Julie qualified as Teacher with the Royal Academy of Dance in the spring of 2009. It was during 2009 that Julie opened The Elite Academy of Dance. The school has gone from strength to strength from its humble beginings at Inverclyde Academy so much so that Julie opened her private Studio in Greenock in 2010
Her pupils follow the RAD syllabus and normally sit exams once a year.
Results have always been above National Averages and this has allowed Julie to place over 10 of her students with Scottish Ballet Associate Programme, The Dance School of Scotland and Ballet West.
To take students to an even more intense standard of Classical Ballet and Performance she started Elite Academy’s Associate Programme, Alba Ballet in 2012.
All Julies pupils also take part in end of year Elite Academy Summer Show, over two evenings.
The school has also performed at the Tall Ships 2011 in Greenock and Julie has prepared students to perform at St Andrews Nights, Burns Nights and Fundraising events over the past few years .
At the age of 12, Julie spent the school summer holidays with the Russian Ballet, training and performing in Edinburgh.
Four years later aged 16, Julie left home and studied at Ballet West for 4 years,taking part in productions such as Romeo & Juliet, Coppelia and The Nutcracker. While at Ballet West Julie started teaching as a first year student at Ballet Wests outreach programme.it wasn’t until 2007 she decided to start her Royal Academy teacher training.
She also performed with the Black Eyed Peas and has appeared in Vanity Fair.
As well as teaching at Alba and Elite Julie also taught Classical Ballet at UK Theatre School from 2011- 2013.
Julie launched Silver Swans- Classical Ballet for pensioners in Oct 2013, following successful trials by the RAD in Glasgow. Silver Swans now meet every Tuesday and Thursday morning.
The Scottish Ladies Gymnastic Squad for the Commonwealth Games in 2014 worked with Julie for nearly 18 months prior to the games.
She also was a guest teacher with the BBC during the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow.
In November 2014, Julie produced Alba Ballets and her first major production of The Nutcracker. This was Alba Ballets first two year training programme and was performed over two nights to an audience of 800 plus people.