Franklin Gamero and Iliana Lopez began their careers at home in Venezuela and continued through the San Francisco Ballet, the Cleveland Ballet and as soloists with the Deutsche Opera Berlin and the Deutsche Opera am Rhein in Dusseldorf. Then, in 1987, they became Principal Dancers with the Miami City Ballet where they remained for eighteen successful years.

As guest principal dancers they have performed for different Ballet companies internationally as well as the most important Dance Festivals and Galas of Stars in the World.

They have been recognized among the world’s leading dancers and Mrs. Lopez was featured on the cover of many magazines including Dance Magazine (1997), Pointe Magazine (2000) and Dancer Magazine (2004).

Their dedication and passion for their career earned them special awards such as the Orden Arturo Michelena in Venezuela, the Key to the City of Baton Rouge in Louisiana where they were declared “Honorable Mayors”, the Proclamation of Miami-Dade County by Mayor Alex Penelas, the Proclamation of Hialeah by Mayor Raul Martinez, who declared “March 12th” the Iliana Lopez and Franklin Gamero’s Day, a special award by the “Naples Philharmonic Center for the Arts” for their contribution to the Arts, and a special award from the “Jackie Gleason Theatre” for their outstanding contribution to the Arts in the city of Miami Beach.

Since their retirement in 2004, Mrs. