Maina Gielgud

Trained by the great Russians including Tamara Karsavina and Lubov Egorova, and later Rosella Hightower, Maina Gielgud has had an incredibly diverse career creating works with Maurice Bejart’s XXth Century Ballet, dancing as a principal with London Festival Ballet and Sadlers Wells Royal Ballet, as an international guest artist, and being partnered by Rudolf Nureyev. She then directed The Australian Ballet (1983-1997) and the Royal Danish Ballet (1997-1999).

Maina made a comeback in 2003 and 2008 as a dancer and actress in Maurice Bejart's L’Heure Exquise.

Free-lancing since 1999, Maina is Artistic Advisor of the Hungarian National Ballet and both Artistic Advisor and Authorised Repetiteur of The 'Anton Dolin Foundation'. She is also the founder of a new initiative ‘Coaching the Coaches’.

She stages classical and contemporary works, guest teaches and coaches in major companies and schools all over the world.

In 2019 Maina staged a new production of The Sleeping Beauty for Joburg Ballet in Johannesburg, and will be doing an entirely new production of the full length Swan Lake for Cape Town City Ballet which premieres in August 2020.

Image Credit: Lauge Sorensen