See also: Category:Ballerinas, Category:Prima ballerinas, Category:Prima ballerina assolutas, and Category:Danseurs

A ballerina (Italian for female dancer) is a female ballet dancer; the male equivalent to this title is danseur or ballerino.

Although the term ballerina is used for any female ballet dancer, it was originally a rank given to an exceptional female soloist in 19th century ballet. The rankings for women, from highest to lowest, were:

• Prima ballerina assoluta
• Prima ballerina; a.k.a. première sujet or première danseuse
• Sujet
• Coryphée
• Corps de ballet

For men, the ranks were:

• Premier danseur noble
• Premier danseur
• Sujet
• Coryphée
• Corps de ballet

The rank of Prima ballerina assoluta — a rank rarely bestowed — was originally an informal title used by the Italian balletmasters of the early Romantic Ballet for an exceptional ballerina. It was the renowned French balletmaster Marius Petipa who first designated Prima ballerina assoluta an official title when in 1894 he declared the Italian ballerina Pierina Legnani to be the supreme danseuse in all of Europe. Legnani performed with the St. Petersburg Imperial Ballet from 1893 until 1901.

The second ballerina to be given the title was Legnani's contemporary Mathilde Kschessinskaya. Petipa, however, did not agree that she should hold such a title; although an extraordinary ballerina, she obtained the title primarily via Imperial prestige.

There were only two ballerinas to hold the title Prima ballerina assoluta in the Soviet Union: Galina Ulanova and Maya Plisetskaya. Other persons awarded the title include Alicia Alonso from Cuba and Margot Fonteyn from England. To date no American ballerina has ever held the rank of Prima ballerina assoluta. Rudolf Nureyev considered the ballerina Cynthia Gregory to be the only American ballerina deserving of such a title.