Daria Klimentová (born 23 June 1971) is a Czech retired ballet dancer, ballet teacher and photographer . She spent most of her career as a lead principal dancer at English National Ballet. She is currently a teacher at the Royal Ballet Upper School.
Early life and training
Klimentová is from Prague, and grew up under the Soviet regime. She was first trained as a gymnast, then switched to ballet as she would have a longer career. Klimentová had her ballet training at the Prague State Conservatoire of Music and Dance for eight years, and graduated with the highest honour. As a student she won Prix de Lausanne competition (1989, Paris Dance Foundation award) and the Gold medal of the International Ballet Competition in Pretoria.
Career
Dance
In 1989, following her graduation, Klimentová joined National Theatre Ballet in Prague as a soloist, and was promoted to principal dancer a year later. In 1992, she joined Cape Town City Ballet in South Africa as principal. The following year, she joined the Scottish Ballet as a principal dancer. She had created principal roles in Camille, The Snow Queen and Double Concerto. The rehearsals and performance was featured in the BBC4 documentary Agony and Ecstasy: A Year with English National Ballet. Since then, the two were paired together frequently. Klimentová noted it is a partnership she waited 20 years for.
In 2014, Klimentová announced she would retire from dancing, due to age and "just been doing it for so long." Muntagirov, who announced he would join The Royal Ballet around the same time, was consulted. In June, at age 42, Klimentová performed her final performance, which was Romeo and Juliet. Muntagirov returned to ENB to dance with her.
Klimentová is also a photographer.