Olga Zitluhina (Latvia) is the artistic director of the Olga Ziluhina Dance Company founded in 1996. The Company has 8 dancers, each with a different dance background. Most of the dancers are now also students at the Modern Dance Department at Latvian Academy of Culture. The Company has performed 6 projects by Olga Zitluhina. The very first production "Herring's Vocation" had its premiere at the Modern Dance Festival in Kaunas, Lithuania. The productions have been performed at several international modern dance festivals - Evolution in Tallinn, Estonia, Baltic University of Dance in Vilnius, Lithuania, New Baltic Dance in Gdansk, Poland, as well as at the festivals of modern dance in Kaunas, Lithuania and Vitebsk, Bielorussia. In 1998 the Company was invited to perform Olga Zitluhina's choreography "Spitting Whistling in the Ceiling" at the dance theatre workshop East of Eden in New York City, UA. All the choreographies have also been performed at the Daile Theatre in Riga. Recently the dancers of the Company have been involved in two big productions at Latvian National Opera and Daile Theatre and at the Latvian National Opera. On September 1, 1999 the Department of Modern Dance at the Latvian Academy of Culture was opened by personal initiative of Olga Zitluhina. For the first time in Latvia, it offers the possibility to complete a full 4-year program for professional education in modern dance. Olga Zitluhina is the headmaster and modern dance teacher at the Department.