MAINA GIELGUD A.0.

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 was then Artistic Director of The Australian Ballet (1983-1997) and the Royal Danish Ballet (1997-1999).   She was principal coach with English National Ballet (2007 - 2012)

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

Free-lancing since 1999, Maina’s own stagings of classical productions are much in demand: her highly acclaimed Giselle for The Australian Ballet (staged also for Boston Ballet, Ballet du Rhin, Houston Ballet and Conservatorio Annarella), The Sleeping Beauty (The Australian Ballet, Jo’burg Ballet),  as well as Coppelia, and Cinderella in her own choreography.  

She also stages works choreographed by Maurice Bejart, Serait-ce la Mort, Bhakti, Webern opus 5, and Song of a Wayfarer; by Kenneth MacMillan: Manon; Serge Lifar: Suite en Blanc; Rudolf Nureyev's productions of  Don Quixotte and Swan Lake, and classical favourites such as  La Sylphide, Les Sylphides, Le Spectre de la Rose, Paquita. 

She guest teaches and coaches in major companies all over the world, as well as in renowned schools, and is regularly invited to judge ballet competitions.

‘Coaching the Coaches' is an experimental interactive workshop, dedicated to discussion and examples of  methods of coaching  professional dancers for their solo and principal repertoire, as well as students for repertoire and ballet competitions.  

Maina’s 2019 staging of Maurice Bejart’s Song of a Wayfarer for the Joyce Festival in New York, with David Hallberg and Joseph Gordon received an immense and emotional response.

Exciting projects for 2020 were postponed due to Covid...  but thanks to Zoom technology, Maina remained busy throughout, giving private classes as well as coaching and repertoire classes to professional companies and schools.  

She staged Anton Dolin’s Variations for 4 for Ballet West in April 2021 (all on Zoom!), while with the Junior Classical Company of Leiria, newly formed from the ultra talented students of Conservatorio Annarella and, the then 15 year old Margarita Fernandes and 17 year old Antonio Casalinho dancing the principal roles - from late June 2020 to the end of July 2021, she staged Anton Dolin's Pas de Quatre and Variations for 4, the full length Giselle, full length Swan Lake, Aurora’s Wedding, all rehearsed in studios live without masks - and performed live and streamed.  Later her full length The Sleeping Beauty was also performed there  several times with different casts.

In early June 2021, she restaged Maurice Bejart’s [‘Heure Exquise for Alessandra Ferri in Ravenna.  This was performed mid October at the Linbury Theatre of the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden and continues successfully touring internatiionally.

Staging of Maurice Bejart's Song of a Wayfarer for the Paris Opera Ballet, was an exciting start to the 2023 season, with no less than 7 casts performing this outstanding work, performed in an entire Bejart evening at the Opera Bastille, but first for 3 special performances in tribute to the late Patrick Dupond.   

Maina's production of Giselle for Cape Town City Ballet opened to wide acclaim in March 2022, followed by her same production with the Polish National Ballet in October 2022.  

August 2023 brought a new full length production of Don Quixote, choreographed by Maina after Petipa also for Cape Town City Ballet, with guest artists Fumi Kaneko and Vadim Muntagirov from the Royal Ballet, Antonio Casalinho and Margarita Fernandes from the Bavarian State Ballet, and Ines MacIntosh from Paris Opera.  This same production had premiered 30th August 2022 with Companhia Nacional Classic of Leiria.

October 2023 brought her staging of Song of a Wayfarer, with Hugo Marchand and Germain Louvet to City Center New York, and late 2023, brought Les Sylphides to the Junior company of Leiria;  Guest teaching for the European School of Ballet with Master classes on mime based on the Mad Scene from Giselle, and Anton Dolin's Variations for 4, followed by a visit to New York for YAGP streamed Master class, then a full production of Coppelia For the Junior company of Leiria at the end of July.

Now a well deserved holiday, before a packed autumn, starting with a visit to the newly formed Cape Ballet Africa, directed by Debbie Turner, to start rehearsals for a full length ballet to be performed in 2025, followed by a visit to the Cuban National Ballet as guest coach for their production of Swan Lake during the course of their Ballet Festival, and then a first visit to the Ballet of Santiago Chile, directed by Cesar Morales, to stage Maina's first ever production of the Nutcracker.

An exciting season ahead!

 

 

 

 

 

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