Russian-born Inessa Plekhanova graduated from The State Vaganova Ballet Academy in St. Petersburg, Russia receiving a Master of Fine Arts in Performance and a Master of Arts in Dance Education. She was a soloist and principal dancer with Estonian National Ballet for three years and for seven years with Colorado Ballet (Denver, CO). She has performed principal and solo roles in The Nutcracker, Don Quixote, Swan Lake, La Sylphide, Raymonda, Giselle, La Bayadere, Theme and Variations, Serenade, Apollo, Concerto Barocco, Sleeping Beauty, Rubies, Configurations, and many others. Ms. Plekhanova taught at the Vaganova Ballet Academy for two years on an assistantship, the College of Dance and Choreography in Tallinn (the official school of Estonian National Ballet) for three years, and at the Academy of Colorado Ballet from 1991-2005. Ms. Plekhanova was invited as a guest teacher and choreographer to numerous dance festivals, summer programs and teacher’s seminars throughout the former Soviet Union, United States, Yugoslavia, and Japan. From 1999-2005 Ms. Plekhanova was an Artistic Director of The Academy of Colorado Ballet and Artistic Director of Colorado Ballet II where she has staged and coached La Bayadere, Paquita, Chopiniana, Don Quixote, and other works from classical ballet repertoire. Inessa Plekhanova has won the “Outstanding Teacher Award” from the Youth America Grand Prix International Ballet Competition in 2001, 2002, and 2003. In May of 2005 Ms. Plekhanova accepted assistant professorship in the Radford University’s Department of Dance as Director of the Ballet Program and Artistic Director of RU Ballet Theatre. Under the direction of Inessa Plekhanova, RU Ballet Theatre presented an Evening of Ballet for which she staged “The Kingdom of the Shades” from La Bayadere, as well as other excerpts from classical and contemporary ballet repertoire. Last December Ms. Plekhanova choreographed and produced the new full-length Nutcracker for RU Ballet Theatre. In February of 2006, Ms. Plekhanova established the Radford University Ballet Youth program known as RUBY to provide serious high-quality ballet training and performance opportunities to aspiring young dancers in the region. This year the RUBY will offer its first International Summer Intensive Program.