Elisabeth Tonev promoted to soloist
We are proud to announce that Elisabeth Tonev was promoted to the rank of soloist last night. During Dutch National Ballet's tour in the United States, she danced the Grand Pas Classique with principal dancer Victor Caixeta. After this performance artistic director Ted Brandsen immediately appointed her as a soloist.
Elisabeth was admitted to the second year of Dutch National Ballet's Junior Company in 2019. After one year, she joined the main company in the rank of élève. Her promotion to coryphée immediately followed in 2021, skipping the rank of corps de ballet, and in 2022 she was promoted to grand sujet.
Artistic Director Ted Brandsen: "Elisabeth is an exceptionally talented dancer, who has shown several times in the past season that she is one of the most promising dancers of her generation. During the performance at Sun Valley, Elisabeth performed the Grand Pas Classique - one of the most challenging pas de deux in the classical ballet repertoire - truly fantastic as well: with style, guts and a convincing charm. With beautiful lines, strong technique and a striking stage personality, Elisabeth truly possesses that 'star quality'."
We would like to congratulate Elisabeth on her well-deserved promotion and wish her every success in her further career with Dutch National Ballet.
Elisabeth Tonev
Elisabeth Tonev was born in Berlin, Germany. Growing up with both her parents being former ballet dancers, she discovered the pleasure of dancing already from a very young age and started taking her first ballet lessons in the ballet studio of her parents. She graduated at the State Ballet School in Berlin and finished her high school education as well as her Bachelor of Arts. During her time as a student, she performed in several classical productions with the Staatsballett Berlin, such as Alexei Ratmansky’s La Bayadère and Patrice Bart’s Swan Lake. Elisabeth won the iBstage Junior Prix in Barcelona, which offered her the chance to dance at the Grand Teatre del Liceu.
After having been seen by Associate Artist Director Rachel Beaujean at the “Grand stage de danse de Paris” Elisabeth joined the second year of the Junior Company of Dutch National Ballet in 2019 and joined the main company a year later as élève. Already during that first year in the company she got the opportunity to debut Hans van Manen’s legendary ballet Live, together with Davi Ramos. Consequently, she got promoted each subsequent year, skipping the rank of corps de ballet.
Besides pieces from Van Manen, Elisabeth has performed solo roles in works by choreographers like Balanchine, David Dawson, Toer van Schayk, Rachel Beaujean, Ted Brandsen and more.
