Elizabeth Ryznar

Elizabeth was born in Vancouver, Canada and graduated from Goh Ballet Academy in 2018. That same year, she joined State Opera Stara Zagora’s ballet troupe in Bulgaria, where she danced as a demi-soloist for a total of four seasons, until 2022. She has performed on stages around Europe, Asia, North America, and Central America, including Bulgaria’s National Palace of Culture in Sofia, the Opera House in Varna, numerous outdoor Ancient Forums around Bulgaria, National Theatres in both Nicaragua and Honduras, Ted Shawn Theatre at Jacob’s Pillow, and Queen Elizabeth Theatre in Vancouver.

Her performance repertoire includes, but is not limited to, Entré in “Don Quixote”
arranged by Arshak Ghalumyan, the four Fräuleins in Andrei Bossov’s “Sleeping Beauty”, Big Swans in “Swan Lake”, soloist in Alessandra Scalambrino’s “Lotus”, and corps de ballet in Constantin Urlowski’s “The Nutcracker”, “Chopiniana”, “Getto” choreographed by Mario Piazza, Vasily Medvedev’s original “Pilate’s Dream”, as well as others.

Elizabeth has had the privilege to work alongside world-renowned professional dancers and choreographers including Iana Salenko, Paloma Herrera, Crystal Costa, Anna-Marie Holmes, Maina Gielgud, Chan Hon Goh, Venus Villa, Marian Walter, Annabelle Lopez Ochoa, Arshak Ghalumyan, Denys Cherevichko, Mikhail Kaniskin, Andrei Bossov, Frances Chung, Elizabeth Murphy, and Sylvia Tomova.

During her training years, Elizabeth successfully completed all RAD Vocational
Examinations with Distinction, and even performed the Solo Seal exam. She was a
finalist in multiple international competitions including Global Dance Challenge and Vienna International Ballet Experience in 2017. That same year, Elizabeth received a scholarship to the seven-week-long artÉmotion Choreographic Workshop and Ballet West Summer Intensive, where she had the privilege to be closely coached by Ballet West’s Adam Sklute as well as Ballet West’s former Principal Dancers, Allison DeBona and Rex Tilton. Just before her professional career began in 2018, Elizabeth received a full scholarship to The School at Jacob’s Pillow 2018 Ballet Program and received The School at Jacob’s Pillow Professional Advancement Award in Dance.

For the past two summers, Elizabeth travelled to Nicaragua to visit her fiancé and his family, where she guest taught at Attitude Danza Studio, a leading dance school in Managua, Nicaragua. She danced in several local performances in Managua and was also invited along with her fiancé to perform in The National Ballet School of Honduras’ “Don Quixote”, where she danced the role of Kitri’s Friends at Honduras’ national theatre.

Elizabeth took a year off of performing in the 2022/2023 season to focus on teaching and to prepare for her marriage with Ervin Vallecillo. Together they will continue making their dream come to life; to dance together in the same company, and in the future, have a beautiful family while teaching ballet to young and determined dancers who aspire to dance professionally. This coming 2023/2024 season, Elizabeth and Ervin will be dancing together in Virginia National Ballet. Aside from dance, Elizabeth is also a registered Royal Conservatory of Music piano teacher and received Honours with Distinction on her Royal Conservatory of Music
Grade 10 Examination. She is also a certified teacher in Progressing Ballet Technique.