Irina Lerman
Former Mariinsky Artist. Master Teacher. Choreographer.
The Team
.png)
Irina Lerman
Founder
Ballet, Character, Repertoire, Choreography
Graduated from Vaganova Ballet Academy and joined the Mariinskiy Ballet in the same year, 2011.
During 7 years of her career, she performed classical, neoclassical, and contemporary repertoire including
G, Balanchine's ballets, M. Petipa's, A. Ratmanskiy's, and Sasha Waltz. Participated in tours with a Company in Europe, Japan, China, UAE, and America. At the age of 21, Irina made her first choreography production at the Stage of Mariinsky Theatre. named "Minds Games" on music of M. Richter.
She obtained her Master’s Degree as a choreographer in 2016 at Vaganova Ballet Academy and won Silver Medal at the International Ballet Competition in Riga, Latvia. Trained at the Netherlands Dance Theatre Summer Intensive, participated at the Workshops of Wayne McGregor, Edward Clug. Performed at the Closing Ceremony of Olimpic Games in 2014, and the Closing Ceremony of Formula 1 in Monaco in 2018. Made several ballet productions as a choreographer for ballet companies including Mariinskiy Ballet, students of Vaganova Ballet Academy, Brussels International School, Detroit Opera House, and more.
From 2019 to the end of 2020 Lead Soloist at the Atlantic Ballet of Canada, Moncton, NB.
From 2021 freelance artist, teacher and choreographer.
Courtnae Bowman
Ballet | Pointe | Variations | Body Conditioning
Courtnae Bowman began her teaching at the exceptionally young age of 13 after completion of the required Royal Academy of Dancing Examinations.
She began coaching students shortly there after who immediately began to be accepted to international ballet schools across Canada.
She pursued professional training at The School of Toronto Dance Theatre, Ballet B.C and Ballet Jorgen/George Brown College-Dance Performance Studies, which she graduated from with honours and on the Deans List.
She has had the pleasure of working with choreographers and teachers such as Arnold Sphor-former artistic director of Royal Winnipeg Ballet, Crystal Pite-world renowned choreographer and founding artistic director of Kid Pivott, David Earle- founding artistic director Toronto Dance Theatre, Annette Av Paul-founding artistic director of Ballet B.C and Allen and Karen Kaeja- founding artistic directors of Kaeja d’Dance among others.
Alysa Pires
Guest Choreographer
Choreographer Alysa Pires was born and raised on the traditional territory of the W̱SÁNEĆ people near Victoria, B.C. Her works have been performed by companies such as New York City Ballet, the National Ballet of Canada, Alberta Ballet, Ballet Kelowna, and Ballet Edmonton.
Alysa recently became the first Canadian woman to create a work for New York City Ballet, making her Lincoln Center debut in May 2023 with Standard Deviation. The work was subsequently presented at the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC.
Pires began working with the National Ballet of Canada as part of their Choreographic Workshop (2016-2018) where she created her critically acclaimed work In Between. She represented the company at the 13th International Competition for the Erik Bruhn Prize and was then appointed Choreographic Associate by Karen Kain, a position that she held from 2019-2022. Other works for the NBoC include Frenzied Order (2019), in a state of vanishing (2021), and Skyward (2022).
Pires’ commissions for Ballet Kelowna include her full-length Macbeth (2022), and MAMBO (2018), which has become a signature work for the company, being presented as part of the 2018 Fall for Dance North Festival in Toronto, the China Arts Expo in Beijing, and touring extensively across Canada.
Pires is a three time participant of the New York Choreographic Institute and was one of the 2017 winners of Northwest Dance Project’s International Choreographic Competition. She also creates under the umbrella of Alysa Pires Dance Projects. Alysa is an Honours BFA graduate of Toronto Metropolitan University.
Svetlana Lunkina
Ballet, Variations, Technique
Advanced & Intermediate Levels
Svetlana Lunkina was born in Moscow, Russia and trained at the Moscow Choreographic Academy in Russia. Svetlana joined the Bolshoi Ballet in 1997 and was promoted to Principal Dancer in 2005.
In 2013, she joined The National Ballet of Canada as a Principal Guest Artist and became a Principal Dancer with the company in 2014.
Over her 15 year career at The Bolshoi Ballet, Svetlana danced many leading roles in both classical and contemporary ballets. Her repertoire includes principal roles in Swan Lake, La Bayadère, Raymonda, Spartacus, Don Quixote, The Sleeping Beauty, The Nutcracker, Giselle, La Sylphide, Le Corsaire, Carmen and La Fille du Pharon. She also danced featured roles in Serenade, Jewels, Afternoon of a Faun and Chroma. In 2002, Alexander Grant set the role of Lise in La Fille mal gardée on her.
Svetlana has also worked extensively with Roland Petit, who set the roles of Lisa in La dame de Pique and Esmeralda in Notre Dame de Paris on her. In 2008, Petit updated his ballet La Rose Malade especially for her.
Teagan Hadcock
Ballet, Repertoire, Pointe
Teagan began her ballet career at 12 years old when she performed the role of Clara in the Nutcracker with the Toronto International Ballet Theatre.
Since then, Teagan has performed in various ballet productions such as Cinderella, Fairy Doll, Coppelia, and the Nutcracker in many soloist and principal roles under the instruction of Mme. Stepanova of Stepanova Ballet Academy.
She has also attended many prestigious summer intensives from ballet academies such as the Bolshoi Ballet Academy, where she was invited to study for 2 consecutive years. T
eagan has had the pleasure of working and performing with Irina Lerman for 3 years and continues to spread her love of dance through teaching.
Johanna Bergfelt
Mondern, Contemporary Technique
Advanced & Intermediate Levels
A native of Sweden, Johanna Bergfelt graduated from The Royal Swedish Ballet School in 1989.
She has an extensive performance background beginning with Östgötabaletten, where she worked for six years, and later joined Norrdans, and the Barents Dance Ensemble.
Since coming to Canada in 2000, Johanna has worked with The Chimera Project, Kaeja d’Dance, Kathleen Rea, Santee Smith, Darcey Callison, Louis Laberge Cote, Kate Alton, Holly Small, William Yong, and the Toronto Dance Theatre, where she was a company dancer for six years.
Johanna has been nominated three times for a Dora Mavor Moore Award.
