Yasmine naghdi sat with her 2009 british young dancer of the year award.

Yasmine Naghdi promoted to Principal of The Royal Ballet

Congratulations to Royal Ballet School alumna, Yasmine Naghdi, who has been promoted to Principal dancer of The Royal Ballet.

Yasmine started the school at White Lodge in 2003 and progressed to the Upper School in 2008. During her time at the school Yasmine was selected to go on an exchange programme to the Vaganova Ballet School in St Petersburg and was also chosen to dance Kenneth MacMillian’s 2nd Movement of Concerto for the school Summer Performance. In 2009, Yasmine won the prestigious Young British Dancer of the Year Award.

In an interview for the Royal Ballet School Alumni Newsletter in 2016, Yasmine said that winning the award ‘…was the highlight of my time at The Royal Ballet School. It came as a total surprise when I was announced the winner. Many prestigious judges were there and so many talented colleagues of mine participated. Gailene gave me a few corrections the day before and she gave me the confidence I needed…’

Since joining The Royal Ballet, Yasmine’s impressive repertory has included Princess Aurora (The Sleeping Beauty), Olga (Onegin), the Sugar Plum Fairy (The Nutcracker) and Juliet (Romeo and Juliet).

In the same 2016 Alumni Newsletter interview Yasmine described how she found out that she had been cast as Juliet in Kenneth MacMillian’s 2015 production: ‘Needless to say it came as a bit of a shock. I was watching a stage rehearsal and Matthew was sitting in front of me. He turned around and showed me his phone screen, on that I saw a cast list: “Matthew Ball – Romeo” I congratulated him and passed his phone back. He looked puzzled and showed me his phone again, and there I saw “Yasmine Naghdi – Juliet”. I couldn’t believe it! One can only dream about it in silence but for it to become a reality was a big surprise, especially so early on in my career.’ As well as classical roles, Yasmine has also performed in contemporary works including Woolf Works by Wayne McGregor, David Dawson’s The Human Seasons and George Balanchine’s Tarantella.

Director of The Royal Ballet, Kevin O’Hare, said: ‘I’m delighted to promote Yasmine Naghdi to Principal. She has had an extraordinary year, making successful debuts in a number of classic and contemporary ballets, and I look forward to this new chapter of her career and the opportunities that await.’

We would like to wish Yasmine the best of luck in her new position and look forward to following her career.

Other alumni promotions and joiners at The Royal Ballet

Matthew Ball and Marcelino Sambé are promoted to First Soloist.

Reece Clarke, Benjamin Ella and Anna Rose O’Sullivan are promoted to Soloist. As previously announced, William Bracewell joins the Company as a Soloist from Birmingham Royal Ballet.

Hannah Grennell, Calvin Richardson and Gina Storm-Jensen are promoted to First Artist.

Giacomo Rovero, Francisco Serrano and Charlotte Tonkinson become Artists, after joining the Company at the start of the 2016/17 Season as Aud Jebsen Young Dancers.