Nadia Zhivotenko graduated with honor from the Tashkent State Choreographic School in Tashkent, Russia and danced with the Bolshoi State Academy Theater of Ballet in Tashkent (soloist) from 1976-1992. From 1992-1994 she danced as a soloist with the Russian Ballet Company in Moscow before coming to the US.
From 1994-1996 she danced with the Brighton Ballet Company in Brooklyn, NY and from 1996-1997 the Staten Island Ballet Company. She has danced lead and soloist roles in a wide range of classical ballets including Nutcracker, La Bayadere, Les Sylphides, Cinderella, Paquita, Coppelia, Le Corsaire, Creation of the World, Raymonda, Don Quixote, Giselle, Swan Lake and Sleeping Beauty.
Since 1995 she has taught and choreographed at several ballet and dance schools in the New York area, including the Two World Dance Center, American Theater Dance, Nassau Dance Center, and the June Claire Dance Center from 1998 to the present.