Isabella McGuire Mayes, Founder of Ballet With Isabella, on Finding Her Purpose
When Isabella McGuire Mayes, founder of the popular online training platform Ballet With Isabella, entered Russia’s Vaganova Academy at age 15, she was the first British girl to attend the school. Her experience, which she frequently recounts in fascinating detail on her YouTube channel, was both exhilarating and intense. During her four years there, she studied under Maria Gribinova and Irina Sitnikova, and as a foreigner she worked exceedingly hard to catch up to her classmates, practicing on her own after hours. Eventually she rose to the top of her class and went on to dance with two Russian companies—the Mikhailovsky Ballet and later Eifman Ballet. But injuries, and then disillusionment, interrupted her trajectory, and she eventually returned home to London.
Feeling lost, McGuire Mayes slowly turned to coaching and teaching—and found a new purpose. When the pandemic closed studios worldwide, she started teaching virtually. In the four years since, she’s developed a thriving business that includes BWI’s subscription-based online platform, a podcast (A Dancer’s Mindset), and her YouTube channel—where she hosts interviews and unlocks the mystery of life at the Vaganova Academy. She’s also expanded into hosting in-person intensives—the most recent of which, she says, sold out in 10 minutes.
In this exclusive interview, edited for length, McGuire Mayes talks to Pointe about her training and career in Russia, her reasons for leaving company life, and how success in ballet can take many forms.
Where did you train before heading to Russia?
I went to the Royal Ballet School, but I studied with a Russian coach, Zina Mamedova, on the weekends. She had gone to the Vaganova Academy and was a huge influence during my early years. She showed me videos on YouTube of the Vaganova Academy, and I immediately fell in love with everything about it.
Did training in two different systems ever create a conflict with your teachers?
I was only training with my Russian teacher once a week. She’s so tough—we’d do an hour and a half on the barre, just doing tendus and endless adage. I wouldn’t say there was a conflict, but as I trained at the Royal Ballet School more and more, Zina was not super-happy with how I was looking. That was the first time I was aware that I was trying to do two different things at once.
How did you get into the Vaganova Academy?
When I was 13, I went to Russia to visit the Vaganova Academy and was introduced to another reputable ballet master, Gennady Seliutsky, who’s sadly passed away. He became a huge influence on me, a father figure. I had some coaching sessions with him, and then he and Zina helped make an audition happen. I actually auditioned twice. The first time, when I was 13, they said, “We like you, but you’re a little young.” I auditioned again at 15 and thought, This is the moment—I have to get in. So I slightly begged. I remember they said, “Foreigners can’t handle it here.” I said, “No, I can do it! Let me in.” And they did!
What was it like?
It was a huge adjustment. I didn’t know any Russian other than “My name is Isabella,” “Hello,” “Goodbye,” that sort of thing. I cried the whole way there, because I’m very close with my mum and I hadn’t been successful boarding at the Royal Ballet School, so how was I going to cope with boarding in Russia? But I was able to compartmentalize—the daily routine was far more intense than I’d ever experienced, so I had no time to worry or overthink situations. The exercises were so challenging—my extensions were much lower than my classmates’, everyone was standing flat turned-out, the studio floors were sloped, they’re shouting at me in Russian. It took me several months to settle into the whole routine.
The teachers are very blunt and direct, but they’re also extremely passionate about what they do—there’s a difference between speaking loudly and passionately and being mean. I respected them so much and was so grateful for the attention.
How did you come to join the Mikhailovsky Ballet after graduating?
The Mikhailovsky had been interested in me since my second year, because I had performed with them in their corps de ballet. They had offered me a place then, but I said I must finish school.
Then I had a bad injury my last year at the Vaganova Academy, a stress fracture in my back. That sort of injury would take you out for the whole year. But I worked really hard to rehabilitate as fast as possible. And I managed it—any graduation exam video of me you might see online is afterwards, so you would never know that I’d been through hell a few months prior to that.
Nacho Duato took over as director of the Mikhailovsky the year before, in 2011. I was slightly worried, because it was going to become a more neoclassical company, and that wasn’t exactly what my intentions were. However, I also thought it would help me grow and learn new skills. And Nacho seemed to like me and wanted to work with me a lot. I did a few soloist roles with him, like Lilac Fairy.
How long were you there?
