Ms. Robbins is the former founder/director of VJPD Ballet School in Vancouver, BC, one of Western Canada’s most formidable classical ballet academies from 2005-2015. Since 2015, she has assumed tenure as artistic director of Port Angeles City Ballet, and principal of The Sylvia Joyce Wanner School, where she brought her renowned training syllabus from Vancouver to WA state. After performing with the Goh Ballet and Ballet British Columbia from 2000-2005, Ms. Robbins left the stage to pursue a career in focused pedagogy. From 2004-2009, Ms. Robbins teaching & staging background was shaped by the long-term mentorships of Sadler Wells/Royal Ballet artist Glenn Gilmour, Shanghai Ballet School director Chen Jian Nian, and CPYB founder Marcia Dale-Weary. After attending four consecutive years of teacher training at the Central Pennsylvania Youth Ballet, developing an expert understanding of Marcia Dale Weary’s renowned teaching methods, Ms. Robbins travelled to Paris, France, and London, England from 2009-2011 to study the training systems of the Paris Opera and Royal Ballet School. A synergy of these complimentary methods became the base for her renowned training curriculum at VJPD Ballet, which focused on maximizing early-age development & versatility, to ensure a higher standard of pedigree and international viability for graduates. In 2013, Ms. Robbins was named Outstanding Teacher at YAGP world finals in NYC at Lincoln Center, and gifted certification training by YAGP for ABT’s Training Curriculum for Primary to Level 7. Ms. Robbins’ extensive knowledge on building full-spectrum syllabi for ages 3-18 has been widely recognized in both Canada and the U.S., with Ms. Robbins winning consecutive awards for coaching & school direction at YAGP, and graduates of her programs becoming medalists at Jackson IBC, ADC-IBC and Prix de Lausanne. In 2015 & 2016, Ms. Robbins’ was a keynote speaker at two ballet conferences in Tokyo and Osaka, Japan, presenting one week of seminars to ballet teachers on how to structure their classes and shape technique in students with different facilities. She is now on staff as a regular summer guest faculty at CPYB, and hosts the annual KMC-SI in Seattle, WA, an annual summer intensive for PNW students seeking to diversify their training with European training syllabi and repertoire.
