Elza Leimane

Who is Elza Leimane?

Elza Leimane is a Latvian ballet dancer. She graduated from the Riga Choreography School in 2001 and has been a member of the Latvian National Ballet Company since her graduation. She has been a principal dancer with the company since 2004. Elza has had additional ballet training from the Paris Conservatoire, Anaheim Ballet summer courses, USA, International Batrolin Ballet seminar, Vienna Conservatory summer courses, the St Petersburg Ballet Company, Maryinsky Theatre and Hamburg Ballet. She was a member of the European Youth Ballet in 2000, 2001 and 2004.

Elza comes from a very talented family, her grandmother is famous Latvian actress Baiba Indriksone, who at the age of 75 is still performing at the National Theatre, her grandfather was a film director and her parents were both dancers at the Latvian National Ballet. For over ten years her father Aivars Leimanis has been the Artistic Director of Latvia's National Ballet.

She has danced a wide variety of roles such as Kitri in Don Quixote, the title role in Giselle, Juliet in Romeo and Juliet, Gulnara in Le Corsaire, Marquise de Mereuil in Les Liaisons Dangereuses and Katarina in Taming of the Shrew.