Natalia Osipova To Return To American Ballet Theatre As Guest Artist During 2026 Summer Season

American Ballet Theatre has announced that Natalia Osipova, Principal Dancer with The Royal Ballet and former ABT Principal, will return to the company as a Guest Artist during its 2026 Summer season at the Metropolitan Opera House.

Osipova will perform the role of Kitri in DON QUIXOTE on Monday, July 6 at 7:30 p.m., opposite ABT Principal Dancer Daniel Camargo as Basilio. The performance marks Osipova’s first appearance with American Ballet Theatre since 2018.

Osipova joined The Royal Ballet as a Principal in autumn 2013 after appearing as a guest artist the previous season in Swan Lake alongside Carlos Acosta. Her repertory with the company includes leading roles in Giselle, Cinderella, Manon, and Sylvia, as well as Kitri in Don Quixote, the Sugar Plum Fairy in The Nutcracker, Princess Aurora in The Sleeping Beauty, Lise in La Fille mal gardée, Titania in The Dream, Marguerite in Marguerite and Armand, Juliet in Romeo and Juliet, Tatiana in Onegin, Mary Vetsera in Mayerling, and Natalia Petrovna in A Month in the Country. She has also appeared in works including Rhapsody, Serenade, Raymonda Act III, DGV: Danse à grande vitesse, Woman with Water, and Tchaikovsky Pas de Deux.

In addition to her classical repertoire, Osipova has created roles in productions such as The Weathering, Strapless, Woolf Works, Tetractys, Connectome, Medusa, and Concerto pour deux, among others.

Osipova previously joined American Ballet Theatre as a Principal Dancer in 2012, where she created the title role in Alexei Ratmansky’s Firebird and a leading role in his Piano Concerto No. 1. Her honors include Golden Mask Awards for In the Upper Room (2008) and La Sylphide (2009), Critics’ Circle National Dance Awards for Best Female Dancer (2007, 2010, 2014) and Outstanding Female Classical Performance (2022), Positano Dance Awards (2008 and 2011), and a Benois de la Danse Award for Best Female Dancer (2008).

“Natalia Osipova is an extraordinary artist,” said American Ballet Theatre Artistic Director Susan Jaffe. “Her performances are filled with emotion and technical excellence. We are thrilled to welcome her back to ABT and look forward to seeing her ignite the stage as Kitri this summer.”