Irina Dvorovenko

Born in Soviet Ukraine, Irina Dvorovenko found her first success as a ballet dancer. She appeared in the National Opera and Ballet Theater of Kiev, and then moved to the United States with her husband, dancer Maxim Beloserkovsky, in 1994. Once in the U.S., she toured with the Bolshoi Ballet and, in 1996, joined American Ballet Theater. She was quickly promoted to soloist, then principal dancer in 2000. Beloserkovsky was also a principal dancer in the company. Dvorovenko retired from the company in 2013, after leading productions of "Cinderella" and "Don Quixote" among others. She planned to continue dancing as a guest for other troupes, but the screen quickly called, and in 2015 she made her first onscreen appearance in a ballet-centric episode of "Forever" (ABC, 2014-15), a show that followed an immortal as he tried to solve the mystery of his curse. The same year, she debuted as a regular on the ballet miniseries, "Flesh and Bone" (Starz, 2015). Created by Moira Walley-Beckett, a writer-producer of "Breaking Bad" (AMC, 2008-2013), this was not a light and bubbly affair. The series took pains to show the backstabbing and emotional and physical agony that go into a real ballet production. Dvorovenko was ideally suited to play Kiira, the veteran dancer, trying to hold on to her position in the company.