Zimmi Coker was born in Dallas, Texas and grew up in Manitou Springs, Colorado. She began her ballet training with her mother, Michele Coker, at the age of 10 and continued training at Classic Dance Academy in Denver. At age 13, Coker competed in the Youth America Grand Prix semi-finals in Denver, Colorado and won the YAGP award for the Junior category. Coker also placed first in the Denver Ballet Guild competition and won the Florence Ruston Medallion for overall excellence. Coker attended American Ballet Theatre’s Summer Intensive for three years and was invited to join the ABT Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis School, where she performed the principal role in Valse Fantaisie and Tarantella in Antony Tudor’s Soirée Musicale. In 2014, Coker traveled to Russia to represent the ABT JKO School at the Premio Roma Jia Ruskaja.
Coker joined ABT Studio Company in September 2015, where her repertoire included Ethan Stiefel’s Bier Halle and See the Youth Advance, George Williamson’s Murmuration, and Natalia Makarova’s La Bayadère pas d’action. Coker was the recipient of the Dizzy Feet Foundation’s Segerstrom Award for the 2015-2016 season.
Coker joined American Ballet Theatre as an apprentice in November 2017 and became a member of the corps de ballet in June 2018. Her repertoire with the Company includes an Odalisque in Le Corsaire, Lead Gypsy in Don Quixote, the peasant pas de deux and Zulma in Giselle, Gertrudis in Like Water for Chocolate, Columbine, the Chinese Dance, and one of the Nutcracker’s Sisters in Alexei Ratmansky’s The Nutcracker, Callirhoe’s Maid in Of Love and Rage, Olga in Onegin, the Youngest Sister in Pillar of Fire, Frost and The Rose in The Seasons, Red Riding Hood in Ratmansky’s The Sleeping Beauty, Some Assembly Required, the pas de trois, a little swan, the Polish Princess in Swan Lake, and Princess Praline in Whipped Cream, and featured roles in Bernstein in a Bubble, Deuce Coupe, Dream within a Dream (deferred), In the Upper Room, and Petite Mort. Coker created a consort in A Gathering of Ghosts, a leading role in Desire, and a featured role in A Time There Was.
