Daniil Simkin was born in Novosibirsk, Russia, in 1987, the son of acclaimed ballet dancers Dmitrij Simkin and Olga Aleksandrova. His family moved to Western Europe in 1990 and took residence in Wiesbaden, Germany, where Daniil grew up.
He gained early stage experience at the age of five, dancing with his father in many productions of the Staatstheater Wiesbaden.
At the age of nine, Daniil began ten years of daily ballet training with his mother, who, while having a direct lineage in her teaching methods to Vaganova, was inspired by several different international ballet techniques. In these training years, he won a number of important ballet awards, including the Senior Gold Medal at the Jackson International Ballet competition in 2006, the Grand Prix at the Helsinki International Ballet Competition in 2005 and the Grand Prix at the International Ballet Competition in Vienna in 2004.
After graduating academic high school in Germany, Daniil joined the Vienna State Opera Ballet as a demi-soloist in 2006 and also began his career as a guest performer around the world.
In 2008, he joined American Ballet Theatre as a soloist and was subsequently promoted to principal dancer in 2012. He since then has danced most major classical and neoclassical roles in the company’s repertoire including Albrecht in Giselle, Prince Siegfried in Swan Lake, Prince Desire in Sleeping Beauty, Basilio in Don Quixote, The Prince in Nutcracker, Romeo and Mercutio in Romeo and Juliet, Lensky in Onegin and Lescaut in Manon, among others.
Daniil has performed in ballets created by such masters as Petipa, Bournonville, Balanchine, McMillan, Fokine, Tudor, Cranko, Robbins and Cunningham as well as by many of today’s luminaries such as Twyla Tharp, Paul Taylor, Jiri Kylian and Alejandro Cerrudo.
In addition, he has created roles in ballets by such leading contemporary choreographers as Alexei Ratmansky, Benjamin Millepied, Alexander Ekman, Annabelle Lopez-Ochoa and Jorma Elo.
In his professional career, Daniil has performed throughout North and South America, Europe, Asia, and the Middle East. Working with his family, he organized International Ballet Galas in Greece in 2009 and in Japan in 2012. In 2015, together with the Joyce Theater in New York, Daniil spearheaded and produced an evening of contemporary original choreography called “INTENSIO,” which toured the United States and internationally.
His next endeavor was the production of a multi-disciplinary dance installation at the Guggenheim Museum in New York which involves generative video projections and costumes by Dior.
Beginning with the 2018-2019 season Daniil joined Staatsballett Berlin as a principal and maintained his position at ABT, performing with both companies as often as his schedule allows.
In 2021, Simkin founded the production company Studio Simkin to explore and develop dance opportunities for the next era with the highest production value and artistic standard, encouraging ballet to evolve within a digital environment and for new forums.
