Ones to Watch: Dancer Dominika Afanasenkov Steps Into the Spotlight
- Oops!Something went wrong.Please try again later.
- Oops!Something went wrong.Please try again later.
When Tony-award-winning choreographer Christopher Wheeldon was picking 10 dancers to cast in his newest work for New York City Ballet — his first for the company in six years — he deliberately picked an on-the-rise 19-year-old out of a pool of nearly 100 dancers.
Dominika Afanasenkov, one of the company’s newest members, was chosen for a supporting role in Wheeldon’s “From You Within Me.” It’s just the latest accomplishment in a spring season that appears to be her breakout moment — and she only officially joined the company in November.
More from WWD
In April, Afanasenkov was cast in her first principal role — the female dancer in Jerome Robbins’ “Afternoon of a Faun,” a meditative piece set to Debussy’s famous score. It features only two dancers, who are required to fill the stage with enough sweeping movement and emotion to hold an audience’s attention — requiring a high level of tact from those who dance it. Afanasenkov is among the first few corps dancers to feature in the role.
Only two days before Wheeldon’s premiere, the fresh-faced Afanasenkov met with WWD in an administrative office within the David H. Koch Theater basement — sitting with the poise of an adult but the shyness of a young girl. She hesitated to tout her success. “I’m still like a young dancer — I always feel like a student. Being able to spend so much time with these people I have looked up to so much — it’s kind of crazy to realize that I am now dancing with them,” she said of working beside seasoned principals like Megan Fairchild.
Afanasenkov is among a promising pool of young dancers that the company appears to be fast-tracking toward center-stage stardom. She follows in the footsteps of Mira Nadon, who in February was named principal after less than four years in the company. Other promising faces include soloist Emma von Enck, corps dancers Christopher Grant (Afanasenkov’s partner in “Afternoon of a Faun”), Quinn Starner, Ruby Lister, and apprentices Olivia Bell and Charlie Klesa.
But this is not Afanasenkov’s first moment in the spotlight. She was a central figure in the Disney+ series “On Pointe” that followed young ballet students through their journey at the NYCB-affiliate School of American Ballet. Her technique and preternatural abilities made her an early favorite in the series — and also an emblem of the school for incoming SAB students.
So far, she appears to be taking it in stride. On her debut in “Faun” as it’s called within the company, Afanasenkov said: “I was just really concentrated on giving the right performance and enjoying the process because of the hours we spent in the studio. It’s such a little moment — you have 11 minutes and then it’s done. It just kind of stays there and drifts off. I don’t black out but it really just comes and goes — you don’t really remember what happened because you are living in it.”
Wheeldon said he was eager to cast the young dancer after associate artistic director Wendy Whelan pointed her out during a morning company class. “They’ve been very careful about slowly giving her opportunities but not everything at once because that can be overwhelming for a young dancer. So I was really happy when Wendy agreed to let me cast her,” he told WWD at City Ballet’s spring gala, which also marked his new piece’s premiere.
The event was attended by Michael Bloomberg, Diana Taylor, Carolina Herrera, Ally Love and Mikhail Baryshnikov — among others. It was also the first gala Afanasenkov attended as an official company member (apprentices do not attend the full evening of festivities). “Hopefully there are many more to come,” she said.
Wheeldon’s last premiere for City Ballet was in 2016, set to Gershwin’s “Rhapsody in Blue.” It was then that he took a chance on another young dancer, Unity Phelan, when she was still relatively fresh in the company’s ranks. Her feature in Wheeldon’s piece was a career-defining moment that set off a procession of other high-profile, successful castings. The next year, Phelan was promoted to soloist and in 2021, she became a principal dancer — a good omen of sorts for both Wheeldon’s eye and Afanasenkov’s future.
When Afanasenkov found out that she was cast in Wheeldon’s new work, “I told my mom and said, ‘I don’t even know how he knows me.’ I was very confused on how it happened, honestly, because we had never talked, but I’m very thankful.”
Wheeldon said she has a certain, “It” factor that is hard to pin down. “There is an atmosphere around her — she has a little perfume when she dances that takes her from being just an interesting good dancer to what is potential ballerina material. You’re always looking for that little something extra.”
“It’s only been this one experience of working with her in the room and I’m excited to do it again — perhaps in more of a featured way. She has some very special qualities — she has ‘It.’ You can see the music moving through her limbs and that’s what makes her stand out.”
Best of WWD
