My Story
Luba Gulyaeva graduated from the Vaganova Ballet Academy in Leningrad, USSR (now St. Petersburg, Russia). Her instructors include the famous N.V. Baltacheyeva, assistant to A.Y. Vaganova. Ms. Gulyaeva joined the Kirov (Maryinsky) Ballet Company from 1968 to1979 in Leningrad where she performed in ballets such as La Bayadere, Sleeping Beauty, Giselle, Don Quixote, Swan Lake, La Sylphide, Le Corsair, Nutcracker, Legend of Love, Cinderella and others. In 1980, Ms. Gulyaeva was invited by Jurgen Schneider to be a faculty member of the Botsford School of Dance in Rochester, New York where she taught intermediate and advanced classical ballet, pointe technique, and variation repertory. She also coached students for competitions and professional company auditions. From 1988 to 1989, Ms. Gulyaeva was invited by Mikhail Baryshnikov to be a member of the faculty of the American Ballet Theatre School of Classical Ballet where she gave classes to the American Ballet Theatre dancers.
From 1989 to 1993, Ms. Gulyaeva was ballet coach at the Steps Ballet Studio in New York City. She also taught master classes at the AustralianBallet School in Melbourne and classes at the School of American Ballet in New York City. Ms. Gulayaeva has privately coached participants of the International Ballet Competition in Jackson, MS and the Prix de Lausanne in Lausanne, Switzerland. She is well known as one of the finest teachers of the Vaganova ballet system and classical repertory.