Carol Lynn Anderson
Lynn Anderson’s teaching is influenced by Robert Spaur of the Ruth Page tradition, Zena Rommett and her Floor-Barre®, Nada Diachenko and Jennifer Vulpi of the Erick Hawkins Dance Company, Marjorie Mussman of Maggie Black’s teaching heritage, and Lila York from Paul Taylor Dance Company. Anderson brings her 30 year experience as a licensed bodywork therapist which includes concentrated study of anatomy, kinesiology, and the work of many movement therapy approaches including Body–Mind Centering, Feldenkrais, Alexander Technique, Pilates, Continuum, the work of Eric Franklin and others.
Anderson’s expertise is the ability of ‘seeing’ into another’s movement. She can discern deeper levels within their body structure and work with them from the inside out, thereby assisting the student in accomplishing their goal with more authenticity and ease.
She was the recipient of the Vera Volkova Ballet award while obtaining her BFA from Virginia Intermont College. She also completed her MFA in dance at the University of North Carolina in Greensboro.
Cynthia Beers
Cynthia (Cindy) Beers received her dance training at the Alabama School of Fine Arts, San Jose Ballet and on scholarship at the San Francisco Ballet and Oakland Ballet. She performed soloist roles with the San Jose Ballet and several regional dance companies. Her teachers have included Dimitri Romanoff of American Ballet Theatre, Milorad Miskovic of the Paris Ballet of Roland Petit, and Ramazon Bapov of the Bolshoi. She has been a guest instructor for Lees-McRae College and Appalachian State University in N.C., and she has taught for many studios throughout the Southeast for the past 15 years. Beers holds an MA with high honor from Wheaton Graduate School. In addition to teaching for NC Dance Theatre School of Dance, Beers serves as the pre-professional division administrator. Beers contributes feature articles about the Charlotte area dance scene for Examiner.com, an on-line magazine.
April Berry
Director of Education and Outreach
A former principal dancer with the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, April Berry is the director of education and outreach at North Carolina Dance Theatre. She is also on the faculty of the NC Dance Theatre School of Dance. Previously Berry has served as the Director of Education and Community Programs for BalletMet in Columbus, Ohio.
In addition to serving as the education director for BalletMet, Berry founded YouthMet!, a multi-cultural repertory dance ensemble at the BalletMet School. Berry studied at the Dance Theatre of Harlem, the School of American Ballet, and the Alvin Ailey American Dance Center. She has received Master Dance Certification in the Katherine Dunham Technique. Berry performed as a principal dancer with the Ailey Company for eleven years. She has also danced professionally with ballet companies in Italy, Switzerland and throughout the United States.
Sabrina Berry
Sabrina Berry received her early training at Davidson Fine Arts School in Augusta, Georgia, and was a member of the Augusta Ballet Company from 1985 to 1989. In 1994 she received her BFA from The Julliard School in New York City where she studied and performed the work of Martha Graham, Paul Taylor, Jiri Kylian and José Limon.
While in New York, Berry was chosen among six students to have her choreography performed in the Alice Tully Theatre at Lincoln Center and among eight seniors to show original work in the Julliard Theatre. Berry was founder and artistic director of American Dance Arts from 1998-2003. The company performed annually at the Blumenthal Performing Arts Center and also at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in 2001.
She performed the work of Molissa Fenley and Laura Dean at Duke University in 1997. She has choreographed for the NC Dance Theatre Repertory Ensemble and has been a faculty member since 1997.
Tara Winston-Conrad
Tara Winston-Conrad’s dance training began as a young girl in Washington, D.C. She studied at The Bolshoi School of Ballet in Bethesda, MD. and then later at The Bethesda School of Ballet.
Conrad continued her dance education at he University of North Carolina-Greensboro where she worked towards a major in drama and a minor in dance. After two years she transferred to Catholic University in Washington, D.C. While studying drama and teaching dance she commuted to New York where she performed in an Off Broadway Showcase. Later that year she traveled to the Middle East and abroad as a featured dancer in the 1982 USO tour. Conrad graduated with a Bachelors of Fine Arts degree from the prestigious Drama program at Catholic University and moved to New York City.
While in New York, Conrad studied and later taught at many major dance studios, including Broadway Dance Center, Steps, and David Howard. She also performed as a Zigfield Folly dancer and was featured in several VH1 music videos.
Conrad’s dance training led her to the fitness industry where she became National Spokesperson for The Body Bar and presented at many national and international fitness expos. During this time she was a member of “Team Danskin” and appeared on several talk shows as a fitness expert. Conrad has worked extensively in television, appearing in TV films, soap operas and national commercials.
