| Maria Shirinkina (Maria Shklyarova) | |
| Birth Date: | April 18, 1987 |
| Birth Place: | Perm, Russia, Soviet Union |
| Occupation: | Ballerina |
| Spouse: | Vladimir Shklyarov (m. 2013) |
| Children: | 2 |
| Education: | Perm Ballet School |
| Dances: | Giselle, The Sleeping Beauty, Romeo and Juliet |
| Current Group: | Mariinsky Ballet, Bayerisches Staatsballett |
Maria Shirinkina (Russian: Мария Ширинкина, born 18 April 1987) is a first soloist of the Mariinsky Ballet and a guest principal dancer of the Bayerisches Staatsballett.
Maria Shirinkina was born in Perm and studied at the Perm Ballet School under Ninel Silvanovich. She graduated in 2006 and, upon her graduation, she joined the Mariinsky Ballet. She was promoted to second soloist in 2011 following her début as Juliet in Leonid Lavrovsky's Romeo and Juliet. She has toured across the world with the Mariinsky Ballet to places such as the United States, Europe, China and Japan.
Her repertoire includes the Sylph in La Sylphide, Giselle, Princess Aurora in The Sleeping Beauty, Cinderella, Raymonda and leading roles in Chopiniana, Jewels, Symphony in C and the Tschaikovsky Pas de Deux. In June 2016, she made her début as Nikiya in a gala performance of the "Kingdom of the Shades" scene from La Bayadère held at the Ural Opera in Yekaterinburg.
In September 2016, Shirinkina and her husband took a one-year sabbatical and joined the Bayerische Staatsballett in Munich, Germany as principals with the invitation of Igor Zelensky, the theater's new artistic director.[1] They returned to Saint Petersburg in 2017, but continue to perform as guest principals in Munich. During her season in Munich, Shirinkina made her débuts as Phrygia in Yuri Grigorovich's Spartacus, Lise in Frederick Ashton's La fille mal gardée and Alice in Christopher Wheeldon's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, as well as her full-length début as Nikiya in Patrice Bart's production of La Bayadère and Juliet in Cranko's Romeo and Juliet.
In 2019, Shirinkina was promoted to First Soloist with the Mariinsky Ballet.
Shirinkina is married to fellow Russian ballet dancer Vladimir Shklyarov.[2] In February 2015, Shirinkina gave birth to their first child, son Alexey, two days before his father's 30th birthday. In July 2021, the couple's second child, daughter Alexandra was born.