Olga Kifyak

Olga Kifyak

Olga Kifyak was born to dance and in a short time has become a ballerina par excellence. From 2000 to 2006 Olga Kifyak garnered 11 dance awards. Among her many accolades and awards: a First Place award at the Fourth International Festival Competition "Dance of the 21st Century;" two medals at the 5th IBC in Vienna, Austria; At the 7th International Festival of "Dance of the 21st Century," she won a Premium Classic Dance award and an award in Modern Ballet. Kifyak also won Silver at the 6th Serge Lifar International Ballet Competition. At the First International Yuri Grigorovich Ballet Competition "Young Ballet of Peace," she received a top award. In 2012, after just over 10 years of dancing professionally, Kifyak was bestowed with the title of Honored Artist of Ukraine.

Kifyak’s repertory is broad and includes all the ballet classics: Swan Lake as Odette, Odile; Coppelia as Coppelia; Don Quixote as Kitri; Paquita as Paquita; La Bayadere as Gamzatti; Spartacus as Aegina; Raymonda; Giselle; Sleeping Beauty; Le Corsair; The Master and Margarita; Danielle; The Viennese Waltz; and Lord Borisphen. She has traveled extensively performing at ballet festivals around the world, performing at the Svellany Gala Zakharova in Tokyo, Japan, in Parma, Italy, and in Belgrade, Serbia.

Kifyak’s dance career started in 1998 when she studied at the Ukrainian Academy of Dance in Kiev and graduated with honors from the International Slavic University. Her teachers and tutors were some of the most acknowledged of the time and include E.Filipeva, N. Pryadchenko, A. Kalchenko, and T. Beletskaya. From 2003 to 2006 Kifyak completed her studies at the Kherson State Pedagogical University with a focus in Pedagogy and Technique of Choreography. She was invited to join the prestigious Ukrainian National Academic Opera and Ballet Theatre in 2001, immediately upon graduation from the Ukrainian Academy of Dance in Kiev. Today there are 24 ballets in the repertory of The Kiev Ballet, which makes it one of the biggest repertories in the world. Since 1993, many of its graduates have become ballet stars and the Academy has been publicly recognized as a center for professional education.

Karyna Shatkovskaya

Karyna Shatkovskaya is a multiple award-winning soloist who debuted with Moscow Ballet in 2011. In 2009 she was Laureate in the Second International Ballet Competition (IBC) in Astana, the capital of Kazakhstan, and in 2010 was awarded “State Prize Winner.”

Shatkovskaya graduated from the Kharkov State Choreographic School in 2000 and was invited to join the Kharkov Opera and Ballet Theater. In 2004, she graduated from the Kharkov School of Culture and in 2006 graduated from the Kharkov Academy of Culture with a degree in Classical Choreography. Shatkovskaya debuted as a soloist in September 2002, dancing the role of Maria in the Odessa National Opera and Ballet’s Nutcracker.

Her repertoire includes the lead roles in some of ballet’s most coveted performances: Coppelia, Cinderella, Nutcracker, Sleeping Beauty, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Don Quixote, and more. She has toured extensively in Europe, Russia, and North and South America. Karyna was Guest Soloist with the Imperial Ballet of Russia, under the direction of Taranda, and with the International Ballet of Russia, under the direction of Surnevoy, before joining Moscow Ballet.

Find out more about Karyna in her interview by Vicki Crain of 4dancers.org blog post.

The video to the left shows Karyna Shatkovskaya performing the Pas De Deux in a production of Swan Lake.

Vladimir Tkachenko

Vladimir Tkachenko

Vladimir Tkachenko graduated with honors from the prestigious Perm Choreographic Ballet School, in the class of V. Alikina in 2006. The repertoire of the theatre includes masterpieces of the most distinguished choreographers of the 20th Century, including G. Balachine and J. Robbins. Upon graduation Tkachenko was invited to join the State Kremlin Ballet of Moscow and made his professional debut in La Esmeralda as the Hunchback Quasimodo.

Two years later Tkachenko was invited to become soloist in the Kharkov National Academic Theater of Opera and Ballet rehearsing under the direction of People's Artist of Ukraine S. Kolyvanova and Honored Artist of the USSR, M. Bezzubikovym. There he dances principal roles in Nutcracker, Coppelia, Cinderella, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, and A Thousand and One Nights. He has been a Guest Soloist of the Imperial Ballet under the direction of Taranda, and of the Russian International Ballet under the direction of Honored Artist of Russia Igor Surnevoy. Tkachenko has toured to almost all continents of the world including Europe, Asia, Africa, and North and South America. He made his debut appearance with Moscow Ballet in 2011 as the Nutcracker Prince in the Great Russian Nutcracker.