Adult Ballet Retreat 2026

Lori Boggan, founder of Ballet Gothenburg, teaches with a love and deep respect for the art. She took a break from dance in her 20s to become a registered nurse, only dancing occasionally between night shifts. Twenty years later, she came back to ballet through teaching. Her passion for nursing influences her work as a teacher in promoting wellness and health through the joy of movement.

Born and raised in the U.S., Lori has had the privilege to study with amazing master teachers throughout the U.S. including Ilya Gaft (Kirov Ballet), Michael Cusumano (Joffrey Ballet), Lynne Charles (4Pointe), and Dena Abergel (School of American Ballet). She trained pre-professionally with the Ailey School, New York City, in American Ballet Theatre’s National Training Curriculum and in Inspire, The Royal Ballet School in London’s teacher training.

She understands the joy, uncertainty, and challenges of beginning ballet as an adult as her first ballet class was at the age of 14 in an adult ballet class. It is out of her own journey, her passion for teaching adult beginners began. She loves the passion and intention that her adult ballet students show up with in each and every class. Her mission is seeing them develop and take huge leaps in their ballet journey. Follow her blog here as she asks the professionals the burning questions we all as adult dancers want answered. She also has nearly fourteen years of experience as a registered yoga teacher.

Dena Abergel began taking ballet classes at the age of six with Dorit Koppel at Progressive Dance Studio in Englewood, New Jersey. When she was twelve, she enrolled as a full-time student at the School of American Ballet, where she continued her training until she joined New York City Ballet at the age of eighteen.

During her eighteen years as a member of New York City Ballet, Ms. Abergel performed in numerous works by George Balanchine and Jerome Robbins. She originated roles in Robbins’s West Side Story Suite; in Peter Martins’s Chichester Psalms, Harmonielehre, Symphonic Dances, The Sleeping Beauty, Swan Lake and Romeo + Juliet; and in Christopher Wheeldon’s Carnival of the Animals, Variations Serieuses, and An American in Paris.

Ms. Abergel performed featured and soloist roles in a number of works by George Balanchine, including The Nutcracker®, Firebird, Coppélia, Swan Lake, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and Brahms-Schoenberg Quartet.

Upon retiring from performing in 2009, Ms. Abergel joined SAB’s faculty and became NYCB’s Assistant Children’s Repertory Director. She was named Children’s Repertory Director at New York City Ballet in 2012. In her position with the Company, Ms. Abergel casts and rehearses children from SAB in all NYCB productions featuring roles for children, including George Balanchine’s The Nutcracker®, The Sleeping Beauty, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Swan Lake and Coppélia.

Elizabeth Walker is an alumni of School of American Ballet and former ballerina with New York City Ballet. She spent 19 years with the New York City Ballet, during which time she performed multiple principal roles by George Balanchine and Peter Martins, and was a featured dancer/demonstrator in the video series “Balanchine Essays”, a visual catalogue of Balanchine’s teaching points and style. She has spent six years on faculty at the School of American Ballet and is currently on faculty at Ballet Academy East.

Ask la Cour Rasmussen was born in Copenhagen, Denmark, and began his dance training at the age of nine at the Royal Danish Ballet School, where he studied with Niels Balle, Adam Lüders, and Colleen Neary. He joined the Royal Danish Ballet as an apprentice in 1998 and became a member of the corps de ballet in 2000. Mr. la Cour joined New York City Ballet as a member of the corps de ballet in the fall of 2002, was promoted to the rank of soloist in May 2005, and became a principal in February 2013.

While at the Royal Danish Ballet, Mr. la Cour performed featured roles in August Bournonville’s Napoli (Pas de Six), A Folk Tale (Pas De Sept) and The Conservatoire (4 Men), John Cranko’s Onegin (Lensky), Peter Martins’ Hallelujah Junction and Swan Lake (Hungarian), John Neumeier’s Romeo and Juliet (Monk) and The Odyssey (Telemachos), Alexei Ratmansky’s The Nutcracker (Spanish), and Lila York’s Concerto in Pieces (Pas de Trois) just to mention a few.

Mr. la Cour Rasmussen has also worked with choreographers outside of his work for instance David Fernandez who made Icarus APR which was created for the 2009 Lincoln Center Dance on Camera Film Festival in New York.