Moto of the school: “Training and prestige“ 

Assoc. Prof. Maria Iieva is one of the great prima ballerinas of our time. Still when she was at the zenith of her popularity, she paid attention to her scientific career and her work with the children as a teacher. The ballerina specialized six years, from 1975 to 1981, at the Vaganov Ballet Academy in St. Petersburg, Russia. Ilieva is interested in and works on several aspects of teaching: ballet, ballet directing and choreography, historical dances. The subjects she teaches are Ballet Classical Repertoire, Stage Movement and Dances, Historical Dances. Masha is winner of the awards: Golden Feather for contribution to Bulgarian culture, Golden Muse for contribution to the Russian-Bulgarian collaboration in the field of culture, distinction for most perspective ballet pedagogue (Anastas Petrov Dance Group, Dobrich); awards for pedagogic activity at the Little Stars International Ballet Competition and of the Kalina Bogoeva Foundation, plaquette from the Ministry of Culture for overall artistic activity in the field of dance art.

Masha Ilieva is author of many articles, dedicated to dance art, and also of the books “The Wonderful World of Dance or How To Reach the Magic”, “My Ballet” and “Historical Dances”. In her artistic path Ilieva paid a lot of attention to her work on the stage at the Sofia Opera and Ballet.

Productions of the ballet school: “Sleeping Beauty”, “The Snow Queen”, “Ariel”, “Snow Fairy Tail”, “The Stone Flower” and others. Main share in the ballerina’s work occupy also the productions at the Sofia Opera and Ballet on Small stage: “The Snow Queen”, “A Ball in the Wood”, “A Lesson in Baroque”, “Dances of the People”.

Masha had participations in national and international projects. Still when she was dancing on the stage of the Sofia Opera, 25 years ago, she decided to pay attention to the talent of the little children, to those, who would like after some time to dedicate themselves to ballet. Thus, she opened her ballet school, which was established in 1995 – initially as a school for classical ballet to the Sredets House of Culture, Sofia Municipality. Since the beginning of 2000-2001 academic year, it was set up as Masha Ilieva Private School with capacity of 70 pupils. Since the very beginning, the school won the name of a prestigious place with exceptional professional training.

First pedagogues in it were she herself and Lyubov Fominich, prima ballerina of the Perm and Odessa Ballet – Russia, and also of the Sofia Opera, later professor in the USA; Rositsa Banova, soloist of the Sofia Opera and Ballet and teacher of many years at the Ballet School in Sofia and at the classical ballet schools in Rhodes. The pupils of the school continued successfully their education at the National School of Dance Art and prestigious schools all around the world.

The moto of the school is: “Training and Prestige”, and Masha Ilieva’s personal moto is “Don’t give up quickly”. This, according to her, means that she is fighting tooth and nail, but she always brings things to the very end!

Masha tells: “In the school for international and national competitions prepared themselves: Kristina Chochanova, Ralitsa Ilieva, Kalina Petkova, Rumelina Dilcheva. The new generation of little ballerinas isn’t less talented!”

All concerts and spectacles of the school were noticed by the media, at that greatest success had “The Nutcracker”, “The Doll Fairy”, “First Christmas”, “A Lesson in Dance”, “A Legend of Sofia”, “The Stone Flower”, “Snow Fairy Tail”, “Christmas Sparks”, “First Snow” and others, which were specially created for the Christmas celebrations. Some of the spectacles – “Little Ida’s Flowers”, “Pinocchio”, “The Snow Queen”, “A Lesson in Baroque” and others entered durably in the repertoire of the Sofia Opera and Ballet.

Besides being Artistic Director of the school, as performer at a world level, the ballerina appears successfully also as professor at the P. Vladigerov Academy of Music. She has been working as repetiteur of our National Ballet.

In the Masha Ilieva Ballet School can enrol everybody at the age of 3, without limitations in the upper age limit. For the distribution in groups is taken in account the age, the physical data and the level of knowledges of the new pupils. The groups are divided in age and level of training. Offered is also a preparation for participation in a competition for classical and modern dances, as well as consultations for applying for the National School of Dance Art, the National Academy of Music, New Bulgarian University, National Academy of Theatre and Film Arts, etc.
The education includes participation in 2 productions of the school, as well as in different concert programmes and TV broadcastings for the more advanced ones. Held are accelerated courses and seminars.

Every year is held a workshop for classical and modern ballet with the special participation of well-known artists and pedagogues from Bulgaria and abroad. The course is freely accessible for pupils outside the school too!

Teachers in the school are:
Elena Andrienko – prima ballerina of the Bolshoi Theatre
Marta Petkova – prima ballerina of the Sofia Opera and Ballet, Classical exercise
Nikola Hadjitanev – premier soloist of the Sofia Opera and Ballet, Classical exercise
Katerina Petrova – prima ballerina of the Sofia Opera and Ballet, Classical exercise
Tsetso Ivanov – premier soloist of the Sofia Opera and Ballet Classical exercise
Rosen Kanev – premier soloist of the Sofia Opera and Ballet, Classical exercise
Boryana Petrova – prima ballerina  of the Sofia Opera and Ballet, Classical exercise
Angelina Gavrailova – prima ballerina of the Arabesque Ballet, Modern techniques

Congratulations on the Anniversary of the ballet school of the prima ballerina Masha Ilieva!