Founder & Instructor

Masha Shcherbyna

Masha was born in Ukraine and immigrated to Canada as a toddler, where a few years later she would follow in her mum's footsteps and fall in love with Ballet. 

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Masha's dance training includes professional Ballet & Contemporary training which began at Goh Ballet Academy in Vancouver. More notably, Masha continued her training at Canada's National Ballet of Canada on a scholarship and received various awards of distinction, including the prestigious Peter Dwyer award for excellence in dance.

Upon graduating, Masha danced at the San Francisco Ballet School and Company. Throughout her career as a professional Ballet dancer, Masha danced in festivals and productions across Europe, including Germany and Amsterdam. 

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Masha is now finishing her degree at the University of British Columbia as a Kinesiologist. Additionally, she has been teaching Ballet to Vancouver youth for over 3 years. Her dedication to dance makes her a passionate instructor, and her training in Kinesiology makes her a knowledgable movement expert.

Her experience teaching children has taught her how grateful she is to be able to spread the joy of dance and see children improve their skills and express themselves fully! 

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Her own mindfulness practice along with various meditation workshops inspired her to start teaching these practices in bite-sized and digestible pieces to children in her dance classes. Masha believes we are all  better humans when we slow down, calm our nervous systems and listen to our hearts. She is currently completing a Breathwork certification (Breathwave) which focuses on the mind-body connection and how to calm the nervous system through conscious connected breathing.

Instructor

Paige McConell

Paige McConnell began dancing at 8 years old in Guelph Ontario, at the Guelph Academy of Dance. She spent 11 years there training in Ballet, Jazz, Contemporary, Tap and Musical Theatre, completing her ballet examinations up to the Intermediate RAD level. 

She then spent a year teaching at and performing with One Movement Dance Centre in Cambridge, Ontario. Her passion for teaching young movers has been a guiding force for many years now! Once she moved to Vancouver, she began pursuing her BFA in Contemporary Dance at Simon Fraser University. 

She has had the great opportunity to work with artists such as Josh Beamish, Chick Snipper, Anya Saugstad, Alvin Erasga Tolentino and Vanessa Goodman since moving to the west coast of Canada. 

Over the last year, Paige has obtained her 200 hour Yoga Teacher Training Certification, as well as her 30 hour Children’s Yoga Teacher Certification. Her personal yoga, movement, and meditation practises are fundamental to her life and she is so excited to start teaching the baby butterflies, friendly frogs, and little lions of mind moves this fall!