Ballerina

Ballerina Irina Baranova

A ballerina is a name given to a female ballet dancer. Only very good female ballet dancers are called ballerinas. A ballerina is a principal dancer in a classical ballet company. The highest ranking female dancer in a company was usually called the prima ballerina.

Today the term 'ballerina' has gone rather out of fashion. Now they are simply called 'Principal dancers'. Dancers in a company are ranked by the company, and paid accordingly. They have to prove themselves in lesser parts before they can get promoted.

Example of the ranks in a modern dance company:

1. Corps de ballet (these do not dance named individual parts)
2. Coryphées (minor soloists)
3. Principal character artists (dance roles with significant acting)
4. Second soloists (dancers who take named solo roles)
5. First soloists (one rank up from the previous)
6. Principal dancers (if female, same as 'ballerinas'; they dance leading roles)
7. Principal guest artist (a well-known and sometimes famous dancer, usually from abroad)

Ballerina Media

• Grandjete.jpg

  Three ballet dancers performing a grand jeté jump

• Angel Corella as Aminta.jpg

  Ángel Corella as Aminta in Frederick Ashton's version of the ballet Sylvia, 2005

• Monochrome Ballet Feet (Unsplash).jpg

  Many ballet dancers end up with injured feet due to the size of the shoes or the use of their feet in choreography

• Ballet-Ballerina-1843.jpg

  Ballerina of the Hathaway Academy of Ballet (Plano, TX).

• NWFusionPaquitaPas2.jpg

  Dancers performing Paquita grand pas de deux entrée

• Darcey Bussell, curtain call for Theme and Variations 2007.jpg

  The Royal Ballet's Darcey Bussell and Carlos Acosta at the curtain call of Theme and Variations

• Wilma Haydee Giglio - Coppelia, Swanilda-Prix de Lausanne 2010-4.jpg

  Variation extraite de Coppélia au Prix de Lausanne 2010.