The Ballet School of Stamford

Leadership

Michael Vernon - Artistic Director
Michael Vernon studied at the Nesta Brooking School of Ballet and the Royal Ballet School in London with such legendary teachers as Dame Ninette de Valois and Leonide Massine. He performed with the Royal Ballet, the Royal Opera Ballet, and the London Festival Ballet before coming to New York in 1976 to join the Eglevsky Ballet as ballet master and resident choreographer. He was artistic director of the Long Island-based company from 1989 to 1995.

He has choreographed many ballets for the Eglevsky Ballet, in addition to ballets for many other professional companies in the United States and worldwide. Mikhail Baryshnikov commissioned him to choreograph the successful pas de deux In a Country Garden for American Ballet Theatre (ABT). His solo S'Wonderful was danced by ABT principal Cynthia Harvey in the presence of President and Mrs. Reagan and shown nationwide on CBS television. He also served as the assistant choreographer on Ken Russell's movie Valentino, starring Rudolph Nureyev and Leslie Caron.

Vernon continues to teach classes at New York-based Steps, works regularly for the Manhattan Dance Project. Since 2000, he has taught and choreographed the ballet company and ballet school at the Chautauqua Institute. His annual activities also include a long association with Ballet Hawaii.

From 2001 to 2002, Vernon was company teacher for American Ballet Theater and worked as a company teacher for the Metropolitan Opera Ballet from 1994 to 1998. He was also a guest teacher for the Juilliard School in 2001 and has had long associations with Dance Theatre of Harlem and the Alvin Ailey Company and School.

Marti Etter - Executive Director
Marti Etter's professional career encompasses over twenty years of experience as a production manager and coordinator for theater, opera, concerts, film, dance and multi-media projects. These projects have included dramatic, corporate and educational pieces. Many have been used as fundraising vehicles for non-profit organizations. Clients have included The U.S. Navy, Smithsonian Institution, New York Philharmonic, the Dallas, Denver, and National Symphonies, Grollier Publishing, AT&T and Pitney Bowes.

Since moving to Connecticut she has served on the Friends Board for St. Luke’s Lifeworks, Roxbury School Executive Board, the Connecticut Association of Production Professionals Executive Board and Connecticut Film and Video Commission Advisory Board. Currently she serves on the steering committee for the Collaborative Alliance and as a board member of the Stamford Public Education Foundation.

Faculty and Staff

Carol Bryan - Ballet
Carol Bryan is the Producer and Director of DanceFest, which she conceived, created and implemented seven years ago. DanceFest has developed into an annual Dance Festival, hosted by Stamford Center for the Arts. Carol served as the Coordinator of Special Events and Director of Education and Outreach at Stamford Center for the Arts from 2002 - 2008. She was the Director of the Dance School at the JCC of Mid-Westchester in Scarsdale, NY for five years, and served on the faculty at the Stamford City Ballet School in Stamford from 1987 - 1996. Her teaching and coaching experience spans over thirty-five years, training dancers in private schools, academies, colleges and regional dance companies throughout the United States. Her professional performing career was with American Ballet Theatre in New York and as a guest artist with regional companies in California, Florida and New Jersey, She performed in over twenty-five ballets choreographed by such legends as Jerome Robbins, Agnes De Mille, Marius Petipa, George Balanchine and Kenneth Macmillan. Carol was trained in New York at the School of American Ballet, The Joffrey Ballet School and the American Ballet Theatre School. Carol currently teaches in CT and Westchester, N.Y. and is a free-lance Event Planner.

Maia Fitzpatrick - Head of Faculty
Maia Fitzpatrick received her early ballet training in Topeka Kansas, under the direction of Tom Steinhoff, formerly of Ballet Caravan. As a scholarship student at the San Francisco Ballet School, she studied under Anatole Vilzak, among other renowned teachers. She graduated from Walnut Hill School for the Performing Arts, where she performed leading roles in Les Sylphides, Swan Lake and Sam Kurkjian's Peter and the Wolf. She later joined the Topeka Ballet, where she was promoted to principal roles and danced in the world premieres of several original ballets, as well in traditional ballets such as La Boutique Fantasque and The Nutcracker. In 1996, Ms. Fitzpatrick joined the International Ballet Project, under the direction of Diana White, soloist with New York City Ballet and Valentina Koslova, former Bolshoi ballerina, where she had original roles created for her by both Ms. White and Ms. Koslova. In 1997, Ms. Fitzpatrick was was invited to Bytom, Poland by the Polish Ministry of Culture to teach an intensive course in "Balanchine technique" to the students and faculty of the Bytom State Ballet School. For the past 15 years, Ms. Fitzpatrick has taught at leading ballet schools throughout the Northeast. She has been on the faculty of the Ballet School of Stamford since its inception in 1998, and is currently Ballet Mistress and Head of Faculty.

