Salome Leverashvili promoted to principal dancer
Last night, Salome Leverashvili was promoted to principal dancer with Dutch National Ballet. Artistic director Ted Brandsen announced her promotion immediately after the final performance of Romeo and Juliet at Dutch National Opera & Ballet.
Ted Brandsen on Salome Leverashvili: “Salome is an exceptional dancer with an enormously vibrant energy, strong technique, and a big heart. Having developed within the company after starting in the Junior Company, she has repeatedly shown that she brings a unique and inspiring interpretation to her solo roles. She adds a distinctive colour to our company and is now ready to take on the highest rank.”
In December, Leverashvili will once again appear in a leading role: on 27 and 31 December, she will dance the role of Clara in The Nutcracker and the Mouse King.
We warmly congratulate Salome Leverashvili on her well-deserved promotion and wish her every success in her future career with Dutch National Ballet.
About Salome Leverashvili
The Georgian dancer Salome Leverashvili trained at the Vakhtang Chabukiani State Ballet School in her hometown of Tbilisi. At the age of sixteen, she already danced a demi-soloist role in Balanchine’s Symphony in C with the State Ballet of Georgia, and for her graduation performance, she danced the role of Gamzatti in La Bayadère.
After a summer course at the Royal Ballet School, and on the advice of her compatriot Maia Makhateli – principal dancer with Dutch National Ballet – she came to the Netherlands in 2014 to join Dutch National Ballet’s Junior Company.
In the years that followed, Leverashvili developed impressively. She was promoted to second soloist in 2019 and won the Alexandra Radius Prize in 2022. The jury praised her at the time as “a dancer for whom it is always about more than just the steps; she brings individuality and expressiveness to every role she performs”.
