Masters of Ballet Easter Intensive Course

Artistic Directors: Elena Glurjidze and Olga Semenova

Masters of Ballet Academy is running an Easter Intensive Course, over four days, for dancers aged 11 to 19 years old Date: 30th March to 2nd April 2026

Venue: THE ROYAL ACADEMY OF DANCE

188 York Road
London SW11 3JZ

Application/Payment Deadline: 1st February 2026
Limited places are available. Applications will be considered in the order in which they are received.

Faculty

Learn from our Artistic Directors Elena Glurjidze and Olga Semenova and Stamina and conditioning Teacher Sereina Mowlen (Rainy). Each 6-hour day consists of Ballet, Character, Contemporary & Stamina and Conditioning classes.

Elena Glurjidze

Elena Glurdjidze was born in Tbilisi, Georgia, and trained at the prestigious Vaganova Academy in St. Petersburg. In 2002, Elena joined English National Ballet as a Principal ballerina and was promoted in 2007 to Lead Principal ballerina. Following her professional retirement from dancing, Elena and fellow Vaganova Academy graduate Olga Semenova embarked upon an Internationally acclaimed Easter and Summer Intensive programme. In 2017, they created Masters of Ballet Academy, a brand new Vocational style ballet school based on the Vaganova Method of ballet training. Elena Glurjidze's complete biography is on our website by clicking the "The Team" section - Founders.

Olga Semenova

Olga trained as a professional ballet dancer at St.Petersburg's prestigious Vaganova Ballet Academy. After her ballet career, she completed a four-year professional teaching/coaching course at the Vaganova Ballet Academy and was awarded the PDTC Diploma with Distinction and MA ( Hons). Olga is our Artistic Director, alongside Elena Glurjidze. She is the most highly regarded Character tutor in the UK, being a guest teacher at different schools (in the UK and abroad). You can find Olga Semenova's full biography on our website by clicking the "The Team" section - Founders.

Sara Knight

Sara Knight is a graduate of England's Royal Ballet School, an Associate of the Royal Academy of Dance (A.R.A.D.), graduate of the Royal Ballet School Teacher's Training Course (R.B.S. Dip. TTC.) and first British graduate of Russia's Vaganova (Kirov) Ballet Academy. Sara is a recipient of the Royal Ballet Special Award for Excellence personally awarded by Dame Ninette de Valois, founder of the Royal Ballet.

Upon graduation, Sara was accepted to the Eifman Ballet Theatre. She remained in Russia and danced with Leningrad State Ballet Theatre and The Russian Ballet of St. Petersburg. In the West, she danced with England's Northern Ballet Theatre, European Ballet of London, Boston Ballet and was Principal Dancer with Configuration Dance and the Rebecca Rice Dance Company, USA.
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Sara has been invited to teach worldwide including Boston Ballet Company, Boston Ballet School, Tulsa Ballet Center for Dance Education, Cincinnati Ballet School, Laban Centre London, Northern Ballet Theatre of England, Arts Educational School of the UK, Boston Conservatory, and The International Festival of France. Sara has also served as Ballet Mistress for both London's Central School of Ballet and Ellison Ballet of NYC. She was the Artistic Director for the Ballet School of Stamford as well as the Co-Founder and Artistic Director of the Greenwich Ballet Academy.

In September 2010, Sara founded SLK Ballet. “A school for gifted dancers to prepare for a career as a professional dancer”. SLK Ballet has an annual exchange with both Central Ballet and English National Ballet School in London, UK. Sara continues to teach worldwide.

Vivian Triantafyllopoulou

Contemporary Teacher
Vivian is an award wining freelance dance artist from Greece based in London with 10 years of professional experience. She has a 1st class BA Contemporary Dance degree from Trinity Laban. She continued as a chosen member of the ‘Akram Khan Experiment’ and then joined Jasmin Vardimon 2, performing a national tour with pieces by Jasmin Vardimon, AΦΕ and Vinicius Salles.

She has performed for Jose Agudo Dance and Theatre Rites in their immersive production for which she got awarded an off west end best performer award along the rest of the cast.She is a dance artist for Alleyne Dance who has been voted as best independent company in Uk by National Dance Awards. She has also performed for WenSin Lee &Elgiva Field, Bittersuite, Vinicius Salles , Fernanda Prata, Ben Judd/Dionysios Tsaftaridis, Emily Robinson Dance, Olga Spyraki, Melanie Lomoff (Lowry and Rambert project), Follow Through collective, Natalie Sloth Richter and others in places like Royal Opera House, Richmix, Sadler’s Wells- Lilian Baylis,,Edinburgh Fringe and others. Vivian was also a dancer and choreographer’s assistant for Hagit Yakira’s projects and rehearsal director for Hagit’s community piece at Royal Albert Hall. She has also curated, choreographed, and performed for Museum of London.

She passionately teaches professionals, adults ,young people and dance companies improvisation, floor work, contemporary technique , choreography and presence training for dancers. She has taught for Rambert, The Place, Laban, Masters of Ballet Academy, English National Ballet, City Lit, Greenwich Dance, Royal Academy of Dance, NDC Wales, Dancce Athens and others. She was also the interim Artistic Director of Trinity Laban Youth Company in 2023. She is a teacher at the Center of Advanced Training at Trinity Laban. Vivian is the founder of a series of workshops ; 'Energy and flow', a contemporary dance workshop and 'Movement waves' a community improvisation workshop which happens in and by the sea.

Vivian’s professional company work as a choreographer has been supported by Arts Council England, Tripspace, Laban and she has choreographed also for youth groups and commissions, as well as movement directing for films.She has created with her own company long work ‘Ego Mas’ , a short duet ‘Greener Grass’ , the short dance film ‘I am’ and many commissioned works for professionals and youth companies.

Syllabus

Ballet technique; Virtuosity/Solos for girls and boys; Pointe; Character Dance; Historical Dance (Juniors); Acting for Ballet (Pre-Seniors); Pas de Deux (Seniors); Contemporary Ballet; Floor Barre/Stretching.
Lessons are accompanied by live piano.

How to Apply

Please click the link to fill out the application form.

Once a place has been offered, it will be held for seven days. If the course fee is not received by then, the place may be offered to another student. Details of how payment can be made will be sent out with the offer of a place.

We aim to help students benefit from the course as much as possible. The Artistic Director will place them into specific groups to maximise the benefit for each student and the group. The decision is based on the student's ability, suitability for the group, training requirements, and age.

Student Fees 2026

JUNIORS (8/9/10 years) £40 per day, £150 4-Day Full Course

PRE SENIORS (11/12 years) , SENIORS (13/14 years), PRE PROFESSIONALS (15-19 years) £120 per day, £420 4-Day Full Course.

Other information

• Students will be placed into one of four different Class Groups (Junior, Pre-Senior, Senior and Pre-Professional). Students and their parents/guardians must accept assignments in groups. The Artistic Directors can make any changes during the course at their sole discretion.
• The training runs from 10 am to 4 pm, apart from JUNIORS, who train for 2 hours per day.
• We will send you all the logistical information as soon as you receive the confirmation of your place on the Easter Course.
• All students will receive a Certificate of Completion, signed by the teachers.