Heather Hawk - Ballet
Heather Hawk began her ballet training in her home state of Indiana and later in Chicago at the Stone-Camryn School and The Ruth Page Foundation. She discovered her love of the Balanchine technique at Chicago City Ballet School, where she studied for four years under the direction of Maria and Marjorie Tallchief. In New York, Heather attended the School of American Ballet. Upon graduation, she studied at The Royal Danish Ballet for two months as part of the SAB exchange program. As a member of the New York City Ballet, Heather danced in the Balanchine, Robbins, and Martins repertoire. She can be seen in the NYCB film, The Nutcracker, and in the 1993 Balanchine Celebration for PBS. She danced with Pennsylvania Ballet before pursuing a college degree at New York University. She garnered a liberal arts degree with a minor in teacher education.

Heather resumed her performing career in 1998 with Ballet Chicago and The Lyric Opera of Chicago. During her eight seasons with the opera she danced in twelve productions including, The Great Gatsby and Carmen. Her return to dancing coincided with the beginning of her career as a teacher. She started locally in her hometown in Indiana before joining the faculty of The School of Ballet Chicago, where she remains a guest and summer teacher. In 2006, Ms. Hawk moved back to the east coast and joined the artistic staff of The Ballet School of Stamford. In 2007, she wickedly relished dancing the role of Carabosse in Peter Anastos' , The Sleeping Beauty. In 2008, she welcomed the opportunity to sit in the audience to watch a wonderful student body bring to life the world of Dr. Coppelius. As a member of Dances Patrelle since 1999, Heather thoroughly enjoyed sharing the creative process of Coppelia's choreographer, Francis Patrelle, with the dedicated children of BSS.

Ashlee Knapp - Ballet

Ashlee Knapp trained The Rock School and The School of American Ballet receiving the Mae L. Wien Award and The Princess Grace Award Dance Scholarship. She joined New York City Ballet as an apprentice in 2001 and was promoted to the corps de ballet in six months. While in NYCB she performed in nearly 50 ballets from world renowned choreographers including George Balanchine and Jerome Robins. She worked with such choreographers as Eliot Feld, Robert La Fosse, Peter Martins Susan Strohman, Julia Adams, Mathew Neenan, Boris Eifman, Christopher d'Amboise, Miriam Mahdaviani and toured with NYCB to St. Petersburg Russia, Copenhagen Denmark, Saratoga Springs NY and Washington DC.

Ashlee is currently a principle Teacher at Columbia University's CBC program. She has taught master classes in Rye, New York's Arts Center and at various schools in NYC ages ranging from 7 to 18 years of age.

Ashlee has preformed in two Instructional videos with Finis Young 'Art of point work 1 and 2 and in the NYCB documentary "Bringing Back Balanchine" She also designs manufactures and sells own line of dance apparel and accessories.

Debra MacDonald - Ballet
Debra MacDonald has been in the Ballet and Theater world for more than 25 years. Her extensive Ballet background includes training and performance with the American Ballet Company, Stamford City Ballet, Boston Ballet, Crystal Opera Ballet, Pine Manor Dance and Joanne de Bergh School of Ballet. She has taught at the Connecticut Dance Theatre, East Coast Youth Ballet, New Dance Theater and the Boston Ballet City Dance Program. Mrs. MacDonald is on faculty and is the lower school coordinator for the Ballet School of Stamford and also teaches at Dance, etc. in Newtown, CT.
Additional background includes positions as the head teacher at the Child Care Learning Center of Stamford for 5 years, founder and director of The Actor’s Project and Stage Door, an instructor at the French Woods Performing Arts Camp, Associates degrees from Pine Manor College and Norwalk Community College and director and choreographer for numerous community theater productions throughout Connecticut and New York.

