Maria Shirinkina

Maria Shirinkina was born in Perm and studied at the Perm Ballet School under Ninel Silvanovich. She graduated in 2006 and, upon her graduation, she joined the Mariinsky Ballet, becoming the first graduate from Perm to do so. She was promoted to second soloist in 2011 following her début as Juliet in Leonid Lavrovsky's Romeo and Juliet. She has toured across the world with the Mariinsky Ballet to places such as the United States, Europe, China and Japan.

Her repertoire includes the Sylph in La Sylphide, Giselle, Princess Aurora in The Sleeping Beauty, Cinderella, Nikiya in La Bayadère, Raymonda, Lise in La fille mal gardée and leading roles in Chopiniana, Jewels, Symphony in C and the Tschaikovsky Pas de Deux.

In September 2016, Shirinkina and her husband joined the Bayerische Staatsballett in Munich, Germany as principals with the invitation of Igor Zelensky, the theater's new artistic director.

Shirinkina is married to fellow Russian ballet dancer Vladimir Shklyarov; the couple has one son Alexey, who was born in February 2015, two days before his father's 30th birthday.

• Giselle in Giselle
• The Sylph in La Sylphide
• Princess Aurora in The Sleeping Beauty
• Princess Masha in Vainonen's The Nutcracker
• Nikiya in La Bayadère
• Raymonda in Raymonda
• Gulnare in Le Corsaire
• Mazurka and Pas de deux in Chopiniana
• The Young Girl in Le Spectre de la rose
• Juliet in Lavrovsky's and Cranko's Romeo and Juliet
• Syuimbike in Leonid Yakobson's Shurale
• Maria in Zakharov's The Fountain of Bakhchisarai
• The Tsar Maiden in Alexei Ratmansky's The Little Humpbacked Horse
• Cinderella in Alexei Ratmansky's Cinderella
• Phrygia in Yuri Grigorovich's Spartacus
• Princess Shyrin in Yuri Grigorovich's The Legend of Love
• Parasha in Yuri Smekalov's The Bronze Horseman
• Lucille Grahn in Anton Dolin's Pas de Quatre
• Lise in Frederick Ashton's La fille mal gardée
• Alice in Christopher Wheeldon's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
• Emeralds and Rubies in Jewels
• Divertissement Pas de deux in George Balanchine's A Midsummer Night's Dream
• First Movement in Symphony in C
• Tschaikovsky Pas de Deux
• Helena in John Neumeier's A Midsummer Night's Dream