Mark Diamond
Mark Diamond has choreographed and taught in Europe, Japan and the U.S. since retiring from the Hamburg Staatsoper in Germany in 1983. He has choreographed more than 20 ballets for North Carolina Dance Theatre and is program director for NC Dance Theatre 2. In the summer he serves as associate artistic director and resident choreographer for Jean-Pierre Bonnefoux at the Chautauqua Institution. Before joining Dance Theatre, Diamond was resident choreographer for the Cincinnati Opera, founded Ballet Artists Cincinnati, and received grants from the Ohio Arts Council, the New England Foundation for the Arts and others. Diamond was a principal dancer with the Milwaukee Ballet Company, danced with Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre and the Tamburitzans Slavic Folk ensemble. He trained with Edward Caton and attended Duquesne University and Point Park College (BA), where he studied music, history and dance.
Katarina Dimitrijevic
Katarina M. Dimitrijevic is a graduate of The State Ballet Academy of Belgrade, Serbia. Dimitrijevic danced with the Simionov Ensemble and instructed classical ballet at three different ballet institutions in Belgrade. She then spent several years in Italy as a ballet instructor, choreographer and dancer at ballet schools in Ragusa, Comiso, Acate and Grammichele.
In 1997, Dimitrijevic opened her own dance school, KAYA, in Belgrade. She also completed a four-year course in Ballet Pedagogy at the University of High Culture and Arts in Rome, Italy, where she improved her knowledge in the Vaganova method. She served as assistant to Professor Ivan Goliandin in the Character Dance Department. While studying in Rome, Dimitrijevic taught classical and character dances at several dance studios and also worked as a dancer.
Dimitrijevic immigrated to the United States in 2003 and obtained a position as a classical ballet instructor with the Fort Wayne Ballet Academy. She and her family moved to Charlotte in July 2005.
Heather Ferranti Ferguson
Heather Ferranti Ferguson is a native of Rochester, NY, where she studied with Luba Gulaeva at the Botsford School of Dance, and later with Timothy Draper at the Rochester City Ballet.
She has danced professionally with the Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre, Colorado Ballet, and Chautauqua Ballet Company. While at Dance Theatre Heather has danced featured roles in ballets such as Alonzo King’s MAP, Alvin Ailey’s The River, Mark Diamond’s Cyrano de Bergerac, Salvatore Aiello’s The Nutcracker and many Balanchine ballets. Ferguson spent five seasons with North Carolina Dance Theatre.
Lauren Goodman
Lauren Goodman is a native of Charlotte, N.C. Goodman holds a B.F.A. in Dance from Belhaven College in Jackson, Miss. Her dance training includes Alvin Ailey American Dance Center, North Carolina School of the Arts and Charlotte City Ballet. During the 2006 USA International Ballet Competition, Goodman held the position of International Dance School Administrator. Currently, she is working towards her M.A. in Dance Education through UNC Greensboro. Goodman is the dance teacher for the Children’s Community School in Davidson.
Madeline Jazz Guerdat
Madeline Jazz Guerdat has studied at the North Carolina Dance Theatre
School of Dance since age 8. She has performed numerous roles with
both the Student Ensemble and the Company. She attended the Chautauqua
Institute dance program for three years and choreographed works for Chautauqua students in 2006 and 2007. She has also choreographed many pieces on the Student Ensemble and was awarded a fellowship from the New York Choreographic Institute for 2007-2008. In addition, Guerdat has trained in programs at The Juilliard School and Complexions Contemporary Ballet, both in New York City. She is currently pursuing her B.A. degree at the UNC Charlotte.
Alexis Ingram
Originally from Miami, Florida, Alexis Ingram began her dance training at Ballet Etudes of South Florida. She furthered her early training with Marielena Mencia, Rosario Suarez and New World School of the Arts. She has recently performed with Dance Kaleidoscope, The Indianapolis Opera, Moving Collective and Empujón. In 2003, Ingram graduated from Butler University (Indianapolis) with a degree in Dance Pedagogy and has since taught at Jordan College Academy of Dance and the Louisville Ballet School. Ingram is also a trained Pilates instructor and a Licensed Instructor of Nurturing Pathways® Early Childhood Creative Dance.
David Ingram
Originally from Kingsport, Tennessee, David Ingram trained with Karen Gibbons Brown at the Kingsport Guild of Ballet. After graduating with honors from Butler University in Indiana, Ingram joined the Louisville Ballet where he worked with such choreographers as Adam Hougland, Ben Stevenson, Robert North, Val Caniparoli, Twyla Tharp and Domy Reiter Soffer. Ingram’s choreography has been performed at The Fort Wayne Ballet, The Yard in Massachusetts, The Kentucky Governor’s School of the Arts and Empujón.