I was there a couple of years and then, unfortunately, I developed a hip problem and eventually had to have surgery. It was around this time, especially after dealing with injuries, that I thought about going somewhere else with better medical support. Nacho was leaving the company to go to Staatsballett Berlin. I thought, Maybe I’ll follow him there—I’ll rehab back in London and get back in touch.
Once home I really took my time and started unlocking a huge amount, in terms of understanding how my hips work and how to turn out properly, doing floor barre, Gyrotonics. Because at 15 to 16 years old I went from a very English school, where you’re told to go as far as your turnout safely allows, to Russia, where you must stand completely flat turned-out. This isn’t to say that Russian technique is bad for you—if I had started training there when I was 9, learning how to turn out slowly, I don’t think I’d have these issues. But there were holes in my technique.
Then, because I’d been off a year, I had to reaudition for Nacho in Berlin. Around that time, Eifman Ballet got in touch with me—I’m quite tall, and they’re a tall company—and offered me a soloist contract. I decided to accept it, because Nacho could only offer me corps.
What was that experience like?
The atmosphere wasn’t great. Because Eifman is a very small company, the corps de ballet rehearsed during the day, and the soloists rehearsed at night or late in the afternoon. So I would do class in the morning, lose momentum during the day, and then go back in and rehearse from 7 to 10 pm. As a soloist, I would be rehearsing most of the time alone, or with just my partner. I found that schedule extremely isolating and very lonely.
I’d put so much weight on the goal I was striving towards—getting into a company—that when it became clear that I had probably chosen the wrong place, it sapped my joy of it. I became depressed, because I had spent a long time rehabbing and working to get back. I started losing the desire to even be in a company. I thought about going back to the Mikhailovsky, but my gut was telling me I needed to do something else. I came back to the UK to figure things out—I wanted to be my own boss, but I didn’t know what that looked like.
Once you were back in London, how did you get into teaching?
I was going to classes at Pineapple Dance Studios, Danceworks. People would ask, “Who are you? Where did you train?” Then students started asking if I coached. I started very casually, a lesson here and there. And I just fell in love with helping people. I started covering teachers’ classes, then managed to get my own slot at Danceworks, then started getting more. My group classes were filled with recreational adults, mostly.
The decision to give 100 percent to teaching didn’t come quickly for me, because it’s very hard to say “I’m done.” But I realized I couldn’t do these two very demanding things—dance and teach—and get to where I want to go by giving half my time to both of them. COVID was the big turning point. I started teaching on Zoom and could suddenly reach people all over the world. My classes were super-popular—some days I was teaching from 7 am to 7 pm. I thought, I must be good at this. And I enjoyed it!
Things really started to change—I started recording my classes, launched the BWI website, and started sharing videos of little corrections. I realized this is helping a lot of people. Due to my injuries, and also all of my self-practice time at the Vaganova Academy, I think very anatomically—I visualize the skeleton and the muscles and the physics of the movement. I think I relay it in a way that makes sense for people.
BWI started growing rapidly from there. I never thought I’d be traveling the world, teaching, or putting on workshops. I’m hoping to bring the intensives to the U.S. in the future!
Why do you think you have such a connection with dancers, especially recreational dancers?
Throughout my training and professional career, I’d sometimes been made to feel negatively by teachers or coaches. When you’re young and a bit naive, you think, Oh, this is just part of it. But one thing that I try to do—whether the dancers are recreational, pro, student—is simply treat them like human beings, because who knows what they’re dealing with in their personal lives, or what their confidence level is. It’s really important to look someone in the eye and treat them with kindness. Obviously, I work them hard in the class, but working hard and having fun doesn’t need to be mutually exclusive.
I want to not only help people physically but build them up mentally. Because when you feel mentally strong, you feel more capable and trust yourself to go for it. Mistakes don’t seem as huge because you’re in a safe environment.
How are you getting all of this—the podcast, the website, YouTube channel, and workshops—accomplished? Do you have help?
I barely have time off. Learning to build and navigate a business, but also keep myself healthy, has been tough. But I’m very organized. I stay three months ahead of myself, so I’m not filming every week. I don’t have too much of a social life at the moment, but I’m okay with it because I know that these beginning years are so critical and I have to give it everything. And one day I’ll have a whole team. But I don’t answer to anybody, and that’s really a gift.
