Burlington Instructors

Cosmin Marculetiu

Executive Director and Founder

At age 9, Cosmin was discovered in a nation-wide search for artistic talents and accepted into the Academy of Arts and Choreography in Cluj-Napoca, Romania. He completed the Academy with honors, received certifications in pedagogy and choreography, and went on to be a professional ballet dancer. As a professional ballet dancer, he was a soloist with the Romanian National Ballet in Cluj-Napoca, RO, the touring company Europe Ballet, and the Croatian National Ballet in Zagreb. In 1992 he became a soloist with the Landesbuhnen Sachsen in Radebeul (Dresden), Germany, where he danced for 10 years. Since 2002, Cosmin has established himself as a master ballet instructor in New England; he was on the dance faculty of the Boston Arts Academy and was an artistic associate at Jose Mateo’s Ballet Theatre. More recently, he was the ballet master of Festival Ballet in Rhode Island, where he coached, taught, and rehearsed students and company members. In August of 2010 Cosmin founded the International Ballet Academy of Norwell, a 501 (c)(3) nonprofit organization dedicated to serve the South Shore of Massachusetts, and in 2013 he co-founded New England Movement Arts.

Some of Cosmin’s notable students include: Russell Ferguson (Winner, So You Think You Can Dance),
Issac Akiba (Soloist, Boston Ballet), Alejandro Diaz (Pittsburgh Ballet) and
Ricardo Rhodes (Sarasota Ballet).

Many other students have won full scholarships at universities throughout the U.S.

Doug Kolakowski

Contemporary Instructor

Doug Kolakowski is an actor, dancer and choreographer who trained and performed in Sarasota, Florida prior to moving to Massachusetts to attend The Boston Conservatory. While in Florida, Doug worked as an apprentice with the Moving Ethos Dance Company and performed in Cinderella with the West Coast Civic Ballet. Since moving to Boston, Doug has performed in various roles with Project Movement, Luminarium Dance Company, and Speakeasy; he has also worked behind the scenes as a choreographer with Emerson College Theatre Company and Stage Door studios. While attending school, Doug instructed in Florida at Mysticals Dance Company and West Coast Civic Ballet, and at Urbanity Dance and IBAN’s International Summer Ballet Intensive in Massachusetts. Currently, Doug is a recurring performer with the American Repertory Theater. Doug has an Associates in Arts Degree from the State College of Florida, and a BFA from The Boston Conservatory.

Kseniya Melyukhina

Ballet Instructor

Kseniya Melyukhina began her training at the Berizniki Ballet School, where she studied classical ballet and Russian character dance techniques. Her repertoire includes Kitri in Don Quixote, Masha in The Nutcracker, small swans in Swan Lake, leading roles in Coppelia, Creation of the World, Carmen, and many others. As a ballet school student, Ms. Melyukhina won the regional competition Perm Divertissement, and in 2004 she competed at the international “Golden Bird” competition. Her company experience includes performing with the Theatre Evgenij-Panfilov Ballet (Perm, Russia), where she studied modern dance and was a principal dancer in the company.
Kseniya has degrees in German and English Linguistics from Perm State Technical University. She performs as a freelance artist in the New England area working with a number of companies such as North-Atlantic Ballet, Pioneer Valley Ballet, Lorraine Chapman the Company, and Ballet Rox.

Lori Nowak

Ballet Instructor

Ms. Nowak grew up in New York and trained with Andre and Leda Eglevsky. She attended summer programs at School of American Ballet and American Ballet Theater before joining Boston Ballet in 1980. Ms. Nowak loved dancing in the corps de ballet as well as her soloist and principle roles. Her major roles included Odette in Swan Lake, Giselle in Giselle, the Sylph in La Sylphide and the Sugar Plum Fairy in The Nutcracker. Her major Balanchine roles include the Sylph in Scotch Symphony, the Waltz Girl in Serenade and The Sleepwalker in La Sonnambula. She also performed many soloist and corps roles in Agon, The Four Temperaments, Rubies from the ballet Jewels, Symphony in C, and Who Cares? . Other ballets she danced as a soloist were Don Quixote, Romeo and Juliet, Coppelia, Lilac Garden [Caroline], Napoli and Pas de Quatre. Ms. Nowak retired from Boston Ballet in 1994 in order to raise her three children. She has now returned to ballet as an instructor.

Lauren Sylvia

Ballet Instructor

Lauren Sylvia studied ballet at the Festival Ballet Providence Center for Dance Education. At the age of 13, she was admitted into the Junior Company, where she performed alongside professional company dancers as part of the student ensemble in Viktor Plotnikov’s Cinderella, as well as Festival Ballet Providence’s productions of Giselle, The Nutcracker, and Swan Lake. Additionally, Lauren attended the Chautauqua Summer Intensive in NY and the CPYB Summer Intensive in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. She participated in the Youth America Grand Prix competition for three years, where she won recognition for her contemporary dance variation. After graduating from high school, she joined Festival Ballet Providence Company as a Trainee member for two years during college. She then spent a year dancing for the contemporary company Part of the Oath under Colleen Cavanaugh and Danielle Genest. Lauren continues training and performing under the guidance of Cosmin and Melinda Marculetiu, and has been a guest ballerina in previous IBA Norwell and New England Movement Arts performances.