The HARID Conservatory

Victoria Schneider studied with Fred Danieli at the School of the Garden State Ballet in New Jersey. She danced professionally with the Garden State Ballet as a soloist, and with the Pennsylvania Ballet. She then taught at the School of the Pennsylvania Ballet for seven years, before moving to Italy where she worked as principal teacher at La Scuola di Danza Classica in Florence. After returning to the United States, she established the School of the Tampa Ballet and served as ballet mistress of the Tampa/Colorado Ballet. Ms. Schneider studied the teaching syllabus of Russian Classical Ballet with her late husband, Jurgen Schneider, and with Janina Ciunovas. In addition, she completed the two-year pedagogy program at the Vaganova Academy of Ballet in St. Petersburg, Russia. (She is one of only three Americans to be certified through this prestigious and demanding program.) Her students have won major awards in numerous ballet competitions and can be found dancing in major ballet companies in the United States and abroad. Ms. Schneider has served as a jury member for the Japan Grand Prix and Taiwan Grand Prix ballet competitions since their inception. She remains active as a guest teacher.

Svetlana Osiyeva is a graduate of the Vaganova Academy of Ballet (alma mater of R. Nureyev, N. Makarova, and M. Baryshnikov) in St. Petersburg, Russia. She danced professionally with the Kirov Ballet for twenty years and, as a soloist, toured internationally and worked with notable choreographers including Boris Eifman, Roland Petit, and Pierre Lacotte. After leaving the Kirov, Ms. Osiyeva served as ballet mistress and artistic director of Leningrad Ballet Theater. She then completed a degree in ballet pedagogy at the Vaganova Academy of Ballet, graduating with honors in 1995. Before moving to the United States, Ms. Osiyeva taught at ballet schools in Yugoslavia, Italy, and Portugal. She has staged Giselle, Coppelia, Raymonda, The Sleeping Beauty, Les Sylphides, and La Bayadere. In 1997, her production of Paquita for the Maria Tallchief Fellowship Gala Performance received critical acclaim. Her students have won major awards in numerous ballet competitions and can be found dancing professionally in major companies in the United States and abroad. Ms. Osiyeva remains active as a guest teacher and ballet-competition judge.

Mr. Pakri is originally from Estonia and is a graduate of the Vaganova Ballet Academy in St. Petersburg, Russia. Following his graduation, Mr. Pakri danced with Estonian National Ballet as a principal dancer and taught partnering and technique classes at the Tallinn State Ballet School. During that time, he also performed as a principal guest artist at the International Ballet Festival in Havana, Cuba; and for the National Theater of Macedonia in Skopje, Yugoslavia. In 1991, at the invitation of then-artistic-director Martin Fredmann, Mr. Pakri joined Colorado Ballet as principal dancer. Over the next ten years, he performed numerous classical and contemporary roles, including Albrecht in Giselle, the title role in George Balanchine’s Apollo, Basilio in Don Quixote, the principal male in Balanchine’s Rubies, and Prince Siegfried in Swan Lake. Mr. Pakri was also a frequent guest performer in Estonia and Japan. In 1998, he performed as a guest artist with the Martha Graham Dance Company in the role of the Husbandman in Appalachian Spring at the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C.

Mr. Pakri retired from dancing in 2001 and, for the next five years, served as ballet master of Colorado Ballet. In 2005, he received critical acclaim for staging The Sleeping Beauty for the Company. In 2006, Mr. Pakri joined the faculty of The Royal Ballet Upper School in London, England, where he remained until August 2013. During his tenure, Mr. Pakri’s students won prizes at the Youth America Grand Prix and Young British Dancer of the Year competitions. He also served as a guest teacher at Estonian National Ballet and at a number of schools. Prior to joining HARID’s faculty, Mr. Pakri was ballet master at Houston Ballet. He remains active as a guest teacher and a ballet-competition judge.

Alexey Kulpin is a graduate of the Institute of Culture and Art in St. Petersburg, Russia. He holds both bachelor’s and master’s degrees in ballet pedagogy and choreography. In 1998, he was the Grand Prix winner at the Muse of St. Petersburg Ballet Competition. As a professional dancer, Mr. Kulpin has performed soloist and principal roles in both classical and contemporary ballets in Russia, Israel, and the United States. He danced professionally with St. Petersburg State Opera Ballet, St. Petersburg State Male Theatre by Mihailovsky, Ballet Israel, City Ballet of San Diego, Grand Rapids Ballet, Charleston Ballet Theater, Stars of St. Petersburg Municipal Theater of Music and Dance, and Krasnoyarsk Dance Ensemble. His roles included Basilio in Don Quixote; James in La Sylphide; Prince Ivan in Firebird; Spirit of the Rose in Le Spectre de la Rose; Swan Lake Pas de Trois; and the male leads in Tarentella and Maurice Bejart’s Trik Trak.

Mr. Kulpin specializes in teaching classical ballet, male and female variations, and character dance. His teaching career includes the Ballet Israel School, City Ballet of San Diego, Grand Rapids Ballet, and Charleston Ballet Company, where he taught company classes and served as director of the Charleston Ballet Young Artists Group. Most recently, he served as principal ballet teacher for Northern California Dance Conservatory. He has staged classical variations and choreographed solos for performance and ballet competitions, including Youth America Grand Prix. Mr. Kulpin joined The HARID Conservatory’s faculty in August, 2016. He remains active as a guest teacher and a ballet-competition judge.