The school’s philosophy

Vira Kharchenko

In 2012 Vira graduated with honours from Kyiv Ukrainian Dance Academy named after Serge Lifar and joined Lviv National Opera and Ballet Theatre of Ukraine as a corps de

ballet dancer. In the course of 2012-2013 she had a chance to perform a variety of corps de ballet and small soloist roles.

Having joined the Astrakhan State Opera and Ballet Theatre in Russia by the invitation from the Choreographer and Artistic Director Konstantin Uralskiy in 2013, Vira became a Principal Ballet Dance the same year and performed a number of leading roles in ballets like “Swan Lake”, “The Nutcracker”, “Romeo and Juliet” and “Edith Piaf”. By 2015 Gained a BA in Choreography Teaching.

Since 2013 – 2019 her repertoire included leading roles in a variety of ballets such as “Giselle”, “Don Quixote”, “The Nutcracker”, “Le Corsaire”, “Sleeping Beauty”, “Romeo and Juliet”, “Chopiniana”, “La Bayadere”. Many of them were also performed on the stages of France, Poland and Great Britain during theatre tours.

In 2018 Vira moved permanently to the UK continuing her work as an invited soloist in Ukrainian companies and taking part in some contemporary projects in Great Britain. She especially enjoyed working with emerging choreographers.

From 2019 she started to consolidate her dancing career with teaching. Currently working for Performing Arts College “Bodyworks company” in Cambridge, Vira is often invited to teach ballet intensives and open classes in London.

Séverine de Cussac

Séverine de Cussac trained at the Paris Opera School of Dance under the direction of Claude Bessy. At 17, she was hired as a Quadrille at the Opéra National de Paris, where she danced for seven years in the large classical repertoire, numerous choreographies by Rudolf Nureyev, and neo-classical works by George Balanchine, Jérome Robins, and Maurice Béjart, in addition to entries in the repertoire of contemporary creations by William Forsythe, Mats Ek, and Angelin Preljocaj. She was a finalist in the Varna competition and obtained the State Diploma of the Ministry of Culture for teaching classical dance.

She was then hired as a soloist at the National Opera of Dresden in Germany under the direction of Vladimir Derevianko.

Vladimir Derevianko’s direction. She performed in numerous roles in the ballets of John Neumeier, Uwe Scholz, John Cranko and played “Giselle”. She works with great choreographers such as Jirì Kyliàn, Mats Ek. Under the direction of Aaron Watkin she continued to work with William Forsythe and met David Dawson and Oad Naharin.

After a twenty-year career as a dancer, she became a classical dance teacher at the Dresden Palucca Hochschule für Tanz” in 2013. She teaches Classical Dance, Pointes and Variations of the Repertoire to students from 11 to 16 years old, as well as to students of the Superior Cycle. She also participates in the preparation of performances in collaboration with the “Semperoper Ballett” of Dresden.

She is also a mentor in the training of students in the Master of Pedagogy program. She participates in further training and didactic method sessions at her school and at seminars.