It seems to be a good year for young Indonesian ballerinas, as another dancer has received accolades at an international ballet competition.

Fifteen-year-old Shalama Qowlam Fadila, who trained at The Ballet Academy at Casagaya, Jakarta, won second place in the Junior Ballet Solo category at the Taiwan Grand Prix International Ballet Competition in early August.

The grand prix awarded Shalama with scholarships for the Bossov Ballet Theatre at Maine Central Institute and the Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre, both located in the United States.

However, Shalama chose instead to continue her ballet training at the Bolshoi Ballet Academy in Moscow, which she had auditioned for after securing second place at Dance Prix Indonesia in April. During the same period, she also auditioned for a place at the Kirov Academy of Ballet in Washington, DC. – and got accepted.

Read also: Indonesian ballerina dances her way into Genée, Asian Grand Prix finals

Anindya Krisna, a former Ballet Manila company artist and founder of The Ballet Academy at Casagaya, who teaches Shalama, told The Jakarta Post that her student would start training at the Bolshoi Academy in September, where she will learn Russian in her first year and then continue high school alongside her ballet training.

Shalama moved to The Ballet Academy at Casagaya to learn the Vaganova ballet method in 2017 from the Namarina Dance Academy, where she had been trained according to the Royal Academy of Dance (RAD) syllabus. (mut)