Dancers

Born in Yerevan, Armenia, Davit Karapetyan trained at the Armenian School of Ballet and Schweizerische Ballettberufsschule. After dancing with Zurich Ballet, he joined San Francisco Ballet as a principal dancer in 2005. He has danced lead roles including Siegfried in Tomasson’s Swan Lake, Prince Desiré in Tomasson’s The Sleeping Beauty, Nutcracker Prince in Tomasson’s Nutcracker, and Basilio in Tomasson/Posskhov’s Don Quixote. His repertory also includes lead roles in Tomasson’s On a Theme of Paganini, 7 for Eight, Chi-Lin, Chaconne for Piano and Two Dancers, and The Fifth Season; Balanchine’s Divertimento No. 15, Symphony in C, The Four Temperaments, and “Diamonds”, Martinez’s Delibes Suite; Ratmansky’s Russian Seasons; Robbins’ Other Dances, Fancy Free, and West Side Story Suite; and Tudor’s Jardin aux Lilas. Karapetyan won best couple (with Vanessa Zahorian), senior division, at the USA International Ballet Competition in Jackson, Mississippi, in 2006. He received the gold and silver medals at the Armenian Ballet Competition in 1997 and 1998, respectively, and was a prizewinner at the Prix de Lausanne in 1999. He has been a guest artist with the Armenian Opera House, and has performed internationally in Japan and Germany. In December 2008, Karapetyan was featured as the Nutcracker Prince in the PBS Great Performances broadcast of Tomasson’s Nutcracker, co-produced by San Francisco Ballet and KQED Public Television San Francisco, in association with Thirteen/WNET New York.