Gretchen Jax
Gretchen Jax graduated from Winthrop University with a BA in Dance Performance. She performed in Meredith Monk’s Obie Award winning Quarry at the 2003 Spoleto Festival in Charleston, South Carolina. She has also studied and performed the works of Sandra Neels, David Parsons, Marjorie Palmer Perry, Mary Beth Thompson and Duke Young. She was the recipient of the 2000, 2001 and 2002 Alpha Psi Omega Best Choreography Award from Winthrop University. In 2006 she was one of eight selected to study at the School of Jacob’s Pillow Choreographer’s Lab. Jax is the co-founder of Sinergismo, a group of dancers, artists, poets, and musicians using collaboration as a means to produce choreographic works. Sinergismo has performed at venues throughout the southeast including the Piccolo Spoleto Festival, Sumter Museum of Art, North Carolina Dance Festival Saturday Series, Friends of North Carolina Dance Theatre and the Charlotte Dance Festival. Jax has been a faculty member since 2003.
Kati Hanlon Mayo
Kati Hanlon Mayo began her dance training at The Boston School of Ballet. She went on to study as a scholarship student at The School of American Ballet, Central Pennsylvania Youth Ballet and Jose Mateo's Ballet Theatre. She was a member of Boston Ballet 2, performed with The Boston Ballet and danced soloist roles with Jose Mateo's Ballet Theatre before joining NC Dance Theatre as a principal dancer in 1991.
Mayo performed principal roles in works choreographed by Balanchine, Alvin Ailey, Agnes DeMille, Jean Pierre Bonnefoux, Salvatore Aiello and Alonzo King during her tenure at Dance Theatre. She began teaching at the School of Dance upon its inception in 1996 and has also been a guest teacher for many studios across the Southeast.
Kathryn Moriarty
Kathryn Moriarty was a principal dancer with Milwaukee Ballet, and danced solo repertoire with the Norwegian National Ballet, the Hamburg Staatsoper in Germany and the Cincinnati/New Orleans Ballet. She has made many guest appearances including performances with the Australian Dance Theatre.
Her training includes the Australian Ballet School, The Scully-Borovansky School of Australia and University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.
Moriarty has also served as Artistic Associate of Dayton Ballet, Co-Director of Dayton Ballet II and faculty member of the University of Cincinnati College Conservatory of Music. She has been a full-time faculty member of the NC Dance Theatre - School of Dance since 1998.
Jeanene Russell Perry
Jeanene Russell Perry trained at the Bolshoi Ballet Academy in Moscow, Russia, under the direction of Sofia Golovkina, Director of the Institute. She was the first American to receive a Diploma of Completion of Studies from the prestigious institution. She danced for two years with Ballet Arizona in Phoenix, Arizona, The Chautauqua Ballet Company in Chautauqua, New York for five seasons and with the North Carolina Dance Theatre in Charlotte for five seasons.
Perry has lived and toured all over the globe performing hundreds of ballets. She has had numerous roles created for her by well known choreographers including “The Soul” in Dreamer by Alonzo King. She has performed principal roles in Giselle, the Nutcracker, Sleeping Beauty, In the Middle Somewhat Elevated, Tango and many others. She has choreographed several ballets and plans to continue developing this talent. She is now using her talents to nurture and train the next generation of dancers. She is on staff at NC Dance Theatre School of Dance. She has been both a guest instructor and speaker at UNC Charlotte. In addition to dance accomplishment, she is a certified Pilates Instructor and Master Teacher. Her home is Charlotte, North Carolina.
Kyle Garrison Shawell
Kyle Garrison Shawell received his training at the University of the Arts, Theatre West Virginia, Winthrop University and the Philadelphia School of Dance Arts. His training includes the dance styles of Lester Horton, Martha Graham, Paul Taylor and jazz taught by renowned teachers such as Ruth Adrien, Ronen Koresh, Milton Myers and Pat Thomas. He brings together a wide breadth of knowledge, expertise and experience in a diverse style of movement for the community.
Shawell has been a teaching artist for North Carolina Dance Theatre and North Carolina Blumenthal Performing Arts Center, and a dance educator for the Governor's Award-winning Janice Wyatt Summer Arts Institute at Delta State University in Cleveland, MS. His choreography has been seen at Gaston Dance Theatre, Girl Talk Foundation of Charlotte, NC, KAOS Dance Company, SCDA, SCAHPERD, Winthrop Dance Theatre and Valley Forge Dance Theatre, and he choreographed the summer musical production of Once on this Island at Delta State University. He has been a guest teaching artist in several Charlotte Mecklenburg Schools, most recently at Northwest School of the Arts. As a Lecturer of dance, Shawell taught modern, jazz, hip-hop and musical theatre for several years at Winthrop University.
