Young dancer Salome Leverashvili promoted to Dutch National Ballet soloist
Salome Leverashvili in a Dutch National Ballet performance with Timothy van Poucke. Photo: Hans Gerritsen/DNB.
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Young Georgian dancer Salome Leverashvili has been promoted from the junior troupe of the Dutch National Ballet to a soloist following her performance in two contemporary stagings of the Amsterdam-based company.
Leverashvili, 23, has been with the DNB since 2016 and was partnered by Timothy van Poucke, also from the junior troupe, in the staging of Sarcasmen - a production by the prominent choreographer Hans van Manen - and Echoes of Tomorrow by Wubkje Kuindersma.
The recognition of the two young dancers' talent by the leading Dutch company follows the bill of the two shows, held in December, while Leverashvili also has been honoured with prizes for her appearances both with the DNB and previous troupes.
The very talented Timothy van Poucke & Salome Leverashvili were #Promoted to soloist, following their performances in Hans van Manen's Sarcasmen & Wubkje Kuindersma's Echoes of Tomorrow. #Congrats to these two former Junior Company dancers! #ballet #talent Pic @Hans_Gerritsen_ pic.twitter.com/rHHVddbAxO
— Het Nationale Ballet (@DutchNatBallet) March 9, 2021
In 2016 she earned a gold medal at the Rigas Pavasaris Competition in Latvia, which followed her win at the international Solo Tanz competition in Berlin in 2013. At the DNB she has been cast in productions including Don Quixote and Romeo and Juliet and in the contemporary production Frida by Annabelle Lopez Ochoa.
In the latter staging the young artist was second cast to Maia Makhateli, another Georgian dancer of the Dutch company who is a principal at the troupe and led Ochoa's production, dedicated to the famed Mexican artist Frida Kahlo.
Graduating from Tbilisi's Vakhtang Chabukiani State School of Ballet Art, Leverashvili danced for the State Ballet of Georgia, the principal state troupe of the country, appearing in the classic La Bayadère.
Joining the DNB in 2016 with input from Makhateli, she moved from the junior troupe to the corps de ballet a year later "and – quite exceptionally – received promotion in each subsequent year", the company said while praising her "striking performance" in the Christmas Gala 2020 in Echoes of Tomorrow.