Megan Bonneau McCool - Ballet
Megan Bonneau McCool trained with Gail Collins and Jana Fugate at Pioneer Valley Ballet in Massachusetts and with the School of American Ballet, where she received the Mae L. Wein Award for Outstanding Promise and danced the principal roles in ballets including George Balanchine's Dances Concertantes, Raymonda Variations, and Tchaikovsky Pas de Deux, as well as originating principal roles in ballets by James Sewell and Sean Lavery. Ms. Bonneau McCool danced with the New York City Ballet in the early 1990’s in ballets by Balachine and Peter Martins. She then attended Smith College, graduating with an A.B. in American Studies and an Masters of Fine Arts in Dance. During this time, she also served as Ballet Mistress for Pioneer Valley Ballet, where she staged ballets including Paquita, Konservatoriet, Flower Festival Pas de Deux, The Nutcracker, and Pas de Quatre and rehearsed ballets including Balanchine’s Valse Fantasie (staged by Darla Hoover) and original works by choreographers such as Christopher D'Amboise, Jerry Bevington, Elizabeth Bigelow, and Saeko Ichinoe.

Ms. Bonneau McCool has taught throughout the northeast at schools and colleges including The Ballet School of Stamford, the Scarsdale Ballet Studio, Repertory Dance Theatre, Muhlenburg College, Mount Holyoke College, Smith College and Walnut Hill School for the Arts, where she remains a guest and summer teacher. Ms. McCool has choreographed over 20 ballets for ballet schools/companies and colleges including the above as well as other companies of RDA, and has received choreographic awards and scholarships including RDA/NE Emerging Choreographer's Award for her first piece in 1995. Her choreography has been performed at the RDA Festivals and also at the ACDFA’s National Festival at the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C.

Dieter Riesle - Ballet and Jazz
Dieter Riesle was trained at the John Cranko Ballet Academy in Stuttgart, Germany.
He danced principal roles in Nutcracker, Cinderella, Swan Lake, A Midsummersnightdream and many other ballets.

He performed with the Frankfurt Ballet, the Hamburg Ballet, the Cincinnati Ballet, Nashville Ballet, the Garden State Ballet and ballet companies in Japan. He has taught for Ballet Arts, Steps and Broadway Dance Center in New York and the Stamford City Ballet, the Garden State Ballet in New Jersey and the Jewish Y in Scarsdale in New York State. He also guest teaches and choreographs in Japan, Germany, and Denmark.

Flavio Salazar - Ballet
Flavio Salazar, a native of Colombia, was born in La Union Nariño and raised in Cali
where he began his dance studies at the Colombian Institute of Classical Ballet
(Incolballet), earning his Bachillerato Artistico del Ballet (secondary school diploma
equivalent) in 1985. Incolballet is notable for its founder, Gloria Castro, and its
association with the National Ballet of Cuba. He joined Ballet de Cali in 1985 and joined
the faculty of Incolballet, having been certified by the National Ballet of Cuba to teach its
methodology and pedagogy in ballet technique. He attended Houston Ballet Academy as a
full scholarship student under the direction of Ben Stevenson. He later joined Ballet Arizona
in 1992 under the direction of Michael Uthoff.

In 1993 Mr. Salazar was invited by Kevin Mckenzie to join the American Ballet Theatre.
During his thirteen year career with ABT, Mr. Salazar dance in a variety of classical,
contemporary and modern ballets and nearly every ballet in ABT`s repertoire.
Mr. Salazar’s teaching experience extends from his early professional dancing years in
Colombia, through his time at ABT, and at present in his retirement. He has taught
classes at ABT II, the Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis School, the ABT Summer Intensive,
the Alvin Ailey School, and Ballet Tech among others.

Danielle Sullo - Ballet and Theater Dance
Danielle graduated from Marymount Manhattan College in New York City, with a B.A. in Dance, Dance Education, and Arts Administration. For a year, she interned under the direction of David Parsons for the Parsons Dance Company and the Joyce Theatre. Now, she is sustaining previous outreach programs with the Ballet School of Stamford, such as the Yerwood Center and the ARI of Conneticut, while also developing upcoming outreach programs in the Stamford School District such as Roxbury Elementary School.

