Dagmar Kessler was born in New Jersey. At the age of 14 she was awarded the first full scholarship to the Pennsylvania Ballet School. She began her professional career performing as a soloist with the Pennsylvania Ballet, then went to Germany as a principal dancer with the Hamburg Ballet. While in Hamburg Harold Lander, famed Danish choreographer, chose her for the lead in his ballet "Etudes." He then recommended her to the director of the English National Ballet. Dagmar went to London as the youngest principal in the company. There she danced all the major classical roles; Aurora in The Sleeping Beauty, Odette-Odile in Swan Lake, Coppelia, Cinderella, Kitri in Don Quixote, the Snow Queen and Sugar Plum Fairy in the Nutcracker. She also performed in works by Fokine, Massine, Balanchine, and many contemporary choreographers such as Elliot Feld and Dennis Nahat. With the English National Ballet, Dagmar toured Spain, France, Germany, Belgium, Italy, Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia, Switzerland, Israel, Malaysia, Hong Kong, Japan, Korea, and the Canary Islands as well as England, Wales and Scotland. She was the first western ballerina to dance in a performance attended by the late Emperor of Japan and after the performance was introduced to the Empress and the then Crown Prince, who is now the Emperor.

On returning to America Miss Kessler joined the Pittsburgh Ballet. She toured extensively in the U.S. with the Pittsburgh company. her long list of partners includes Peter Schauffuss, Edward Villella, Ted Kivit, John Gilpin, and Rudolf Nureyev.

Miss Kessler was awarded an Honorary Doctor of Fine Arts degree from Thiel College in Pennsylvania, in recognition of her artistic achievements.

Dagmar has been Artist-in-Residence at Radford University for twenty years. She and her husband, Frano Jelincic, have a daughter, Kira, an actor and singer in New York city.