Kimin Kim

Kimin Kim was born in Seoul, South Korea and trained at the Korea National University of the Arts under Vladimir Kim and Margarita Kulik.  Kim joined the Mariinsky Ballet as a trainee in December 2011 and was promoted to First Soloist in July 2012 and Principal Dancer in April 2015.

Kim’s repertoire with the Mariinsky Ballet includes Solor and the Golden Idol in La Bayadère (revised version by Vladimir Ponomarev and Vakhtang Chabukiani, with “Dance of the Golden Idol” choreographed by Nikolai Zubkovsky), Ali in Le Corsaire (production by Pyotr Gusev), the Diana and Acteon Pas de Deux, Basilio in Don Quixote, Count Albrecht in Giselle, Rubies from George Balanchine’s Jewels, the Nutcracker Prince in Vasily Vainonen’s The Nutcracker, Mercutio in Leonid Lavrovsky‘s Romeo and Juliet, Prince Siegfried and the Prince’s Friends in Swan Lake (revised version by Konstantin Sergeyev), the third movement of Balanchine’s Symphony in C, Aminta in Frederick Ashton’s Sylvia and roles in Harald Lander’s Études, William Forsythe’s The Vertiginous Thrill of Exactitude, Alexei Ratmansky’s Concerto DSCH and Wayne McGregor’s Infra.

Kim was a prizewinner at the international ballet competitions in Rome (1^st prize, 2008), Moscow (2^nd prize, 2009), Jackson (2^nd prize, 2010) and Varna (1^st prize, 2010).  In 2012, he won the Grand Prix at the Arabesque international ballet competition in Perm and the Grand Prix at the Youth America Grand Prix in New York.

Kim made his debut with American Ballet Theatre dancing Solor in La Bayadère during the 2015 Spring season at the Metropolitan Opera House.