A native of Ukraine is realizing her dream of owning her own ballet academy.
Anastasia Loskutov, 28, moved to Canada when she was four years old.
“It was always a dream of my dad’s to move to Canada,” she said. “It wasn’t very nice when we lived in Ukraine, it was very poor and we didn’t do well there, so we moved here to build a better life.”
Without her family making the decision to move to Canada, Loskutov isn’t sure she would ever have discovered her passion for ballet.
“I don’t know if we would have ever been able to afford it,” she explained. “I wholeheartedly believe I wouldn’t have ever been in dance.”
Loskutov started in ballet when she was nine when she joined a dance school in Vaughan where she grew up.
“I loved the beauty of it and how challenging it is,” she said. “I like that it’s always a competition with yourself and you can make self-progression.”
While Loskutov and her fiancé, who is from Brechin, were looking for homes in Orillia, they found one at 362 Barrie Rd. that came with a built-on addition once used for a taekwondo school.
“It felt like a dream come true,” she said. “We saw that as an opportunity to purchase the home and convert the taekwondo studio into a dance studio.”
Prior to finding the home, Loskutov was considering opening her own ballet academy, but her priority was to find a home first and get settled in.
“We just got incredibly lucky that both things existed in one place,” she said.
Loskutov officially opened Orillia Ballet Academy last week. Since the new year, she and her fiancé have been working hard at installing the bars, mirrors, and everything needed to make the space professional. The goal for Loskutov now is to bring the “beauty of ballet” to Orillia.
“I want Orillia to have another place to build community,” she said. “I want people to feel at home, feel like they have a place they want to be in, and increase people’s desire to have a sense of community.”
Loskutov’s passion for ballet informs the academy's programs.
“Orillia has some great dance studios,” she said. “However, a lot of dance studios in Orillia don’t focus on ballet as much. It’s my personal forte, my niche, and what I specialize in.”
Orillia Ballet Academy is also a place where dancers can go without having to deal with the competitive aspect of the art, she explained.
“I want there to be a place where dancers can focus more on personal progress and improving technique,” she said. “It’s about personal growth, team growth, and being better than you were the day before, not the desire to be better than someone else.”
Loskutov says the academy is open to anyone over the age of five. While there is a misconception that ballet is mostly something people start at a young age, Loskutov has taught people who have started as late as 70 years old.
“When people retire or have children leave the nest, they take the time to visit the hobbies they were curious about when they were younger but didn’t have the time, money, or energy to do so,” she said. “They go into it later in life, they enjoy it, and they get to quench the thirst for something they’ve wanted to try for a while.”
For more information or to book an appointment at Orillia Ballet Academy, click here.
