Alba Ballet Company Staff, who will take students through Auditions and all our courses in Classical Ballet and Performance.
Alba Ballet

 

Julie Gunn - Principal

Julie qualified as Teacher with the Royal Academy of Dance in the spring of 2009. It was during 2009 that Julie opened The Elite Academy of Dance. The school has gone from strength to strength from its humble beginings at Inverclyde Academy so much so that Julie opened her private Studio in Greenock in 2010

Her pupils follow the RAD syllabus and normally sit exams once a year. 

Results have always been above National Averages and this has allowed Julie to place over 10 of her students with Scottish Ballet Associate Programme, The Dance School of Scotland and Ballet West.

To take students to an even more intense standard of Classical Ballet and Performance she started Elite Academy's Associate Programme, Alba Ballet in 2012.

All Julies pupils also take part in end of year Elite Academy Summer Show, over two evenings. 

The school  has also performed at the Tall Ships 2011 in Greenock and Julie has prepared students to perform at St Andrews Nights, Burns Nights and Fundraising events over the past few years . 

At the age of 12, Julie spent the school summer holidays with the Russian Ballet, training and performing in Edinburgh.

Four years later aged 16, Julie left home and studied at Ballet West for 4 years,taking part in productions such as Romeo & Juliet, Coppelia and The Nutcracker. While at Ballet West Julie started teaching as a first year student at Ballet Wests outreach programme.it wasn't until 2007 she decided to start her Royal Academy teacher training.

She also performed with the Black Eyed Peas and has appeared in Vanity Fair.

As well as teaching at Alba and Elite Julie also taught Classical Ballet at UK Theatre School from 2011- 2013.

Julie launched Silver Swans- Classical Ballet for pensioners in Oct 2013, following successful trials by the RAD in Glasgow. Silver Swans now meet every Tuesday and Thursday morning.  

The Scottish Ladies Gymnastic Squad for the Commonwealth Games in 2014 worked with Julie for nearly 18 months prior to the games.

She also was a guest teacher with the BBC during the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow. 

In November 2014, Julie produced Alba Ballets and her first major production of The Nutcracker. This was Alba Ballets first two year training programme and was performed over two nights to an audience of 800 plus people.


Shaun McLaughlin- Teacher/ Choreographer

Shaun joined Alba Ballet in December 2013, replacing Tristan who was unable to commit due to work commitments in London.  

Born in Glasgow Shaun started dancing at the age of 12 attending The Dance School of Scotland. After 5 years of training Shaun went on to train at Elmhurst School for Dance in Assosiation with Birmingham Royal Ballet under the directorship of Desmond Kelly and Eroll Pickford for 3 years. During his time at Elmhurst Shaun worked with Birmingham Royal Ballet performing in The Sleeping Beauty, Romeo and Juliet, La Fille Mal Gradee, Copellia and Slaughter on 10th Avenue on tour across the UK and performed in The Sleeping Beauty in Japan.
 
Upon graduating from Elmhurst Shaun became the first ever British male to join The Croatian National Ballet under the directorship of Ronald Savkovic. Shaun was promoted to Soloist in his first season with the company at the age of 20 and danced The Prince in Cinderella and The Prince in The Sleeping Beauty. During his time in Croatia his repetory included Carmina Burana, Shut up and Dance, Madamme Butterfly, Aida, Anna Karenia and Mirror of the Soul.
 
In 2013 Shaun was a Guest Artist for Ther Macedonian National Ballet for their production of Alexander The Great choreographed my Ronald Savkovic.
 
Shaun has also taught at some of the best international ballet companies in Europe including The Croatian National Ballet Rijeka, The Croatian National Ballet Zagreb, The Russian State Ballet of Siberia and The Macedonian National Ballet. Shaun also spent time in India teaching students from New Delhi and Mumbai.
 
Shaun has also won multipal awards for his choreographic skills during his time at The Dance School of Scotland and at Elmhurst School for Dance and most notably an award from the Culture Minister of Croatia for his work Metatronic Destination.

 

Tristan Borrer-  Guest Teacher

Julie was delighted that Tristan was available to help when Alba Ballet started in 2012, despite having to move to London in 2013, Tristan still is in touch with Julie and is hoping to continue his association with Alba Ballet as a Guest Teacher as we move on to our next production in 2015

Tristan has performed at the very top, being lead dancer with Scottish Ballet and Australian Ballet.

Due to work commitments Tristan will now be working on an a consultant basis with Alba,

Alba Ballet are delighted that they are able to call on Tristans experience in all aspects of training, lessons,choreography and performance of Classical Ballet..

Tristan and Julie have now worked together for the past three years, when Julie invited Tristan to come and help with Ballet classes at Elite Academy of Dance in Greenock. .

Tristans main roles in world of dance and ballet are listed below.

Elite Academy of Dance-Choreographer and Teaching.Classical Ballet

Scottish Opera – Assistant Director & Dancer in, Cunning little Vixen – Responsible for hisown role as well the children and the singers in

the show.

Glasgow City Council – Assistant Choreographer- Pantomimes Aladdin & Cinderella – Responsible for the dancers as well as the actors

learning their movements and keeping the show going during its 10 week run.

Scottish Opera – Stage Technician - Responsible for building sets and taking them down after performances.

Directed own dance company “EyeNoise” funded by the Scottish Arts Council.

Dancer for Alias Dance Company in Switzerland.

Dancer for Small Axe Dance in London.

Principal dancer for Sydney Dance Company Australia.

Soloist dancer for the Scottish Ballet.

Soloist dancer for London City Ballet.

Dancer for Nederlands Dans Company, Holland.

 

Anne Marie Reid- Physiotherapist

 Anne Marie has a BSc Honours in Physiotherapy. She will be involved as Alba Ballets Physio making sure students have the correct information to treat any aches and strains and give advice on recovery of any long term injury.

As part of the overall conditioning of Students Anne Marie will be taking various Pilates Classes to improve core strength.