Marianela Nuñez

Marianela was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina. She started dance lessons at the age of three and at eight was admitted to the Instituto Superior de Arte of the Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires where she studied until she was invited to join the corps de ballet of the Company at the age of 14. She was selected to take part in a tour of Argentina as a Soloist with the Ballet Clasico de la Habama, Cuba. In 1997 Maximiliano Guerra chose her as his partner to dance with him in Uruguay, Spain, Italy and at the World Ballet Festival of Japan. She was then invited to tour with the ballet company of Teatro Colón in Europe and the US as a guest ballerina.

In September 1997 she joined the Graduate Course at The Royal Ballet School and at the end of the year danced the leading female role in Kenneth MacMillan’s Soirée Musicale at Dame Ninette de Valois’ 100th Birthday Gala as well as the title role in Raymonda Act III and the Third Shadow solo in La Bayadère at the School’s performances. She joined The Royal Ballet at the start of the 1998/99 Season, aged 16 and was promoted to First Soloist in 2001 and made a Principal in September 2002.

Since joining the Company she has danced Juliet in Kenneth MacMillan’s Romeo and Juliet, Mitzi Caspar and Princess Louise in Mayerling, Elite Syncopations, Lescaut’s Mistress in Manon, Lise in Frederick Ashton’s La Fille mal gardée and the title role in Sylvia, Monotones I, lead couple in Les Rendevous, Dante Sonata Solo, the White Couple in La Valse the Centre Neopolitan Couple in Ondine, Lykanion in Daphnis and Chloë and Isabel Fitton in his Enigma Variations.

Other roles include the Pas de trois in Rudolf Nureyev’s production of Raymonda Act III, Nijinska’s Les Biches, a Nymph in Nijinsky’s L’Aprés-Midi D’un Faune, Swanilda and Aurora in Ninette de Valois’ production of Coppélia, the Black Queen in Checkmate, Mirtha and Pas de six in Peter Wright’s Giselle, the Pas de deux from Petipa’s Diana and Acteon at the White Night Gala (July 2000), Odette/Odile in Anthony Dowell’s production of Swan Lake, the Sugar Plum Fairy in Sir Peter Wright’s production of The Nutcracker, Ashley Page’s This House Will Burn, the 1st Pas de trois in Balanchine’s Agon, Kitri in Nureyev’s production of Don Quixote, Olga in John Cranko’s Onegin,, the lead couple with Inaki Urlezaga in Stephen Baynes’ Beyond Bach, Antony Tudor’s The Leaves Are Fading, Nikya and Gamzatti in Natalia Makarova’s production of La Bayadère, the Fairy of Vitality, Lilac Fairy and Aurora in her production of The Sleeping Beauty Nacho Duato’s Por Vos Muero, William Forsythe’s In the middle, somewhat elevated, Jiří Kylián’s Sinfonietta, L’Hiver in David Bintley’s Les Saisons, Polyhimnia in Balanchine’s Apollo, Tchaikovsky Pas de deux and Choleric in his The Four Temperaments, the Lilac Fairy and Aurora in the Monica Mason and Christopher Newton production of The Sleeping Beauty, the Queen of Fire in Christopher Wheeldon’s Fire variation in Homage to the Queen, the Solo Girl in Alastair Marriott’s Tanglewood, Glen Tetley’s Voluntaries, Johan Kobborg’s production of Napoli Divertissements and the female role in Diamonds as part of Balanchine’s Jewels.

She created roles in two works on the 1999 Dance Bites tour: William Tuckett’s Love’s Fool and Mark Baldwin’s Towards Poetry and she created a role in Matthew Hart’s Acheron’s Dream for the New Works in the Linbury Studio Theatre (2000), Javier De Frutos’ The Misty Frontier (2001). In 2003 she created the role of La Grêle in David Bintley’s Les Saisons, Christopher Wheeldon’s DGV (Danse à grande vitesse) (2006) and the Stripper in Will Tuckett’s The Seven Deadly Sins (2007).

Television appearances include the BBC Broadcasts of Daphnis and Chloë, La Fille mal gardée, Sleeping Beauty and Giselle. She also made her debut dancing the Pas de deux from Le Corsaire for ‘A Curtain Call for Aid’ Asian Tsunami benefit performance, broadcast in December 2006.

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