Alina Nanu

Biography

The first soloist of the Czech National Ballet. Alina Nanu is a gifted young artist, an ebullient, technically brilliant dancer, capable of singularly expressive rendition of the psychology of the characters, she has experience throughout the ballet repertoire from Kitri in Don Quixote to Princess Aurora in Sleeping Beauty to Odette/Odile in Swan Lake. In 2015, she was appointed prima ballerina. Winner of two Thalia Awards: for her portrayal of Lise in the ballet La Fille mal gardée by Frederick Ashton's (2019) and for her role as Tatiana in John Cranko's ballet Onegin (2020).

Alina Nanu was born on 23 August 1990 in Kishinev, where she studied at the State Dance Conservatory of Moldova. Subsequently, she attended the Prague Dance Conservatory. As a member of the school’s company, she made tours all over the world, performing in Spain, Germany, the USA, etc. While still a student, she garnered accolades at dance contests, with the most significant being second prize at the International Ballet Competition in Brno (2009) and first prize at the International Ballet Competition in Romania (2009).
In 2010, she launched her professional career as a member of the ballet company of the State Opera Prague, where a year later she was appointed a soloist. The audience could see her in the lead role of Odette/Odile in Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake, as Kitri in Don Quixote (for the role of Kitri she was nominated for the Thalia Award in 2013)and Myrtha in Giselle.

In 2012/13 season, she was engaged as a soloist at the Czech National Ballet, where in 2015 she was named a first soloist. 

At the National Theatre in Prague, she has appeared in a number of major roles. She has performed Clara in a Dream, Clara Cratchit and the Chinese Dance in The Nutcracker – A Christmas Carol, the Ugly Sister in Cinderella, Kitri in Don Quixote, Myrtha in Giselle, Odette / Odile in Swan Lake, Princess Aurora, Carabosse – the Wicked Fairy and Volante – the Fairy of Courage in The Sleeping Beauty, Juliet and the Juggler in Romeo and Juliet, the Marquise de Merteuil in Valmont, Nikya and Gamzatti in La Bayadère, the Mother in The Nutcracker and the Cuddly Mouse, the title roles in The Snow Queen and The Little Mermaid, and Lise in La Fille mal gardée.
Alina has also excelled in modern ballet productions, including in Americana III, Czech Ballet Symphony II, Symphony No. 7 in A major (Uwe Scholze), Rain (Radu Poklitaru), Vertigo (Mauro Bigonzetti), Solo for the Two of Us (Petr Zuska), Serenade (George Balanchine), Bella Figura (Jiří Kylián), Aspects (Katarzyna Kozielska), Dumka (Ondřej Vinklát), Perfect Example (Andrej Kajdanovskij), Kafka: The Trial (M. Bigonzetti)

In 2015, she received the Director of the National Theatre Prize for young artists up to the age of 35 and she was nominated as Dancer of the 2018 year in the magazine Dance Europe.
In 2015, she received the Director of the National Theatre Prize for young artists up to the age of 35. He successfully represented the Czech National Ballet in the Bavarian State Ballet in Munich and in the Stuttgarter Ballett at the prestigious Ballet Gala and also in Košice and Bratislava at Gala of Modern Dance (all together with Giovanni Rotolo - 2016, 2018).