Makaila Wallace

Makaila Wallace started her dance training at Boulder Ballet and Colorado Ballet before leaving home to study at Canada’s Royal Winnipeg Ballet (RWB). She also attended Bolshoi Ballet summer programs on full scholarship, and graduated with distinction. Makaila danced with the RWB company as an apprentice before moving to Stockholm, Sweden to join the Royal Swedish Ballet. There she had the opportunity to perform roles such as Myrtha from Giselle (staged and casted by Natalia Makarova).

Makaila then returned to Canada and joined Ballet BC in Vancouver where she danced principal roles for over a decade. Dancing nationally and internationally her personal performance highlights have included works by choreographers Jorma Elo, Johan Ingar, Crystal Pite, Jiri Kylian, Twyla Tharp, Lar Lubovitch, Aszure Barton, John Alleyne, Serge Bennathan, Emily Molnar, Margie Gillis and Medhi Walerski among others.

Once departing from Ballet BC as a full-time dancer, she joined their artistic staff as a rehearsal director. Makaila has also acted as an assistant to Finnish choreographer Jorma Elo on a number of projects. These include setting his work First Flash on Ballet BC, coaching his pieces at the 2018 and 2024 Prix de Lausanne, and helping to stage his new work Trigger, Touch, Fade on Pennsylvania Ballet in 2019. She also joined him as an assistant for his full-length production of Alice in Wonderland set on the Finnish National Ballet (in both 2016 and 2019).

In 2018 Makaila began the Gaga teacher training program in Tel Aviv, Israel and made a guest appearance with Ballet BC as Lady Capulet in Medhi Walerski’s Romeo and Juliet. In 2022/23, Makaila danced alongside Robert Sher-Machherndl in his world premiere of Wald and joined him in 2023 to dance Vienna Vienna. During the 2022/23 season, Makaila was invited to be ballet master with the Finnish National Ballet in Helsinki, Finland under the direction of Javier Torres, helping with productions by some of the world’s leading choreographers.