Barbara Glazar

Barbara Glazar was born in Rijeka, Croatia. She received her dance and academic training at The National Ballet School in Toronto and John Cranko Schule in Stuttgart, Germany. With John Cranko she toured throughout Germany and Japan, performing classical repertoire such as La Bayadere and Sleeping Beauty. She also performed contemporary ballets from William Forsythe and a solo variation created for her by Renato Zanella for Prix de Lausanne Ballet competition.
In Stuttgart, she apprenticed with The Stuttgart Ballet before joining Baden State Ballet Theatre. Here, she performed in pieces such as Isadora, Pinnochio and the musical, The Bird Cage. She joined Ritual Dance in Frankfurt where she fused her ballet background with modern, African and jazz techniques.

Returning to Canada, she worked with numerous independent dance companies and choreographers including, Debrah Brown, choreographer of Cirque de Soliel. After a performance with The Chimera Project in Toronto, she was asked teach ballet and contemporary at MacMaster University.
She was invited to dance with Ballet British Columbia in Vancouver where she danced in Orpheus and Faerie Queen.
Presently, she is a dance educator and teaches at Harbour Dance Centre, Perform Art Studios and Dance Horizons at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver. She was also a mentor to third year Main Dance students.
Recently, she completed a dance film, Wearing The Unknown, for Bravo!FACT. To further pursue creating works for film, art and performance Barbara co-founded BLUR with Ryan James, an architectural designer and an art director.

Class Description

Barbara teaches a contemporary dance class inspired by the dance imagery of Eric Franklin and the spirit of Alvin Ailey, and Margie Gillis. Drawing from Lester Horton technique, yoga, Pilates, gyro kinesis and ballet technique, the class begins with a movement series designed to centre the body, stimulate awareness, increase body temperature, and lubricate the joints.
Moving to the barre, the exercises focus on dynamic alignment that encourages working from the core with breath, incorporating a connected upper body while extending through the limbs and developing full body awareness.
The attention from the barre is expanded to the centre work where combinations emphasize quality and presence while dancing three dimensionally through space. A moving adagio stretches balance and transfers weight, swings coordinate upper and lower body, a turning sequence arches with spirals and bends, jumping in the centre plays with rhythm and tempo, an expressive grand allegro leaps and turns across the floor, and a final cool down releases breath and the body.