Nino Samadashvili – Georgia

Nino was born in Tbilisi, Georgia. She started her first ballet steps at the age of 6, but it wasn’t until the age of 10 that she started her proper training at the Vakhtang Chabukiani Tbilisi State Ballet School.

Nino was the top student in the class of 2010 and started dancing with the State Ballet of Georgia in that same year. Following her graduation, she received a contract to join the State Ballet of Georgia, as a Corps de Ballet, in 2011.

On her first years as a professional dancer and under directorship of Ms. Nina Ananiashvili, Nino was sent to “Riga’s Pavasaris 2013” Ballet competition, where she performed Black Swan Pas de Deux and won Gold Medal.

With exceptional talent, it did not take long for Nino to take on major roles with the company.

In 2013, she debuted as Odette/Odile in the classical Swan Lake, and since then she’s taking every leading role in Tbilisi and earned the position of Principal    Dancer in 2014.

With an extensive repertoire, some of her roles are, Aurora in “Sleeping Beauty”, Kitri in “Don Quixote”, Juliet in “Romeo & Juliet”, and performed works by renowned choreographers, such as Frederick Ashton, George Balanchine, Michael Fokin and Jiri Kylian.

Nino has been invited as a guest dancer worldwide, including the National Theater of Belarus, the Dubai Opera, tour de France and UAE.

Nino Samadashvili is also a graduate at the Vano Sarajishvili Tbilisi State Conservatoire, class of 2015, where she received a diploma in Dance pedagogy.

Paloma Gomez – Spain

Choreographer / Founder and Artistic Director Paloma Gómez Flamenco & Spanish Dance Company

From the age of three she starts a life devoted to dance in all its forms and studies at several renowned schools as the National Spanish Ballet School and Maria de Ávila Dance School in Madrid.

Through her extensive formative years, she is taught by outstanding masters of dance including: Lola de Avila (Classical Ballet), José Antonio (current director of the National Ballet of Spain) with whom she will later share the stage as lead dancer, Azary Plisetsky (Classical Ballet), Jorge Esquivel (Classical Ballet), Victoria Eugenia “Beti” (Classical Spanish Dance), Paco Romero (Classical Spanish Dance and Flamenco), Goyo Montero (Jazz Dance), Carl París (Modern and Contemporary Dance), Pedro Azorín (Spanish Folklore) and Paco Fernandez (Flamenco).

She graduated with the highest qualification from the Royal Professional Conservatory of Dance “Mariemma” at Madrid in Classical Spanish Dance, Escuela Bolera and Flamenco specialities.

At the age of 17 she becomes a member of the National Ballet of Spain where she will stay.

Always as lead dancer, she will later partake, amongst others, in companies such as ‘José Antonio and the Spanish Ballets’ under direction of José Antonio and the ‘New Ballet of Spain’ under direction of Angel Rojas and Carlos Rodríguez, where she’s also costume designer of some of this company productions and assistant artistic director. With them she will dance in some of the most prestigious theatres around the world. In 2000 she founds her own dance company and directs two shows: ‘De Lunares’ and ‘De Tapas’ touring at national and international level both as dancer, director and choreographer.

Later, and in all the above roles, she has twice represented Spain in the Caracas International Dance Stars Festival (Venezuela). She has also choreographed the musical ‘Carmen 2006′ for the International Taiwan Artists Association, one of the most influential arts production companies in Asia, with A-mei as Carmen and Ado as José. The production was first performed at the Taipei Arena (Taiwan) before 8,000 spectators, followed by an Asian tour in 2007.

