don Quixote, as a guest with the Lithuanian National Opera.
Simkin’s awards include First Prize at International Ballet Competitions in St. P√∂lten, Austria (2000); Vienna, Austria (2001); Perm, Russia (2004); and Varna, Bulgaria (2004), where he also won the Gold Medal. He won the Grand Prix at the International Ballet Competition in Vienna in 2004 and in Helsinki in 2005. In 2006, he won the Senior Gold Medal at the USA International Ballet Competition in Jackson, Mississippi.