Irina’s career is a rare blend of elite academic training and extraordinary performance achievement. She trained at the prestigious Perm Ballet School before joining the USSR State Academic Opera and Ballet Theatre as a Principal Artist. She performed lead roles in Romeo and Juliet, Swan Lake, The Sleeping Beauty, The Nutcracker, La Sylphide, Don Quixote, and more. After receiving a Laureate at the Grand Prix International Competition in Baku, she joined the Kirov Ballet (now Mariinsky Ballet Theatre) in St Petersburg.

Irina later graduated from the Vaganova Academy of Russian Ballet with a Bachelor's Degree, qualifying her as a Ballet Mistress and Repetiteur of the Vaganova method. Since joining The Australian Ballet School in 2001, she has been instrumental in developing our vocational curriculum. While many of her fellow Vaganova graduates work with major ballet companies worldwide, we are privileged to have Irina dedicate her world-class expertise to nurturing the next generation here.