Ulyana Lopatkina is principal dancer at the Kirov Ballet/Mariinsky Theatre in St Petersburg. She was born in Kerch in 1973. She graduated from the Vaganova Leningrad Choreographic Institute (the Academy of Russian Ballet) in 1991 in the class of N. M. Dudinskaya, the legendary ballerina of the Kirov Theater.

The year she graduated she won First Prize at the All-Russian Competition of Choreographic Institutes. John Noymeyer noticed the dancer's extraordinary expression and created the miniature Pavlova and Cechetti for her. Her graduation performances brought Lopatkina not only an invitiation to join the Maryinsky Theater but also rave reviews to be expected of a ballerina and not a beginning dancer. For her debut as Odette-Odile in Swan Lake in the 1994-1995 season she was awarded the Golden Sofit Prize.

Ballet magazine gave the ballerina its Soul of the Dance Award and in 1996 Uliana Lopatkina was selected as the best ballerina of the year and winner of the La Divina International Prize, founded by Ardani Artists. She is also the recipient of the National Theater Golden Mask Award as best ballerina of 1996.

At the Maryinsky Theater Lopatkina gradually assumed the solo repertiore, dancing Mirta and Giselle in Giselle, the Lilac Fairy in Sleeping Beauty, Kitty in Anna Karenina, the Street Dancer in Don Quixote, Zarema in The Fountain of Bakhchisarai, Zobeida in Scheherazade, Nikia in La Bayadere, and Medora in Le Corsaire.

Lopatkina reveled details about her daily life in an interview to The Sunday Times in 2005. She wakes up between 9am to 10am and drinks just a glass of grapefruit juice or a cup of tea as breakfast. When not in a hurry, she also eats an oat or a buckwheat porridge. Rehersals start after 11am. At the Kirov she first attends a class with other dancers and after that has a personal rehearsal with Ninel Kurgapkina. After a break, she has more rehearsals or helps teaching younger dancers. Lopatkina often skips lunch.

She likes painting and reading, but after having a daughter her free time is mostly dedicated to taking care of her. She still gets nervous before entering the stage. After performing she can eat a kilo of grapes or drink a liter of grapefruit juice. She also washes in cold water and sometimes has a massage and a banya (a kind of Turkish bath). Lopatkina never sleeps before 1am or 2am and drinks Russian kefir with a biscuit before going to bed.