Well-travelled, Versatile and Advanced
Elena Kozhemyachenko is a professional ballet dancer and teacher originally from Irkutsk City, Russia. She has a degree in dance from the Buryat State Choreographic College and worked for 18 years at the Buryat Academic State Theatre Opera and Ballet as a solo dancer. Elena has performed leading roles in classical ballets and various solo variations such as "The Nutcracker", "Great Waltz" and "A House of Cat." Elena has also performed pas de trois from ballets: Paquita, Swan Lake, PDD Giselle, Sleeping Beauty, and many solo variations.
In addition to her dance career, Elena has also been a teacher for many years. She worked as a classical and historical dance teacher at the Choreographic College from 1984 to 2010 and completed a teaching course at the Academy of Russian Ballet (Vaganova) in St. Petersburg in 1998. Elena was also a guest teacher at the Liaoning Ballet Theatre School in China from 1996 to 2009, using the Russian Vaganova method of teaching.
Elena has prepared students for ballet competitions in Russia and China, and in 2006, she completed a diploma in ballet teaching and choreography from the East-Siberian State Academy of Culture and Art. Since 2010, Elena has been living in Brisbane and has worked at the Queensland Ballet Academy as an Advanced Ballet, Character and Historical Dance teacher.