Gloria was a pupil of Gabriel Popescu, ballet master at La Scala in Milan. She trained vocationally, with Rodica Simion, at John Cranko School in Stuttgart. As a young dancer, she won Italy’s Danza Europa Competition, and she toured with Carla Fracci in Il Vespro Siciliano. After graduating, she danced professionally for eighteen years, as soloist and principal, with Semperoper Ballet Dresden, Oper Leipzig Ballet, and English National Ballet, performing a wide range of classical and romantic roles, along with a wealth of neoclassical pieces, dancing in major theatres around world. In recognition of her career, she has been honoured Premio Rugantino and Premio Rondini in Italy, and she was invited, as the first guest artist from outside Russia, to the prestigious Nureyev Festival in Kazan, where her performance of Sugar Plum in The Nutcracker was awarded the festival Gold Medal.
On her retirement from dancing, she joined the Artistic Faculty at Elmhurst, having completed the RAD PDTD. She teaches classical ballet, and she has experience with all age groups through the school. Her focus is her students’ development of technical purity and performance quality. She also creates choreography each year for the various school shows. She returns to Italy regularly as an ambassador for Elmhurst, guest teaching and encouraging talented young dancers to join the school. Her students have been winners in the Genée and Cecchetti competitions, and the YAGP, and many now dance professionally in top classical companies.
Gloria’s repertoire as a dancer included ballets by:
Bournonville, Adam, Saint-Léon, Petipa, Ivanov, Fokine,
Vainonen, Gsovsky, Cranko, Lazzini, Nureyev, Vassiliev, Béjart,
Balanchine, MacMillian, Tetley, Schilling, Neumeier, Kylián, Scholz.
She danced:
La Fille Mal Gardée (Lise), Paganini (La Musa), Onegin (Olga), Paquita (Paquita),
Gaîté Parisienne (Flower Girl), La Sylphide (The Sylph), Les Sylphides (Mazurka),
Don Quixote (Kitri), Coppélia (Swanhilda), Romeo & Juliet (Juliet; Juliet’s Friends),
Giselle (Giselle; Peasant Pas de Deux), Napoli (Teresina), Raymonda (Raymonda),
Cinderella (Cinderella; Autumn Fairy), La Bayadère (Gamzatti; Shades Pas de Trois),
Sleeping Beauty (Aurora; Princess Florine; Songbird; Pas de Quatre),
Swan Lake (Odette-Odile; Cygnets; Neapolitan Dance; Pas de Quatre),
The Nutcracker (Clara; Sugar Plum Fairy; Spanish Pas de Deux; Mirlitons),
Grand Pas Classique, Diane & Acteon, Flames of Paris, Carnaval,
Flower Festival in Genzano, Le Corsaire, Esmeralda, Talisman, Harlequinade,
Apollo, Jeu de Cartes, The Rite of Spring, Volontaries, Elective Affinities,
Walpurgisnacht, Daphnis et Chloé, As You Like It, A Midsummer Night’s Dream,
The Creation, Seventh Symphony, Pax Questuosa, Red & Black, The Great Mass,
Bruckner Symphony, Beethoven Symphony, Schuman Symphony, Prokofiev Symphony,
Oktet, America, Rakmaninov Concerto, Bolero, Sinfonietta & Symphony in D.
Her created roles included:
Tribú, with Caterina Figaia, a performance for live national television in Italy.
Olocausto, with Julian Schilling, a performance for John Paul II at The Vatican.
Peanut Polka, with Michael Corder, in his ballet for ENB ‘Melody On The Move’.