Salenko was born and raised in Kiev, USSR. She has five siblings, and her parents worked in a restaurant. She started with gymnastics and folk dancing. When she was 12, her father took her to a ballet school. Though it was a late start, Salenko began to focus on ballet. In 1995, at age 14, she was invited to attend the Vaganova Academy of Russian Ballet in St. Petersburg, but her mother believed it was too far away, so she trained at Vadim Pisarev's school in Donetsk, which is 400 miles away from Kiev. At age 15, became one of Pisarev's dance partner, and danced at his company, Donetsk Opera and Ballet Theatre. She had an eating disorder, which led to her become very weak and injured. Pisarev's sister, who was the director of the school, fed her and took her to therapy, and she soon recovered. She graduated in 2000.