Elena Shokhina: From the Vaganova Ballet Academy to Brevard County

When parents in Brevard County search for a ballet school that offers genuine, world-class classical training, they are — whether they know it yet or not — looking for a teacher like Elena Shokhina. The founder and artistic director of Brevard Ballet Academy in Melbourne, Florida, Elena is a graduate of the world-renowned Vaganova Ballet Academy in St. Petersburg, Russia, and a former principal dancer with a sixteen-year professional career. Her story is the reason authentic Vaganova-method ballet exists on Florida’s Space Coast.

Trained at the Cradle of Classical Ballet

Elena began her ballet education at the Vaganova Ballet Academy, the St. Petersburg institution widely regarded as the birthplace of the world’s most respected system of classical ballet training. It is the same school whose lineage produced legendary dancers such as Rudolf Nureyev, Mikhail Baryshnikov, and Natalia Makarova. After completing eight years of rigorous, full-time training, Elena graduated and began her professional performing career.

That training matters. The Vaganova method is not a marketing phrase — it is a specific, systematic pedagogy that develops the whole body as one expressive instrument. A teacher who has lived it from the inside, as Elena has, brings something no weekend certification can replicate.

Sixteen Years as a Professional Ballerina

Elena danced for eight years in Russia, first with the Saint Petersburg State Academic Yacobson Ballet Theatre and later with the St. Petersburg Ballet, advancing to principal status at both companies and performing in major theaters around the world. In 2000 she moved to the United States and joined Nevada Ballet Theatre in Las Vegas, where she again rose to principal and danced until retiring in 2008 — the end of a sixteen-year career on stage.

Her repertoire reads like a survey of the classical canon: leading roles in Swan Lake, Giselle, The Nutcracker, Sleeping Beauty, Don Quixote, La Bayadère, Paquita, Romeo and Juliet, Peter Pan, and Dracula, among many others. Every one of those roles now informs how she coaches artistry, musicality, and stagecraft in her own students.

“Technical excellence and artistic expression are inseparable — and the highest standards are within reach of every dedicated student.”

— The teaching philosophy behind Brevard Ballet Academy

Founding Brevard Ballet Academy

Elena discovered her passion for teaching at Nevada Ballet Theatre’s affiliated academy. In 2010 she relocated to Brevard County, Florida, drawn by the community’s vibrant arts culture — and by a clear need for rigorous, authentic classical training in the region. In 2014 she opened Brevard Ballet Academy at 1399 Highland Ave in Melbourne’s historic Eau Gallie Art District.

Four years later, in 2018, she founded the Brevard Ballet Youth Company, a pre-professional company that stages full-length classical ballets for the Brevard County community. Today the academy serves more than 200 students — from three-year-olds in Creative Movement to pre-professional dancers preparing for summer intensives and company auditions.

Study With Elena in Melbourne, FL

Whether your dancer is taking their very first class or preparing for a professional career, they will train in a curriculum built on Elena’s decades of experience at the highest level of the art form. Explore our ballet classes in Melbourne, FL or meet the rest of our world-class faculty.