PRESS RELEASE 08 SEPTEMBER 2017 Daniil Simkin to join Staatsballett Berlin at the start of the season 2018/2019 Berlin, 08 September 2017 --- Daniil Simkin, a Principal Dancer with American Ballet Theatre since 2012, will join Staatsballett Berlin as a permanent member at the start of the company’s 2018-2019 season also as Principal Dancer. As an internationally successful dancer, Simkin will continue to perform as a Principal Dancer with American Ballet Theatre as scheduling allows. Daniil Simkin is excited about this new step in his career: “I am very much looking forward to join Staatsbal- lett Berlin under the new directorship of Sasha Waltz and Johannes Öhman starting in the 2018/2019 season. I am also extremely grateful for the ten fantastic years I spent with American Ballet Theatre and am very thankful to Mr. Kevin McKenzie who has been very supportive and who is allowing me to return to the won- derful NY audience.” Sasha Waltz and Johannes Öhman look very much forward to work with D. Simkin: „For us, Daniil is one of the top 5 male classical dancers worldwide. He is extremely technically skilled with great artistry. We’re very happy to welcome him as a permanent member of Staatsballett Berlin.” Daniil Simkin was born into a ballet family in Novosibirsk, Russia. At the age of three, his family moved to Germany and took residence in Wiesbaden, Germany, where Simkin grew up. At the age of nine, he began ten years of classical ballet training under the mentorship of his mother, Olga Aleksandrova, with his inter- national performing career starting at the age of 12. In 2006 he joined the Vienna State Opera Ballet as a demi-soloist and guested as a Principal dancer for the first time as Basilio in „Don Quixote” at the Lithuanian National Opera in Vilnius in 2007. In 2008, he joined American Ballet Theatre as a soloist and was subsequently promoted to principal dancer in 2012. He since then has danced most major classical and neoclassical roles in the company’s repertoire including Albrecht in “Giselle”, Prince Siegfried in “Swan Lake”, Prince Desireé in “Sleeping Beauty”, Basilio in “Don Quixote”, the Prince in “Nutcracker” and others. Out of the neoclassical repertoire, he per- formed Mercutio and Romeo in Kenneth McMillan’s „Romeo and Juliet”, Lensky in John Cranko’s “Onegin”, Spectre in Michel Fokine’s “La Spectre De La Rose” among others. During his international career Simkin received acclaim performing throughout North and South America, Asia and the Middle East. In 2015, together with the Joyce Theater in New York, he spearheaded and pro- duced “Intensio”, an evening of original contemporary choreography,” which toured the United States and internationally. His latest endeavor is the production of a multi-disciplinary dance installation at the Guggen- heim Museum in New York which involves generative video projections and costumes by Dior. PRESSEKONTAKT Corinna Erlebach Pressereferentin Richard-Wagner-Straße 10 10585 Berlin Telefon +49 (0)30-34 384 154 Telefax +49 (0)30-34 384 155 [email protected] www.staatsballett-berlin.de .