Shawell’s performance career includes such classic works as: Doris Humphrey’s Life of the Bee, David Parson’s The Parson Etude, Charles Weidman’s Christmas Oratorio, and he was a soloist for Donald McKayle's Rainbow Etude. He has been a member of KAOS dance company of Charlotte, Martha Connerton/Kinetic Works, Theater West Virginia, Philadanco II and the Valley Forge Dance Theater, and has performed for the American Dance Festival ,Charlotte Dance Festival and North Carolina Dance Festival. He has appeared in performances for Opera Carolina and in musical theatre productions of Anything Goes, Bye Bye Birdie, Bubbling Brown Sugar and West Side Story.
Vivienne Ramsey
Vivienne Ramsey began her ballet training at an early age in Sydney, Australia. She completed her RAD syllabus with honors and was awarded the Solo Seal at age 16. A silver medal performance during the Peter Stuyvesant Competition at the famed Sydney Opera House let to a stipend to the John Cranko School in Stuttgart, West Germany.
It was in Stuttgart under the influence of Marcia Haydee that Vivienne learned the ultimate importance of integrating passion and dance. She went on to become a soloist with John Neumeier's Hamburg Ballet and traveled the world, dancing in such capitals as Paris, Berlin, Leningrad, New York, Montreal, Buenos Aires, and Salzburg.
Ramsey began her experience in "Exhibition Ballroom Dancing" in 1992. Very quickly she and her partner, David Howland, began to challenge the best couples in the word. Since 1995 they have dominated Exhibition Ballroom Dancing by repeatedly taking the World and British Exhibition titles as well as winning four United States Championships.
Jennifer Read
Jennifer Read has performed in numerous theatrical productions nationally and internationally including both the European Tour and the Broadway Revival first National Tour of 42nd Street. She has been in regional productions and tours of shows including The Music Man, Crazy for you (Patsy), No, No, Nannette (Nanette), Cabaret, Pippin, Evita, Will Rogers Follies (Indian Princess Soloist), West Side Story and Guys and Dolls. Jennifer has danced for the Los Angeles Opera under the artistic direction of Placido Domingo in Sampson and Dahlila, starring Placido Domingo and Denise Graves, and Bluebeard’s Castle, starring Samuel Ramey and Denise Graves. Read was also a Rockette in the Radio City Christmas Spectacular.
In addition to her performing credits, Read has directed and choreographed numerous productions for various regional and community theatres in the Los Angeles area and has taught dance and theatre classes for a variety of dance studios and theatres, working with students of all ages. Read has a B.F.A. in Dance and Theatre from Chapman University, where she graduated Magna Cum Laude with departmental and university honors.
Rachel Tucker
Rachel Tucker comes to Charlotte from New York City where she was an original cast member in the Broadway production of The Lion King. In addition, she traveled the country serving as the resident dance supervisor for the national touring company of the The Lion King for many years.
While living in New York, Tucker taught modern/jazz for the young adult program at the celebrated dance studio, Steps on Broadway. Her classes mix traditional jazz dance with Lester Horton-based technique. In addition, Tucker performed as a Rockette in the Radio City Christmas Spectacular at Radio City Music Hall, New York City. She also performed in The Wiz national touring company. Tucker was a member of the Dayton Contemporary Dance Company, where she danced works by Ulysses Dove, Talley Beatty, Donald McKayle, Eleo Pomore, Donald Byrd and Dwight Rhoden.
Tucker is also a Pilates instructor trained in both the classical and contemporary methods. This training includes mat work, as well as, apparatus.
Tucker graduated from the Baltimore School for the Arts and then received a BA in Dance Performance with a minor in Psychology from Point Park College, Pittsburgh, PA.
Musicians
Kazako Adachi
Robert Beasley
Gene Bledsoe
Jeana Borman
Yulia Helm
Natasha Holler
Gary Mumford
Guest Teachers
Each year the School of Dance invites a number of internationally recognized guest teachers to teach regular and master classes to our students.
Guest Teachers who have taught at the School of Dance include:
Gabrielle Brown
Connie Dinapoli
Judith Fugate
Martha Goodman
Katrina Killian
Alonzo King
Glenda Lucena
Armando Luna
Terrance Orr
Dwight Rhoden
Toni Sands
Jeff Shade
Marianna Tcherkassky
Violette Verdy
Julie Janus Walters
Tyler Walter |
