YeuJung Lee
Ballet Teacher

YeuJung Lee was born in Seoul, Korea on July 10, 1974. Her father's work as a banker took the family overseas to Libya for four years when she was young. When they returned to Korea, her mother, noticing YeuJung's artistic talent, encouraged her to begin ballet training when she was ten years old. Her outstanding musicality, flexibility and concentration allowed her to develop quickly into a young artist displaying great artistic potentiality. Two years later, she entered Sun Hwa Arts School as a ballet major, and her intensive ballet training began.
After her graduation from Sun Hwa Arts Middle School in 1989, the Director of the Royal Ballet School in London chose her to study at the Royal Ballet School. After studying for one year in London, she was chosen as a full scholarship student in the inaugural class of the Kirov Academy of Ballet of Washington, DC (at the time known as Universal Ballet Academy). At the Academy, she distinguished herself as an artist of special ability. Unfortunately, when she was eighteen years old, she was injured in an automobile accident that made her unable to pursue a career as a professional dance. After a period of soul-searching, she decided to remain in the field of professional dance, and turned the focus of her study from performance to choreography and pedagogy.
In 1998, after graduating from Montgomery College with an Associates Degree in Dance, she returned to her native Korea and began working as a choreographer, repetiteur and rehearsal director at the Universal Ballet Academy of Seoul. In 2000, she was selected as a recipient of the Samsung MAMPIST Award for Artistic Excellence in Dance, and she used the award scholarship to study at the world renowned Vaganova Academy of Ballet in St. Petersburg, Russia, receiving advanced training in the Vaganova Method of Ballet. After finishing her course at the Vaganova Academy, she enrolled in the department of dance at the University of Maryland, to further her education in movement theory, choreography, and dance aesthetics, and to expand her network of international arts colleagues. She graduated from the University of Maryland in 2003 with a BA in Dance.
Returning to Korea, she was offered the position of Dance Instructor at the Sun Hwa Arts Middle and High School, the foremost art school in Korea emphasizing the Vaganova method of ballet. Each year during her time as a member of the artistic staff at the Sun Hwa Arts School, one or more of YeuJung's students have won medals at international and domestic ballet competitions, including the Prix de Lausanne, New York International Ballet Competition, Shanghai International Competition, and the Korean Ballet Association National Ballet Competition. She also rehearsed, coached and staged repertory for Sun Hwa ballet festivals, including Swan Lake, Sleeping Beauty, Giselle, La Bayadere, Don Quixote and various modern works. She continues to invest in developing her skills as a choreographer and dance artist. In 2006 she married a former ballet dancer turned arts administrator and they have one son.