Eglė Špokaitė

In 2016 Spokaite relocated to San Diego, CA, where she established the Ballet Institute of San Diego, a boutique school dedicated to quality ballet instruction. Her students have competed and placed in national and international competitions.

Other creative collaborators and mentors include: L.Shulga, Jonas Katakinas. She performed classical roles with leading Russian ballet educators Ninel Kurgapkina and Kseniya Ter-Stepanova. Eglė collaborated with the most prominent of art figures: Mstislav Rostropovich, Maya Pliseckaya, Gidon Kremer, Eimuntas Nekrosius. She performed under the direction of choreographers Giorgi Aleksidze, Krzysztof Pastor, Boris Eifman, Alexei Ratmansky, Gerald Arpino, Alla Sigalova, E.Vicichovska, K.Simonov. As a visiting artist created major roles in Georgian National Opera, Latvian National Opera, Finish National Opera, Karellian Music Theater. She was a member of the company until 2011.

In 2011 Egle Spokaite left the stage of Lithuanian National Opera and Ballet Theater. March 2015 marked her debut as a choreographer: ballet "The Blue Danube" premiered at Kaunas National Musical Theater, choreographed and libretto edited by Egle.

In 2008 Egle co-founded Egle Spokaite Ballet School (2008-2018), the largest private ballet school in the Baltic region with an enrollment of more than 700 students. In 2015, she co-founded the international Vilnius Youth Ballet Competition, an event dedicated to discovering up-and-coming talents from around Europe. By 2017, the competition drew over 200 soloists, ranging in ages 6 to 12 and coming from number of European countries. (See the Vilnius Youth Ballet Competition on YouTube.)

As Desdemona in Shekspire trilogy's Otello directed by the revered Lithuanian Director Eimuntas Nekrosius. Egle traveled the world for over a decade after the world premiere of the performance took place at the Venice Biennale 2001. La Biennale di Venezia was one of the co-producers of this play.

Her professional ballet career began in 1989 at the Lithuanian National Opera and Ballet Theatre, where she collaborated with internationally renowned ballet masters, educators and choreographers. Some notable collaborations include "Romeo & Juliet" with Mstislav Rostropovich in which the Russian conductor called Špokaitė's Juliet his favorite interpretation of the role. She was also mentored by Maya Plisetskaya, a Soviet dancer and choreographer who collaborated with Špokaitė on a variety of projects and performances.

Eglė Špokaitė (born 1971 in Vilnius) is a Lithuanian ballet dancer, most notably a Principal Ballerina for the Lithuanian National Opera and Ballet Theatre (1989–2011) and the only ballet dancer on the List of Famous Lithuanians. She co-founded the Egle Špokaitė Ballet School in Vilnius, Lithuania (2008), where she also served as artistic director. In the United States, she founded the Ballet Institute of San Diego dance school (2016). Špokaitė is also a choreographer, actress, and public speaker. She's the winner of the Lithuanian National Prize, as well as numerous other awards and honors. She lives and works between San Diego, CA and Vilnius.

Eglė Špokaitė was born in 1971 in Vilnius. After graduating from Vilnius School of Ballet in 1989, she became the soloist for the Lithuanian National Opera and Ballet Theatre performing roles including Giselle in "Giselle," Juliet in "Romeo & Juliet," and Kitri in "Don Quixote." Between 1994 and 1996 Špokaitė participated and won four international ballet competitions.