Insider’s Guide to New York

Name: Irina Dvorovenko

The stats: Born in Kiev, Ukraine; has lived in New York City since 1994, currently in Midtown West.

Why she loves New York: “The energy of the people; it gives you a push to live and to do more than you ever thought you could.”

Born in Kiev, Ukraine, Irina Dvorovenko began her ballet training at the Kiev Ballet School at the age of ten. She began her professional dancing career in 1990 as a soloist with the National Opera Ballet of Kiev and quickly rose to the rank of principal dancer in 1992. Her impressive repertoire includes a number of leading roles in many of the great classics, including The Queen of the Driads and Mercedes in Don Quixote, Odette-Odile in Swan Lake, and the Sugar Plum Fairy in The Nutcracker, among many others.

Dvorovenko’s style and technique have gained enormous critical and popular acclaim worldwide and she has won several high-profile awards for her proficiency in the art. She joined New York City’s American Ballet Theatre in 1996 and has since continued to expand her illustrious repertoire. She is married to fellow American Ballet Theatre principal dancer Maxim Beloserkovsky, with whom she has a daughter, Emma Galine, who was born in March 2005.

Check out Irina Dvorovenko’s favorite haute spots in New York at Haute Secrets.