The Ballet Celebration event, which was organised by the patron of the Latvian National Ballet - Skonto Būve, was held In Latvian National Opera. The visitors had an opportunity to get acquainted with the new Latvian National Ballet dancers - Alise Prudāne, Jolanta Lubēja, Ieva Rācene, Evelīna Godunova and Aleksandrs Osadčijs, as well as enjoy an exciting lecture of musicologist Mikus Čeže about the history of ballet in Latvia. 

Aivars Leimanis, Artistic Director of the LatvianNational Ballet: “Without the support of Skonto Būve  the Latvian National Ballet would not be able to hold many great events. Currently in our troupe we have nine ballerinas who can dance leading roles and this creates the necessity for new performances. The support of the Skonto Būve gives us a chance to create more and more interesting choreographies for our powerful troupe to express itself.” 

Andrejs Žagars,Director of the LatvianNational Opera: “At the moment, our LatvianNational Ballettroupe is at a professionally very high level, it can perform really complicated tasks, such as Bayadera of Ludwig Minkus, which is currently being staged. With the support of Skonto Būve, the LatvianNational Ballethas reached high standards and will do even more in future.” 

Guntis Rāvis, Skonto Būve Chairman of the Board: “The initiative to support the LatvianNational Ballettroupe has become a tradition and it will be continued. We build cities, but the artists and the culture bring them to life. Therefore, with great satisfaction, Skonto Būve helps the ballet troupe to grow professionally, stage new performances, goon tours and discover new Latvian ballet stars."

During the last years the LatvianNational Ballettroupe has been replenished by several young talented ballet artists and reached so high of an artistic level to stage a performance Bayadera for the first time in Latvian National Ballet’s history. This is the only one of the big classical ballets which so far had never been staged in Riga.