Hailan Shanbhag, Guest Instructor
Hailan began her ballet education at Champaign Ballet Academy in 2002, and subsequently started performing with Champaign Urbana Ballet in 2009. While with CU Ballet she performed as: Rose Queen in The Nutcracker, Fairy Godmother in Cinderella, Princess Florine in Sleeping Beauty and Nikiya in La Bayadère. Hailan began assisting with teaching at CBA in 2015 and teaching in 2016. In the summer of 2016, she directed CU Ballet’s third annual Student Production. She danced and worked with CU Ballet and CBA until graduating from high school in 2017. Hailan graduated from the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign with a Bachelor’s degree in Computer Engineering in May of 2021. In the summer of 2021, she rejoined CBA’s teaching staff and acted as Assistant to the Artistic Director for the 2021-2022 season. Currently, she is a graduate student at UIUC performing research in wireless communications and sensing.