Caroline Iura was born in Los Angeles, and received her dance training from Irina Kosmovska, former soloist of The Ballet Russes de Monte Carlo. At age 12, she was awarded a Ford Foundation Scholarship, and spent the following two summers studying at the American Ballet Theater School in New York with Valentina Pereyaslavic and Patricia Wilde, among others.
At age 16, she danced with the Washington Ballet under Mary Day, and was spotted the following year by Rudi van Dantzig, then director of Dutch National Ballet, who invited her to join his company. Caroline rose quickly through the ranks to Principal, remaining with The Dutch National Ballet for 24 years.
Ms Iura has been praised for her technique and artistic interpretation and musicality in the leading roles of the full-length classical repertoire, (Odette/Odile in Swan Lake, Aurora and Princess Florine in The Sleeping Beauty, Giselle, Clara in The Nutcracker, Ashton’s Cinderella) as well as in the one-act ballets (Paquita, Titania in A Midsummernight’s Dream, The Ballerina in Etudes, Scenes de Ballet from Ashton, Kitri in Don Quixote PDD, Nikiya in La Bayadere Act 2, Les Sylphides, The Ballerina in Petroushka)
Of the Balanchine repertoire, she received acclaim as the Ballerina in Theme and Variations, Ballet Imperial, and Tchaikovsky Pas de Deux, as well as Brahms Schoënberg, Symphony in C, and Sanguinic in The Four Temperaments. Of the contemporary repertoire, she has danced ballets of Hans van Manen (most notably Trois Gnossiennes Pas de Deux), Wayne Eagling (Duet, Clara in Nutcracker and Mouse King, Ruins of Time, Pamina in The Magic Flute), Toer van Schayk, Rudi van Dantzig, Redha, Jan Linkens, Krzysztof Pastor and Ted Brandsen among others.
In July1980 she was a Laureate and youngest competitor in the senior division at the Varna Competition, and in 1981 won the silver medal at the First International Ballet Competition in France. In 1982 Ms Iura received the annual “Best Young Dancer” award from the Friends of the National Ballet, and in 1990 received the prestigious Alexandra Raduis Prize. In 1997 The Dancersfunds Foundation presented her with the award of Merit for her contribution to Dutch National Ballet.
In June 2002, Ms Iura retired from her dancing career and has since been a regualar guest teacher and repetiteur with Dutch National Ballet, English National Ballet, and Scapino Ballet Rotterdam and since 2013 ballet master for the Junior Company of Dutch National Ballet. In 2011 Ms Iura set Toer van Schayk and Wayne Eagling’s Nutcracker and Mouse King for The Polish National Ballet, and in 2014 Rudi Van Dantzig’s Swan Lake for the Hungarian National Ballet. She also set Hans van Manen’s Trois Gnossiennes for the Marinsky Theater and Ulyana Lopatkina, English National Ballet and Capetown City Ballet.
