About...
Artistic Director, Arabesque Ballet Studio, Los Angeles
Ms. Olga Tozyiakova is a 1980 graduate of the famed Perm Ballet Academy in Russia where she trained with the master teachers of Vaganova technique - L. Ulanova, L. Saharova, A. Prokofiev, O. Lepeshnskaia, V. Gordeev. She became a Principal dancer with the Perm Ballet in 1986 and danced as the lead in all of the great classic ballets such as Swan Lake, La Bayadere, Giselle, Don Quixote, Sleeping Beauty, Romeo & Juliet, Nutcracker. She starred in the movies, War and Peace as Natasha Rostova, Metamorphous of Autumn and danced in Prisoner of Castle IFF. Ms. Olga also danced as principal with the Odessa Academy of Ballet and Moscow Classical Ballet Company, guest performing in galas with the greats of her time like Julio Bocca before moving to the United States in 1994. Ms. Olga retired from dancing as a principal with the Colorado Ballet Company in 1996.
Ms. Olga turned her devotion of ballet to a new generation of ballerinas in the United States as a teacher. Many of her current and former students are currently principals, soloists and corps dancers at American Ballet Theater, the Washington Ballet and Helsinki Ballet, including Christine Shevchenko, Brooklyn Mack, Isabella Boylston, Katie Williams and Rebecca King. Recent graduates have gone on to ballet companies like Ballet West and to colleges and universities at Juilliard, USC, UCLA, Michigan, Cornell and University of the Arts London. Her students consistently place in top rankings in prestigious competitions such as Youth America Grand Prix, Prix de Lausanne, World Ballet Competition, IBC Moscow and IBC Helsinki.