WOLCOTT – Ballet Wolcott has appointmented Vladimir Roje as artistic director. In this role, Roje will provide artistic and educational leadership for all faculty and students, as well as teaching intermediate and advanced level ballet classes.
“Vladimir Roje is not only an internationally decorated ballet dancer, but a passionate and gifted teacher,” says Ballet Wolcott Executive Director Joshua Shack.
“It has been fifty years since June Gorton founded the original Wolcott Children’s Ballet. The torch has been carried by many, including Kennet Oberly, Brynar Mehl, Brandy Perez, Avi Waring, Steffi Thomas, Joanne Whitehill, and Gabrielle Berger, and we are over the moon to be partnering with such a unique artist and educator as Vlad as we enter the next chapter of Ballet Wolcott,” he said.
Ballet Wolcott will host a reception for Roje. Friday, July 31, at 6 p.m., at the Wolcott Town Hall. All are welcome to come get to know him and hear about his vision for the future of Ballet Wolcott. The fall-winter semester will run from August 31 to December 19, and the nonprofit studio offers generous financial aid.
Roje began his ballet training at the National School of Choreography in Sofia, Bulgaria. He received his BS and MS in Pedagogy and Choreography from the Ballet Faculty of the Bulgarian National Academy of Music and Arts. In 2020, he completed his PhD in Music and Dance Arts at the same academy in the Department of Music and Performing Arts.
He performed as a principal dancer with national companies in Bulgaria, Germany and Austria, as well as with Carolina Ballet, N.C., New Jersey Ballet Company, and Albany Berkshire Ballet. He has danced leading roles in many classical ballets, including “Swan Lake,” “The Sleeping Beauty,” “Romeo and Juliet,” “Giselle,” “La Bayadère,” “La Sylphide,” “Napoli,” “Don Quixote,” “La Fille Mal Gardée,” “Coppélia,” “Esmeralda,” “Sylvia,” “Cinderella” and “The Nutcracker.”
Roje has taught at the Ballet School of the Opera House Graz (Austria), the School of the New Jersey Ballet Company, and Stowe Dance Academy (Vermont). He has frequently served as a guest teacher at Valentina Kozlova Conservatory (N.Y.), the School of Albany Berkshire Ballet (N.Y.), Cantarella School of Dance (Mass.), Lebanon Ballet School (N.H.), the Ballet School at the Varna Opera House (Bulgaria), and several other schools in the New York City area and in Vermont. He has staged and co-choreographed a variety of full-length ballets.