She has been a guest artist for the Ensemble Español’s annual American Spanish Dance & Music Festival in Chicago during 13 seasons since 2007. She has choreographed some works on the company. A contemporary Flamenco drama titled Encuentros (Encounters) and an old style Spanish Dance choreography (Bolera School) “Boleras”

She is invited by the Royal Winnipeg Ballet School (Canada) to give a conference on Spanish dance history. The Professional Dance Conservatory of Granada, the Professional Dance Conservatory of Córdoba, the Professional Dance Conservatory of Málaga and the Higher Dance Conservatory of Valencia invite her as a lecturer on the subject of stylised Spanish dance during the cultural weeks of 2008, 2009 and 2010. Also she distributes flamenco master classes in Israel (Amishav Community Center de Petach Tikva and Jerusalem) and Australia (Studio Flamenco School in Adelaide, Danza Viva in Perth, Casa del Compás in Perth, The Flamenco Centre in Canberra, Laura Uhe Flamenco in Melbourne and Pasion Flamenco Dance School in Sydney).

She was guest star artist by the Alicia Alonso Institut of Dance at the Juan Carlos I University in Madrid, dancing at the gala concert tribute to Alicia Alonso in the 20th Anniversary of the institut creation, celebrating at the Teatro de la Zarzuela of Madrid, with the attendance of Her Majesty the Spanish Queen Doña Sofía.

Main character in the short film “Umbrales”, under the direction of Luis Lorente. Its world premiere was at the International Latin Film Festival of Chicago in 2012, at the Cervantes Institut in the same city.

She was invited as guest artist at St. Louis Spring Dance Festival in 2011. During this year she created some new choreographies, “Alhambra” for the Professional Conservatory of Dance of Granada whose premier was into the International Music and Dance Festival of Granada and “Boleras” for the Ensemble Español Spanish Dance Theater of Chicago, whose premier took place at the International Spanish Dance Festival of Chicago 2012.

Her last production for her own company Paloma Gómez Flamenco & Spanish Dance is “Rotas/ Broken” which premier was on May 2014 at Teatro Marquina in Madrid during two weeks, which it was a big success. “Rotas” had its international premier at the Northeastern Illinois University Auditorium of Chicago on November 2014.

She had the premiere of the film “Broken, dancing real life” based on her last show “Rotas” under the direction of Luis Lorente, at 2016 Latin Film Festival of Chicago, where she is one of the main characters in the film.

During 2015 and 2019 she kept teaching and performing as guest artist around US, Australia, Singapore, Hong Kong, Switzerland and Spain. In 2020, she created the Paloma Gomez International Spanish Dance Academy – PGISDA, where, besides the presencial classes, she focused on the online classes of Flamenco and Spanish Dance overseas, helping her students to receive a continuous training along the year.

Maria Postelnicu – Romania

Maria Postelnicu (born June 9, 1955, Bucharest, Romania) is a Romanian ballerina, choreographer, classical ballet teacher and actress. She is known for the role of the opera singer Stilla in the movie Castelul din Carpati (1981), directed by Stere Gulea. He studied classical ballet from the age of eight at the “George Enescu” Choreography High School, under the guidance of masters Mihaela Crăciunescu, Cristina Hamel, Amato Căciulescu, Lulu Ross, Raul Ercianu, M. Umrichin, Oleg Danovski. He worked at the National Opera in Bucharest, performing soloist roles in the most famous ballets from the universal repertoire: “Swan Lake”, “Bayadera”, “Coppelia”, “Giselle”, “Don Quixote”,

“The Nutcracker,” “Carmen,” “Esmeralda,” “Romeo and Juliet,” “La Fille mal Gardee.” With such ballets, he participated, together with the Bucharest National Opera, in numerous tours in: Germany, France, Spain, Luxembourg, Holland, Russia, Bulgaria, Italy and Austria.

He became famous in the world of television and film, in various television programs and played leading roles in the films of the great Romanian directors Stere Gulea and Sergiu Nicolaescu.

In the most famous Romanian film magazines, he often appeared in photographs with the actor Cornel Ciupercescu, who played the role of Frâncu Slătineanu in the movie Castelul din Carpati.

In 2012, he was recognized by the Bucharest National Opera on the occasion of the ninety years since the Opera was founded.

Since 2016, together with her husband, George Postelnicu, she has created the artistic event “Dance Campus & Contest San Francesco di Paola”, in which young dancers from all over the world and internationally renowned teachers participate every year.