Ballerina and choreographer Elsa Leimane – in the spotlight and in an aura of mystery

Elsa herself is a proof of this – her stage image is always with an emotional message, magnetism, charisma.

Sidekicks of the famous family

Elsa comes from the golden foundation of our culture – she is a descendant of the famous Leimani family. Her grandmother is the charming actress Baiba Indriksone, her grandfather is the director of the legendary films “Vella kalpi” and “Black Cancer in the Claws” Aleksandrs Leimanis, while her father, who was the leading man of ballet, apparently one of the most beautiful ballet dancers in his youth, has been leading our ballet group for several years creating new dances and ensuring that the classical values ​​of our ballet are preserved in the future.

After all, it seems that Elsa is one of the lucky ones: she has attracted a lot in her life, but the truth is much more complicated – the famous family has been both in its brilliance to the young ballerina and also the bane. That is: assessed through the magnifying glass of other people’s doubts and criticism, the young, beautiful ballerina has broken the mountain of her self-worth – through insecurities, doubts and great self-betrayal to find her right to dance has justified the great world of the world. levels.

Schools

Elsa always knew she would be a ballerina – Elsa’s father, Aivars Leimanis, remembers that she already did dance moves while holding onto the slats of the crib, before she knew how she would walk.

The first dance lessons were in the children’s folk dance group “Dzintariņš”, then followed the Riga Choreography High School, which Elsa graduated in 2001, in the class of teacher Sarmite Jakses-Graudiņas. Update of ballet skills and different dance genres pursued in ballet schools around the world: Paris Conservatory, Anaheim summer ballet courses (United States), Bartolin ballet courses (Denmark), summer courses in the Vienna State Conservatory , trained at the St. Mary’s Ballet Company. Petersburg in the Maria Theater and the Hamburg Ballet Company in Germany.

Since 2001, Elsa Leiman has been a soloist in our National Ballet group, she has danced leading roles in world ballet classics, including one of the most difficult – Gisele, on was she dreaming from childhood. She has also danced a lot in modern ballet productions, bringing to Latvia competition awards from all over the world, including being the Ballet Artist of the Year in a jury ” Gamblers’ Night” several times, and as a dancer she won the Dance. Award.

Dancer

Elsa is an employee. Very powerful. Therefore, it is not surprising, looking to the future, Elsa, who is still a prima ballerina, registered in the Department of Choreography of the Academy of Music, to express herself creatively in the creation of dances from after her brief career as a ballerina.

True, here too she follows in the footsteps of her father, who has proven himself very successful both in reviving classical ballets and in creating new ballet shows, as example, together with the composer Juri Karlsson, he created the favorite of the children. , funny, libretto based on the motifs of Lindgren’s books, “Carlson Lido”, as well as the ballet “Antonija #Silmachi”, which itself is based on our own literary classic – Rudolph Blaumanis’ “Skroderdienės Silmachis”. Elsa plays the lead role of Antonia in a ballet performance, focusing on the young woman’s inner experiences.

And Elsa also had to break her way in dance work, but, unlike the career of a ballet artist, it was easier – the name Elsa Leiman already meant authority in the world of ballet. Elsa’s choreography has already been appreciated not only by professionals, but also by the audience, who seem to remember especially the ballet show “Vārna”, where Elsa dances the way of movement of the special bird and explores the vision of this wise animal, which interestingly shows itself in the music of Reinas Sējans.

The love of the audience was also won by the choreography for the one-act play “(Don’t) tell me fairy tales”, which is based on “Colorful Fairy Tales” by Imanta Ziedonis, and the ensemble to the choreography of Anton Freiman, the ballet. performance “Hamlet” received the Dance Award 2019-2020 in the category “Ballet production or event”.

Other levels and playgrounds

It has been said many times about Elsa Leiman that she is not only one of the most beautiful, as if she were made of porcelain, but also the most attractive artists, and our theater and cinema directors have final awareness. The debut on the stage of the dramatic theater was already several years ago, in the production of the Dale Theater 2017 “Portrait of Dorian Gray”, it seems that the two developed a close collaboration with the director Laura Groza, while they were in the main film of 2020. “Spogulis” by the director Laila Pakalniņa Elsa appears as a film actress – in this case – in the role of Cinderella’s evil mother – in such a definition modern take on the fairy tale.

When a mystery is more interesting than an answer

To the conversation in the program “Happy birthday!” the artist comes in collected, ready for creative work, but soon he opens up, especially looking at the objects related to the grandmother of his lover Baiba Indriksoni from the rich archive of Latvian Television. Elsa cannot control the tears of her emotions, and – why? – our beloved actress Indriksone left for other suns just this summer.

Although Elsa responds warmly to the conversation, an aura of faint, steamy mystery surrounds her. Of course! – how it is possible to combine similar things: virtuoso strength and feminine sensitivity! This is the secret of her ballet art as well as her personality.