Miss Marina trained with her father, Vladimir Levashev, a world famous Ballet Master, rehearsal director, teacher and principal dancer with the Russian Bolshoi Ballet. Marina apprenticed with the Bolshoi Ballet and Moiseyev Dance Co. and earned her degree in Fine Arts and Dance at the studio of the USSR State Folk and Character Dance Academy under the artistic direction of Igor Moiseyev. She apprenticed with the Bolshoi Ballet for two years. Marina then performed with Beroizka State Academic Choreographic Ensemble for 20 years, where she not only toured 30 different countries, but also was the Rehearsal Assistant for new company members as well as a classical ballet teacher in the Vagonova technique. She later helped found the Diagilev Center Ballet School in Moscow as the Ballet Mistress in 1990. In 1992, Marina moved to the United States and began working with The (then) Academy of Ballet Arts, which is now The British Academy of Performing Arts.

Since then, she has taught and directed with several different programs including: Atlanta Ballet, Impact Dance of Atlanta, Studio D. School of Dance, Georgia Ballet, Clemson University, Michigan State University, Governor’s Honors Program, Governor’s School for Arts & Humanities in South Carolina, and many more. We are honored to have Marina on faculty at BAPA for over 30 years, and we are so grateful she shares her love of ballet with us and our dancers.