Iana Salenko (Ukrainian: Яна Саленко; born 19 July 1983)[1] is a Ukrainian-German ballet dancer.
In 1995, at age 14, she was invited to attend the Vaganova Academy of Russian Ballet in St. Petersburg, but her mother believed it was too far away, so she trained at Vadim Pisarev's school in Donetsk, which is 400 miles away from Kyiv.
After meeting her future-husband Marian Walter, Salenko auditioned for the Berlin State Ballet, where he was based.
Salenko said was offered a full-time contract at The Royal Ballet, but declined it in order to let her son finish school in Germany, but she became a regular guest, and returned to dance in other productions, such as Tchaikovsky Pas de deux, The Two Pigeons and Giselle.
[4][5][6] As a guest artist, Salenko has also performed in galas and companies in Croatia, Russia, Italy, Poland, The Netherlands, Taiwan, Germany, Slovakia and Slovenia.
Source:[2] Salenko is married to Marian Walter, also a principal at Berlin State Ballet, whom she met at a competition.