Staff - Teachers
Valeria Sinyavskaya - Artistic Director & Ballet MistressRostislav Dzabraev - Artist in Residence
Erika Ballard - Ballet/Modern
Mary Lu Hensley - Ballet
Rachel Copenhaver - Preparatory Ballet
Tamlyn Bernshausen - Preparatory Ballet
Becky Hall - Jazz
Gigi Boggan - Pilates
Cara Harker - Ballroom
Ms. Sinyavskaya was trained at the State Classical Ballet Academy in Kiev, Ukraine. She graduated first in the class of the renowned choreographer Galina Berezova, pupil of Agrippina Vaganova, the founder of the Russian method of classical ballet training. She holds a Master of Fine Arts from the Lunacharsky Institute of Theatrical Arts in Moscow. Her performing experience includes all the major classical roles as principal dancer with the Novosibirsk State Academic Theatre Opera and Ballet in Russia and as guest performer in other Russian ballet companies such as the Bolshoi Ballet. She has extensive experience as a teacher, choreographer and artistic director in the U.S. and abroad, including with the University of South Florida, Jacksonville University, Southern Ballet Theatre, Orlando City Ballet and the International School of Dance in Japan, where she served as Principal Teacher and Choreographer, staging productions that blended the work of ballet students with professional performers from throughout Europe. She has staged many full-scale productions, such as Sleeping Beauty, Swan Lake and Giselle as well as choreographed contemporary works. In 2004, Ms. Sinyavskaya was honored by the Arts Council of Greater Kingsport with the Arts Leadership Award. Ms. Sinyavskaya teaches the Vaganova Method of classical ballet.