Julie Voshell - Ballet and Modern

Elizabeth Walker - Ballet

Elizabeth Walker’s ballet training began with Don and Patricia Cantwell in Charleston, S.C., continued with Ann Brodie in Columbia, and included two summer courses at North Carolina School of the Arts. Following two summer courses at the School of American Ballet in New York, Elizabeth was invited to stay for full time study on scholarship at the age of 15. She received a Princess Grace Foundation – USA Dance Scholarship and Nancy Davis Reagan Award in 1988 and a scholarship in the name of Alexandra Danilova and the Mae L. Wien Award for Outstanding Promise in 1990. At the age of sixteen Elizabeth was invited by Suki Schorer and Merrill Ashley to take part as a demonstrator in “Balanchine Essays,” a video series cataloguing Balanchine technique produced by the George Balanchine Trust. In her three years at SAB, she also danced in numerous New York City schools doing lecture-demonstrations and had principal roles in SAB’s end-of-the-year Workshop performances.

Elizabeth was offered an apprenticeship with the New York City Ballet in 1990 and joined the corps de ballet in 1991. Among the dozens of roles she danced, many were featured or principal roles in ballets by George Balanchine, Peter Martins, Jerome Robbins, Lynn Taylor Corbett, and David Parsons. Elizabeth danced in the film “George Balanchine’s The Nutcracker” and in several Live from Lincoln Center broadcasts. For six years she served as an elected representative on the Dancers’ Committee, facilitating communication with management and negotiating contract details. Elizabeth taught on the faculty of the School of American Ballet, the official school of NYCB, from 2001-2007. She was a regular spokesperson for NYCB, addressing patrons and audience members in NY. She was sent to other cities to talk to younger ballet students about the rigors of a professional ballet career, how to maintain dancer “wellness”, and to teach the Balanchine technique. Elizabeth’s performance experience outside of NYCB has included original choreography by Pam Tanowitz and dancing principal roles by Balanchine and Martins with smaller ensembles of NYCB dancers throughout Europe.

In June 2009, Elizabeth’s 19 years of dancing with NYCB came to an end, and she is inspired to broaden her teaching career. Currently, Elizabeth teaches at Ballet Academy East in Manhattan, which she joined in 2007, and she is so pleased to join the faculty at The Ballet School of Stamford.

Renee Robinson - Administrator
Renee Robinson has held the position of administrator at The Ballet School of Stamford for the past nine and a half years. She has held varied positions in the past in both the corporate and retail industries.

After graduating from Stamford High School, grants and scholarships enabled Renee to attend Berkley Business College in White Plains, NY where she majored in Business Administrations. She currently resides in the Stamford area with her two children.

Accompanists - Marc DiMinno, Galina Dvilyanski and Lilia Khanina

Lilia Khanina
A native born of Russia, Lilia Khanina earned a Master’s Degree in Conducting from the Moscow Tchaikovsky Conservatory. During her study at the Conservatory she had an advanced training as a choirmaster with the famous Bolshoi Theater Choir. Ms. Khanina has a large concert experience that includes conducting the Moscow Conservatory Students Choir, the Moscow Conservatory Musical College Choir, and Chamber Choir Renaissance. In 1996 she accepted a position of the Conductor and teacher of theoretical disciplines and piano at the Music Choral School Vesna. Theis school and its choir with which she has performed is notable for receiving numerous awards in international competitions in Germany, Italy, France, Spain, Belgium, Sweden, Switzerland, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Slovakia, and Hungary.
After relocating to the US in 2003 she joined the Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre School where she worked as a head accompanist and did choral preparations for the Nutcracker. In 2007 she moved to Connecticut and joined the artistic staff of the Ballet School of Stamford. While working as an accompanist, Ms. Khanina is completinf a PhD in musicology with a research focus of American Opera of the XX century. Her articles and essays were published in Russian and British journals and books.

Rima Day - Costume Designer
Rima Day has been creating costumes for BSS since Paquita in 2004. She has worked as a first hand for Long Warf Theatre, a wardrobe coordinator for Connecticut Ballet, and assisted designer Christina Giannini. She also designed and created costumes for Westport’s Dance Academy, New Chamber Ballet in NYC, Ridgefield Conservatory of Dance, Ballet Etudes, Woodbury Ballet, Darien Dance Center and Stamford Performing Arts Center. This year, she is a teaching designer for American Ballet Theater’s “Make a Ballet” program.

Interns - Marialyse Martiney, Aset Fortune and Shirley Guerrero