Born in Saratov, Russia, Jurgita Dronina graduated from the ballet school at the National M. K. Čiurlionis School of Art in Vilnius, Lithuania and continued her study at the Munich International Ballet Academy in Germany under the directorship of Konstanze Vernon. She was a Principal Dancer with Royal Swedish Ballet and Dutch National Ballet before joining The National Ballet of Canada as Principal Dancer in 2015. Dronina joined Hong Kong Ballet as Guest Principal Dancer in 2015.

Among many other prominent roles, Dronina has danced Nykia in La Bayadère (Makarova, Asylmuratova), Kitri in Don Quixote (Ratmansky, Garofoli), Medora in Le Corsaire (Fadeyechev), Princess Aurora in The Sleeping Beauty (Wright, Chalmer), Odette/Odile in Swan Lake (Conus, Holmes, Martins, van Dantzig, Bart, Petipa/Ivanov, Sergeyev/Kovaliova/Kunakova), Juliet in Romeo and Juliet (MacMillan, van Dantzig), as well as the title role in Giselle (Vinogradov, Beaujean/Bustamante after Co-ralli/Perrot, Wright), Cinderella (Wheeldon), Paquita (Petipa) and Sylvia (Neumeier). She has also danced Hermoine in Wheeldon’s The Winter’s Tale, Ratmansky’s On The Dnieper and Firebird, as well as Balanchine’s Tchaikovsky Pas de Deux, Serenade, Symphony in C and Jewels.

Roles that have been created especially for Dronina include Queen Sofia Magdalena in Bart’s Gustav III , Arque’s Minos, Christe’s Moving Glass, Cherkaoui’s Labyrinth, Dawson’s day4 and Overture, Elo’s Shapes, van Manen’s Dances with Harp and Pastor’s The Tempest.

She has also performed as a guest principal artist with the Norwegian National Ballet, the Royal Danish Ballet, Opera dell Roma, Teatro San Carlo, Arena di Verona and at Rudolf Nureyev International Ballet Festival in Russia.

Dronina has been awarded the gold prize at the International Ballet Competition in Grasse in 2003 and silver prizes at the International Ballet Competitions in Helsinki in 2005, Moscow in 2005 and Jackson in 2006.

Dronina has been the recipient of many awards. Highlights include the Dutch Zwaan Award in 2011 and the Alexandra Radius Prize in 2014 for her Aurora in The Sleeping Beauty. The European Dance Magazine Dance Europe voted her as Outstanding Dancer of the season for four seasons (2009/10, 2010/11, 2011/12, 2014/15).

Photo: A. Antonijevic