- May 6, 2024
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Guest instructor Luba Gulyaeva poses with dancers Summer Euson (back left), Madison Morgan, Eris Potts, Larissa Kushner, Sydney Sullivan, Baylee Rogan, Sabrina Bobeck (back right) and Donavan Mansfield (front) during her workshop at Ormond Ballet. Photo by Michele Meyers
Guest instructor Luba Gulyaeva talks about technique with a dancer Eris Potts during an Ormond Ballet workshop. Photo by Michele Meyers
Masterclass instructor Luba Gulyaeva corrects Donovan Mansfield's form during an Ormond Ballet workshop. Photo by Michele Meyers
Dancers attend the Ormond Ballet workshop with guest instructor Luba Gulyaeva. Photo by Michele Meyers
Ormond Ballet dancers Abigail Jones, Caroline Jones and Stella Kushner watch as the older dancers take the workshop with guest teacher Luba Gulyaeva. Photo by Michele Meyers
Dancers Summer Euson (left), Donovan Mansfield, Sabrina Bobeck and Madison Morgan attend the Ormond Ballet workshop with guest instructor Luba Gulyaeva. Photo by Michele Meyers
Guest instructor Luba Gulyaeva talks to dancers during an Ormond Ballet workshop. Photo by Michele Meyers
Classical ballet instructor Luba Gulyaeva demonstrates dance technique for Sydney Sullivan and dancers attending the Ormond Ballet workshop. Photo by Michele Meyers
Classical ballet instructor Luba Gulyaeva demonstrates dance technique for the dancers attending the Ormond Ballet workshop. Photo by Michele Meyers
Larissa Kushner (left) and Summer Euson (center) pose with guest teacher Luba Gulyaeva during the workshop at Ormond Ballet. Photo by Michele Meyers
Dancer Baylee Rogan tilts her head as taught by guest teacher Luba Gulyaeva during the Ormond Ballet workshop. Photo by Michele Meyers
Guest instructor Luba Gulyaeva with dancers during her workshop at Ormond Ballet. Photo by Michele Meyers
Sabrina Bobeck poses with fellow dancers during the Ormond Ballet workshop with guest instructor Luba Gulyaeva. Photo by Michele Meyers
Ormond Ballet workshop. Photo by Michele Meyers
Guest instructor Luba Gulyaeva demonstrates the perfect point and leg position for the dancers during her workshop at Ormond Ballet. Photo by Michele Meyers
Guest instructor Luba Gulyaeva corrects form during the workshop at Ormond Ballet. Photo by Michele Meyers
Ormond Ballet workshop. Photo by Michele Meyers
Summer Euson, Donovan Mansfield, Sabrina Bobeck and Madison Morgan at the Ormond Ballet workshop. Photo by Michele Meyers
Baylee Rogan (left), Summer Euson (center) and Donovan Mansfield at the Ormond Ballet workshop. Photo by Michele Meyers
Baylee Rogan runs through a combination for guest teacher Luba Gulyaeva during the Ormond Ballet workshop. Photo by Michele Meyers
Eris Potts leaps during the Ormond Ballet workshop with guest teacher Luba Gulyaeva. Photo by Michele Meyers
Classical ballet instructor Luba Gulyaeva demonstrates how just a slight tilt of the head can change the aesthetics in dance. Photo by Michele Meyers
Ormond Ballet, a dance training center located in Ormond Beach, hosted a master workshop with classical ballet instructor Luba Gulyaeva on Monday, July 24. Eight dancers were in attendance.
“All of our ballet training is based off of the Russian method which is why we bring in teachers like Miss Luba,” Ormond Ballet Artistic Director Michelle Boutros said. “We also have a teacher with us weekly, Shana Dubrovskaya—they were classmates.”
Gulyaeva and Dubrovskaya graduated from the Vaganova Ballet Academy located in St. Petersburg, Russia. Gulyaeva went on to dance with the Maryiinsky Theatre, formerly known as the Kirov Ballet Company. According to her biography, in 1980, she moved to Rochester, New York where she taught classical ballet, pointe technique and variation repertory at the Botsford School of Dance. Ballet dancer and choreographer, Mikhail Baryshnikov invited her to teach at the American Ballet Theatre School of Classical Ballet from 1988-1989.
When you come in, I want it to be an embrace but I also want it to be an education. I want to make sure we are not ignorant, not just to art and dance—to life. These kids’ lives are important to me. The students and me have built a family.
— Michelle Boutros, Ormond Ballet artistic director
It makes sense that Boutros’ approach to dance is founded in the classical Russian ballet style of training. She was introduced to the methodology by her mother at seven years old and trained by Andrei Ustinov and Elena Martinson who attended the Vaganova Ballet Academy. Boutros’ mother became a professional ballerina after dancing for a Russian ballet school in Alexandria, Egypt. She said it changed her life and wanted her daughters to have the same experience.
“In my family, we try to be the greatest that we can be,” Boutros said. “My parents instilled that in me. It’s really important that I do this for my students because I’ve had the best volleyball coach, the best basketball coach, I had the best dance teachers, I had wonderful parents and I had so many great mentors. This is my calling. This is not my job.”
Gulyaeva has taught at a variety of dance schools, studios and companies worldwide—Steps Ballet School and the School of American Ballet in New York City and the Australian Ballet School in Melbourne, to name a few. She currently lives in Port Orange and guest teaches in various locations throughout the United States.
Ormond Ballet student and assistant teacher, Sydney Sullivan, has been dancing since two years old and at the training center since it opened in 2022. She appreciated Gulyaeva’s easy approach to breaking down the combinations.
“I love learning from new ballet instructors because they always have a different way of teaching,” she said. “During the combinations, she (Gulyaeva) made it easier for us especially because we were all nervous. She made it more personable.”
Sullivan will be graduating from Seabreeze High School next year and has been touring colleges. She discovered the University of North Florida has a dance team.
“At first, I was thinking that dance was just a hobby for my younger years,” she said. “UNF is my top pick college, right now and they have a dance team. It’s a lot less ballet but at least it would keep me active and keep my head straight.”
Co-owner Jeremiah Garner said he knows the expectations of the dancers attending the workshops are different than his. The dancers are excited for a full day of dancing and a new experience while he and Boutros use the time to prepare for the upcoming season. Fall semester starts Aug. 14 followed by “Nutcracker” auditions Aug. 18th and the performance Nov. 17-19 at the Coliseum.
“These workshops are really meant for prepping for the season,” he said. “Summer time is kind of like our time off when we use it to get ready for the full season which is from fall to spring.”
Boutros stated she is a very specific and consistent classical and contemporary instructor. She believes that discipline will help her students win “the race” of life. Her training center is a place where the students learn how to take care of their mental, as well as, their physical health. Dance lessons include life discussions about entrepreneurship, mental health and emotional intelligence. Her studio is a safe haven where students will get kicked out if bullying occurs.
“When you come in, I want it to be an embrace but I also want it to be an education,” she said. “I want to make sure we are not ignorant, not just to art and dance—to life. These kids’ lives are important to me. The students and me have built a family.”
