Galina Alexandrova
Artistic Director
Galina Alexandrova is a world renowned ballet master. Having both danced in the top companies around the globe and trained countless professional dancers, Galina is a force to be reckoned with in the dance community. She has been featured in Dance Teacher Magazine, Pointe Magazine, and Dance Magazine, has judged for international competitions, and has also been named outstanding teacher 8 times by the Youth America Grand Prix.
Galina was born in Moscow, Russia to parents who were principal dancers with the Moiseyev Dance Company (Mikhail Alexandrov, her father) and the Stanislavsky Ballet (Svetlana Afanasieva, her mother) in Moscow for over 20 years. Following her parents’ footsteps, she was accepted to the legendary Bolshoi Ballet Academy in Moscow at the age of ten.
Upon graduating from the class of N.V. Zolotova, Galina was personally selected by Artistic Director, Yuri Grigorovich, to become a member of the Bolshoi Ballet company. Galina danced there for seven years, performing many soloist roles in all of the Bolshoi's repertoire. She worked directly with ballet legends such as Vladimir Vasiliev, Ekaterina Maximova, Marina Kondratieva, Leonid Nikonov, Nikolai Simachev, Galina Petrova, Raisa Struchkova, Vasily Vorokhobko, with daily inspiration and mentorship from these ballet stars.
After meeting her American husband Ken, Galina immigrated to the U.S., where she joined the San Francisco Ballet. With the company, she performed many soloist roles in works by George Balanchine, Lew Christensen, Helgi Tomasson, and many more. She also worked directly with world-class choreographers such as James Kudelka, David Bintley, and Glen Tetley. After leaving San Francisco Ballet, she continued on to dance with San Francisco Opera Ballet, Lawrence Pech Dance Company, finishing her dancing career with Smuin Ballet.
In 2003, the opportunity to become Artistic Director of City Ballet San Francisco (CBSF) presented itself. Already equipped with vast knowledge from her own training and career, Galina was further mentored in the art of teaching the Vaganova syllabus by her mother Svetlana Afanasieva, a master teacher at the Bolshoi Ballet Academy. Over her tenure as Artistic Director, she has built an international reputation for the school as being one of the finest Vaganova training facilities in North America. Many of Galina's students have gone on to dance professionally in companies such as American Ballet Theatre, Dutch National Ballet, Joffrey Ballet, Semperoper Ballett (Germany), San Francisco Ballet, Boston Ballet, Austin Ballet, Alberta Ballet, Colorado Ballet, as well as many more around the world.