Vanessa Andrea Zahorian (born 1978/1979)[1] is an American retired ballet dancer.
[3][4] She started training at the Central Pennsylvania Youth Ballet at age 5.
When she was 11, she was offered a scholarship to Vaganova Academy of Russian Ballet, but did not actually train there due to her young age and the political climate.
[3] In 2017, Zahorian retired from the San Francisco Ballet after dancing Swan Lake, along with her husband, Davit Karapetyan.
[2] In 2010, Davit Karapetyan, a fellow San Francisco Ballet principal dancer, proposed to Zahorian on stage after a performance of Romeo and Juliet.