Established in 1961 by Madame Kira Bousloff and now under the directorship of former student and accomplished ballet dancer Emily Rooke, the Kira Bousloff Ballet School tradition of high standards in classical ballet technique and the enjoyment of dance continues today.

Centrally located in Woodlands, Perth, Western Australian, the Kira Bousloff Ballet School attracts dancers of all ages and abilities, as it has done since 1961.

Madame Kira Bousloff is regarded as a pioneer of Australian ballet for her establishment and direction of the Perth-based West Australian Ballet in 1952. Having trained in Paris and danced in Europe, America and Australia, her vision for the company was to see it perform ballet with themes and stories inspired by Australian legends, with sets designed by local artists and music composed by Australians.

Born in Monte Carlo in 1914 to Russian parents, Kira Bousloff trained in Paris taking ballet lessons from Russian émigrés. At seventeen she joined Les Ballets Russes de Monte Carlo and toured Europe and America throughout the 1930s, working with some of the most celebrated choreographers of the day. She came to the east coast of Australia in 1938 as a member of the Covent Garden Russian Ballet and remained here due to the outbreak of World War II. While on holiday in Perth she fell in love with the city, declaring that the beautiful coastline reminded her of the French Riviera.

When I came to the airport in little Perth at the end of the world, I put my feet on the ground, I looked around, and I said loudly and strongly, "This is where I'm going to live... this is my place."

In 1952, she established the West Australian Ballet – the first ballet company to be formed in Australia. Her vision for the company was to see it perform ballet with themes and stories inspired by Australian legends, with sets designed by local artists and music composed by Australians. Retiring as director in 1969, Kira Bousloff turned to her love of teaching young, aspiring dancers and opened the Kira Bousloff Ballet School.

Madame Kira Bousloff is regarded as a pioneer of Australian ballet. She was awarded the medal of the Order of Australia in 1987 for her contribution to the development of dance in Australia. In 1998 she was named a Western Australian State Living Treasure, and in 2000 she was the recipient of an Australia Dance Award for lifetime achievement.

Emily Rooke is an accomplished dancer and ballet teacher and has been the director of the Kira Bousloff Ballet School since 2008. Having trained with Madame Bousloff from the age of three and performed in Australia and Europe, Emily's vision is to continue Kira Bousloff's legacy of developing young Australian dancers and the tradition of high standards in technique and the enjoyment of dance.

Emily Rooke began dancing with the Kira Bousloff Ballet School at the age of three and over the next thirteen years trained in the Italian and Russian methods of ballet under the direction of Kira Bousloff. At the age of sixteen, with the encouragement of Madame Bousloff, she spent a year at the Graduate College of Dance with Terri Charlesworth, followed by a year in Sydney studying ballet full-time at the Tanya Pearson Classical Coaching Academy and performing as an extra in the Royal Ballet's Australian tour of Swan Lake.

Ready to expand her horizons, Emily set her sights on Europe. In Zurich, Switzerland she furthered her studies in Classical Stage Dance at the Tanz Akademie Zurich. On securing a contract with the Aalto Ballett Theater Essen, Emily moved to Germany where she performed in many classical and contemporary works by well-known international choreographers, including Swan Lake, The Red Shoes, Verklarte Nacht, As You Like It, Kiss Me Kate, Cinderella, The Nutcracker and Carmina Burana.

On her return to Perth, Emily turned her interest to teaching ballet, in much the same way her mentor Kira Bousloff had done. Emily has a Bachelor of Arts, Dance from the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts and a Diploma of Education from Edith Cowan University. She has taught the WACE Dance program at the Graduate College of Dance based at Perth Modern School and the International Baccalaureate and ATAR Dance course at Presbyterian Ladies College. Emily has also been a guest teacher and examiner at WAAPA for Classical Dance.

As director of the Kira Bousloff Ballet School, Emily hopes to continue the legacy of her late teacher and pass on her international knowledge of dance to young and aspiring dancers.