Maina Gielgud  
Organization: Former Artistic Director of The Australian Ballet and Royal Danish Ballet

Position: International Master Teacher

Affiliation with organization: 2018 – Present

 

“Trained by the great Russians including Tamara Karsavina and Lubov Egorova, and later Rosella Hightower, Maina Gielgud has had an incredibly diverse career creating works with Maurice Bejart’s XXth Century Ballet, and as a principal with London Festival Ballet and SWRB, an international guest artist, and partnering Rudolf Nureyev. She then directed The Australian Ballet (1983-1997) and the Royal Danish Ballet (1997-1999).

Free-lancing since 1999, she guest teaches and coaches around the world and stages her own highly acclaimed classical productions: The Sleeping Beauty and Giselle for The Australian Ballet, Boston Ballet, Ballet du Rhin, and Houston Ballet; Stagings include Serait-ce la Mort, Bhakti, Webern opus 5, and Songs of a Wayfarer choreographed by Maurice Bejart; Kenneth MacMillan’s Manon; Serge Lifar’s Suite en Blanc; Rudolf Nureyev’s productions of Don Quixotte and Swan Lake; Anton Dolin’s Pas de Quatre and Variations for 4; also classical favourites such as Les Sylphides, Spectre de la Rose, Paquita.

Her very successful Steps Notes and Squeaks, showing the background of a couple of principal dancers' day, began with a run of over a month in London (Open Space Theatre, Royal Court and Ambassadors), then toured internationally for several years including a season at Espace Cardin in Paris and a return to London this time at the Old Vic Theatre for 3 weeks.

She has served on the jury of Prix de Lausanne, the Shanghai Competition and the Helsinki Competition.

For five years, she was Principal coach with English National Ballet and held the position of Artistic Advisor. Maina is presently Artistic Advisor to the Hungarian National Ballet, and authorised Repetiteur as well as on the Board as Artistic Advisor of the Anton Dolin Foundation.

Companies she has worked with, to some of which she returns as a regular guest include the Royal Ballet, Finnish National Ballet, SF Ballet, Rome Opera Ballet and La Scala Milan, Queensland Ballet and Tokyo Ballet.

In addition to working with professional dancers, Maina gives regular master classes as a guest and or during summer intensives, specialising in repertoire, mime and stagecraft for National Ballet School Toronto, the Royal Ballet School, Ellison Ballet New York, the Goh Academy, Ballet Academy East New York, ABT New York.

In 2018, her schedule included teaching and rehearsing Lifar’s Suite en Blanc at the Vaganova Academy to the graduates and senior levels of the Academy, spending 6 weeks there; choreographing a full length Cinderella for Goh Ballet 40th anniversary graduation in Vancouver, with guest artists Venus Villa and Rolando Sarabia, choreographing ‘Storm’ for Ellison Ballet Winter Showcase, later performed and a prizewinning ensemble entry for YAGP New York. She also staged Dolin’s Pas de Quatre for the New National Ballet in Tokyo, was guest teacher with Queensland Ballet coaching La Bayadere, and restaged her own production of Giselle in Melbourne for The Australian Ballet with guest artist David Hallberg.

Upcoming projects besides guest teaching/coaching, will be master classes and adjudicating for YAGP in Paris and staging a new production of The Sleeping Beauty for Jo’burg Ballet in 2019. ”