It is every ballerina’s dream to dance with the Royal Ballet, London’s primary classical ballet company. Yasmine Naghdi is not only living that dream but also boasts the highest position in the ballet hierarchy: principal dancer, a position reserved for the best dancers in the company.
Naghdi has been a principal at the Royal Ballet since 2017, but has danced with the company for nearly a decade. For of her first roles as principal dancer, she danced Aurora in The Sleeping Beauty. In November 2019, Naghdi returned to this formative role for a series of performances in San Francisco.
The young dancer additionally earned the nomination for Best Female Dancer at the 2018 Critic’s Circle National Dance Awards.
4-Year-Old Yasmine Naghdi Learns Ballet
Yasmine began dancing at only four years old. Devoting her life to the art, the young Brit reached the top of the ballet hierarchy at the Royal Ballet by age 25. But the road to success did not always go smoothly. In fact, she failed her first audition to the royal ballet school, and had to begin a year later than most of her peers.
But at age 12, she finally entered the Royal Ballet School, and proceeded to skip a year of training and join the Royal Ballet Company at only 17. Her first big break was, in Naghdi’s words, “nerve-racking.” She had only twelve hours to prepare to dance in Liam Scarlett’s Asphodel Meadows.
The young dancer soon took on larger and more complex roles – yet never allowed the size of a role to affect her performance. “If you watch a dancer, you can tell if someone is giving it everything they have,” she explains. “That was my aim, to perform for the love of it, even if I’m the 20th swan in line. Any time an opportunity came my way, I wouldn’t be complacent. I would give my heart and soul.”
Yasmine Naghdi’s Talents Extend beyond the Stage
Naghdi grew up in Kensington and considers herself a Londoner through and through.
Ambition runs through her blood: her mother has PhD in art history, while Naghdi’s father directs an eco-engineering company that manufactures cars. “He likes to think he’ll save our planet from further pollution one day,” Naghdi jokes.
With this background, Naghdi has always had an interest in languages and music. In addition to English, she speaks French, some Flemish and Farsi, and is learning Russian and Japanese as well. Naghdi also mentions a passion for photography and can be found playing piano in the London Opera House practice rooms and singing.
Yasmine Naghdi Revisits Aurora
Naghdi’s main debut as a Royal Ballet principal was as Aurora in The Sleeping Beauty – a role she has just reprised with the San Francisco Ballet. “Anytime you revisit a role, it becomes slightly less hard than the first time,” Naghdi tells Pointe Magazine. “Every performance, I have to bring something new to the role, just for my own growth.”
Although she says that she needs “a minimum of two days off between Aurora shows”, Naghdi has shown that she capable of rather of pushing through her limits when necessary. Though Aurora is notorious as a physically demanding role, Naghdi has performed it three times in a week when another ballerina fell sick. “By the end of the night I was still walking, so I must have been doing something right,” notes Naghdi.
Though Naghdi’s reprisal of “Aurora” was one night only, fans can see her dance around the world in a variety of upcoming international shows.
