Valentina Kozlova was born in Moscow and trained at the Bolshoi Ballet School. Ms. Kozlova performed with the Bolshoi Theatre from 1973-1979 and was promoted to Principal Dancer in 1975. She danced all of the major classical roles. In 1979, while on tour with the Bolshoi Ballet in the US, she defected and immediately was in great demand as guest artist. She marked her Broadway debut in 1982 as Vera Baranova in the revival of On Your Toes, featuring Balanchine’s Slaughter on Tenth Avenue ballet. Ms. Kozlova joined the New York City Ballet in 1983 as Principal Dancer and remained with the company until 1995, dancing lead roles from the repertoires of such dance icons as George Balanchine and Jerome Robbins, Peter Martins, Richard Tanner and Eliot Feld.