Laura Pascolo McRury

Dancer, teacher, and choreographer for over 50 years, Laura started her teaching career with Thunder Bay’s renowned instructors Sylvia Horn and Betty Goodings. Laura is a certified instructor with the Canadian Dance Teachers Association, Full Membership, Stage Division; Imperial Society of Teachers of Dancing, Licentiate, Cecchetti Canada; BA Dance Educators of America; the Council of Dance Education and Training, Imperial Society of Teachers of Dancing, Theatre Faculty, United Kingdom; Module One Acrobatic Arts; Full Membership with Progressing Ballet Technique; and Member of the Professional Adjudicator’s Alliance.

Laura has been a guest instructor in Canada and the United States and was the founder and artistic director of Le Stelle Alpine Italian Dancers.  Laura has also worked with the Promyk Polish Dance Troupe, the Vesnyanka Ukrainian Dancers and the Thunder Bay Folklore Festival. 

Former students have been accepted at the National Ballet School of Canada, The Royal Winnipeg Ballet, Ryerson University, the Alberta Ballet, to name a few. Former students have gone on to professional dance careers with: British Columbia Ballet, Broadway musicals, have been National Dance Champions with Danceamerica Dance Olympus competitions, as well as title of Mr Dance Masquerade for both 2014and 2015, and also holds the honour of having the first solo student from Northwestern Ontario selected to perform at Disney World (Orlando, Florida) in the Galaxy Theatre, Magical Kingdom. Laura is proud of former students Abigail Sheppard, Principal Soloist with The Finnish National Ballet Company, Jordan Wyllie former dancer with Tokyo Disney, and Codi Gowanlock, dancer with Disney Cruise ships.

Laura has worked with all 3 school boards as a guest instructor to cover dance curriculum and set choreography at the elementary and high school level. Has won numerous Judge’s Choice and Overall Awards for choreography at many competitions, both regionally and nationally.  Has worked together with the Thunder Bay Symphony Orchestra to create dance sections to highlights of “Carnival of the Animals”, “Blue Danube” and  “Stars of the Future”.  Former student, Abigail Sheppard, was selected to star in the leading role as “Marie” (Clara) in “The Nutcracker” with The National Ballet of Canada. Laura was invited by Moscow Ballet to audition and rehearse dancers for the local full production of “Sleeping Beauty”.
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Has trained with numerous renowned instructors and choreographers including, the late Glen Gilmour & Jean Spear, as well as Shirley Tetreau, Sheila Kennedy, Nancy Kilgour, Diane Van Schoor, Kate Simmons, Richard Glasstone, Raymond Lukens, to name a few.