In 1998, she graduated from the Vaganova Ballet Academy where she had been studying in the class of Elvira Kokorina. That same year in December, Irina was accepted into Konstantin Tatchkin’s St Petersburg Ballet Theatre(SPBT) as a soloist where her first teacher was Russia’s Honoured Artist, Svetlana Efremova.
Due to her extraordinary dancing and acting skills, Irina was promoted to principal dancer in 2000 and by 2001 became the company’s Prima Ballerina.
Her many roles include Odette/Odile, Clara, Aurora, Kitri and Giselle. On the 1st of November 2004, she added Nikiya to her repertoire when the SPBT premiered its latest production, La Bayadere.
As a member of the St Petersburg Ballet Theatre, she has toured extensively in Holland, Germany, Belgium, the United Kingdom and Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, Japan and South Korea.
Irina Kolesnikova is the recipient of numerous international prizes including the Natalia Makarova Prize and the Silver Medal at “Arabesque 2002” in Russia, the Silver Medal at Varna in 2002 and the Gold Medal at the International Ballet Competition in Prague 2002. In 2003, she was nominated for the international prize at Benois de la Danse. In 2005 she won The Silver Medal at the 5th Japan International Ballet and Modern Dance Competition, 2005.
This year she has been nominated by the Dance Section of the Critic`s Circle of the UK as finalist for an award in the Best Female Dancer category for the 2005 Critic`s Circle Critical Dance Awards.
Currently, Irina Kolesnikova is working under Russia`s People Artists Alla Osipenko and Lubov Kunakova.
Mariinsky Theatre: 
Mariinsky-2 (New Theatre): 
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