Artistic Staff

Elizabeth Shipiatsky trained at the prestigious Vaganova Ballet Academy in Saint Petersburg, Russia. Upon graduation, she was invited to dance with the Kirov Ballet of the Mariinsky Theater. She then completed a Master’s Degree in Choreography with the Leningrad State Conservatory (Russia) in 1989. Ms. Shipiatsky has choreographed for major ballet companies in Europe and North America, including the Kirov Ballet and the Vaganova Academy. Several of her original ballets have been adopted by the Vaganova Academy as part of its curriculum and are being performed by Vaganova Academy dancers all over the world. Maestro Pyotr Gusev launched Ms. Shipiatsky’s career as a ballet mistress by inviting her to assist him in staging Le Corsair for the Kirov Ballet. Since then, Ms. Shipiatsky has staged classical ballet repertoire for a number of major ballet theaters and companies including the Kirov Ballet, Vaganova Ballet Academy, Academy of the Russian Ballet, Kuibyshev Opera and Ballet Theater, Brighton Ballet Theater, Minnesota Classical Ballet, and Colorado Ballet. Ms. Shipiatsky served as a Principal Choreographer and Associate Director of Colorado Ballet II, and as a faculty member of DanceAspen and Colorado Ballet. She was the co-founder and artistic director of Classical Ballet of Colorado, and later owner and Artistic Director of Ballet Melange Academy.

 

The quality of Ms. Shipiatsky’s instruction is reflected in the success of her students, many of whom have been accepted to prestigious dance schools in the U.S. and abroad, such as the Vaganova Ballet Academy (Saint Petersburg, Russia), Boston Ballet, San Francisco Ballet, Kirov Academy of Ballet (Washington D.C.), School of American Ballet, Houston Ballet, Arizona Ballet, Bolshoi Summer Intensive (New York), Bolshoi Academy (Moscow, Russia), American Ballet Theater, English National Ballet School (London), and Juilliard. Several of her former students are professional dancers with companies including Colorado Ballet, Dutch National Junior Company, National Ballet of Ukraine and Sacramento Ballet. Ms. Shipiatsky was the well-deserved recipient of the Outstanding Teacher award at the Denver Regional Youth America Grand Prix in 2012 and, under her direction, CBC and CBA were deemed the YAGP Outstanding School in 2013 and 2018. In the summer of 2017, Ms. Shipatsky took the first steps toward forming her long-dreamed-of professional trainee and early career professional company, Ballet Melange. She also serves as Artistic Director of Ballet Melange  Academy, the feeder school to Ballet Melange.