Anna Onipko is a graduate of the Kiev State Choreographic Academy, where she was fortunate to study with Madame Virikundova, one of the last pupils of the legendary Madame Vaganova. Ms. Onipko began her performing career as a soloist with the Kiev Ballet and Opera Theater for Youth. Two years later, after being awarded a Special Price at Serge Lifar International Competition, she was invited to join the troupe of the National Ballet of Ukraine with which she toured Europe and the United States, while performing in Swan Lake, The Sleeping Beauty, La Bayadere, Giselle, La Sylphide, Romeo and Juliette, Spartacus, and The Nutcracker. Ms. Onipko was also fortunate to be one of the first dancers who took a part of Alexei Ratmansky’s early choreographic works.
After coming to US and joining Ballet El Paso in 1996, Ms. Onipko soon became company’s principal dancer, appearing as a lead in The Nutcracker, The Sleeping Beauty, Don Quixote and Pulcinella. She also was invited as a guest artist by New Mexico Ballet, Dallas Metropolitan Ballet, El Paso Opera Company and El Paso Symphony Orchestra.
In 2002, Ms. Onipko received her BFA in Dance and graduated with honors from the University of Texas at El Paso.nMs. Onipko’s twenty plus years of teaching experience includes the University of Texas Ballet Academy, Marry Jo’s Performing Arts Academy in Tampa, University for the Performing Arts in Fort Lauderdale, and Dmitri Kulev Classical Ballet Academy in Orange County, California where Ms. Onipko held a position of the principal lower academies and a senior teacher.