Rodica Simion Biografie

Rodica Simion was born in Romania and attended the High School of Choreography in Bucharest. She was then selected to go to Leningrad where she completed her studies at the Vaganova Academy of Russian Ballet under the famous professor N.W. Baltaceewa.

In 1958, she was chosen due to her success in the ballet “Pas de deux” from “Flame de Paris” at the Kirow Theatre (known today as Marinsky Theatre in Saint Petersburg) by the great Russian choreographer Leonid Jacobson to perform at his premiere of “Choreographic Miniatures” – Nocturne “The Bird and the Huntsman” at the Kirow Theatre together with the lead solo dancer "Primbalerino" of the Kirow Theatre, Alexander Gribov, as well as the black swan with Satilow in “Swan Lake”.

After graduating successfully from the Vaganova Academy of Russian Ballet, she was employed from 1960 to 1964 at the Kirow Theatre Leningrad, where she became the lead solist for the role of Mascha in Ch. Wainonen’s production of “The Nutcracker”.

Further roles incoluded "The Blind Girl" in the “Choreographic Miniatures”, the soloist in “Les Sylphides” and the first cast of Schirin in “The Legend of Love” staged by the famous choreographer Yury Grigorovich.  In this time, she performed with partners like Ukusinikow Gribow Schatilow, an artist from the USSR of outstanding merit.

 From 1964 to 1975 Rodica Simion worked as prima ballerina in the Romanian Opera in Bucharest, where she performed in the following productions: “Swan Lake”, “Giselle”, “Dornrösschen”, “Don Quixote”, “Romeo and Juliet”, “Francesca da Rimini”, “Le Sacre de Printemps”, “Les Sylphides”, “Coppelia”, “Der ehrende Reiter” (Ch. Smirnov).

 At the same time, she participated in several ballet productions as assistant for choreography in classical performances, including “Les Syphides”, “Giselle”, and “Dornrösschen”, "Don Quichotte", staged by the ballet master Vasile Marcu and Oleg Danowski.

In the year from 1972 to 1973 she was employed as the lead soloist at the State Theatre at Gärtnerplatz in Munich, where she performed in the following productions: “The Firebird”, “L’Après-midi d’un faune”, “Pulcinella”, “Bolero”.

From 1973 to 1983 she danced as a soloist at the Bavarian State Opera in Munich in performances of “Apollon Musagète”, “Symphony in C”, “The four temperamente”, “La Fille mal gardee”, “Symphony in D”, “Große Fuge”, “Las Hermanas”, Olga in “Onegin”. At the same time, she performed abroad with companies like Balletto di Roma and Les Grand Ballet Classique de France. She participated in various guest performances in France and Italy as well as in different gala performances of the world ballet: Barischnikow, Schaufuss, Terabust, Marcia Hayde, Hideo Fugakawa (gold medal Moscow), Jean-Pier Laport, in the Copellia performance by Ch. Atilio Labis, the lead soloist of the Opera of Paris, Cyril Atanasoff and “The Nutcracker” by Ch. Vladimir Skuladov.

In 1978, she participated at the “International Dance Festival of Stars” in Chicago, where she danced with Hideo Fugakawa in “Pas de deux Coppelia” by Ch. Atilio Labis.

Rodica Simion further toured Italy, France, Spain, Portugal, Belgium, the USA, Moscow, Monte Carlo and all former communist countries, where she was known as Étoile de l’Opéra Bukarst and Étoile de l’Opéra de Munich.

In 1979, she was awarded the gold medal “Normia di Accademico” by the Academia Italia delle Arte. In 1983, she received the award „Saint Geron-Chevolier-Orden“ for the cultural artistic field in Germany.

After having performed for 22 years, she successfully completed a study of Pedagogy of Classical Dance under Michel de Lutry. From 1981 to 1986, she then practiced as a teacher in Munich.

In 1986, she was summoned as ballet master and pedagogue by the famous John Cranko Academy in Stuttgart. She staged with her master classes several complete productions of “Les Sylphides”, “Diana and Actaeon”, “Raimonda”, the second act of “Swan Lake”, “Grand Pas de quatre”, “Paquita”, “Baiadera” in Stuttgart and abroad.

In 2002, she was awarded by the Romanian president Jon Illiescu the country’s highest honour, the Order of the Star of Romania of the first rank (Cavaler).