Premier Dance Centre opened in Roanoke Oct. 10, offering a variety of dance classes. (Courtesy Premier Dance Centre)
The city of Roanoke has a new dance studio in on Oak Street.
Former professional ballet dancer Katia Almayeva opened opened her own studio, Premier Dance Centre, in October.
The details
Premier Dance Centre offers ballet, jazz, contemporary, lyrical, yoga, hot yoga and stretching and conditioning classes for children and adults. Almayeva said ballet is the foundation of the studio.
“The most important thing is discipline, but also teaching kids to love ballet because a lot of kids find ballet very boring, but it's not taught the right way,” she said. “I think finding that balance between them learning, but also like loving it; I don't think a lot of teachers can do that and that is something that I'm very good at.”
She is one of seven teachers at the studio. Almayeva said the other six teachers are still professional dancers who perform at the Texas Ballet Theater, Avant Chamber Ballet and Ballet North Texas.
“A lot of studios have professional dancers, but they are retired and coach,” she said. “Ours are still doing it. It is very rare. It’s very hard to hire company dancers because they're obviously very busy. They're having shows all the time. We have found a great balance.”
Katia Almayeva is a former professional ballet dancer who now owns Premier Dance Centre in Roanoke.Courtesy Premier Dance Centre
The backstory
Almayeva's mother was a professional dancer and started training her at the age of 6 when the family moved to the United States from Russia. Almayeva performed at famed theaters and won numerous competitions in her career.
She joined the acclaimed Eifman Ballet Theatre in St. Petersburg, Russia, in 2016 before returning to Texas, according to the business website.
Almayeva moved into coaching and operated Premier Ballet Coaching for the past three years in Southlake before opening her own studio.
Almayeva said the space was perfect when she was looking for her own spot. She said the studio offers a draw with the classical training in ballet and is further supplemented by the North Oak Street corridor.
“It has that kind of setup in terms of the walkability, the restaurants, just the feeling of a very safe neighborhood,” she said. “There's so much to do for parents while kids are in class. The building is lovely and the area is very, very charming.”
She said the rebuild on the former wine bar started this summer, with a goal of bringing an elevated level to teaching ballet.
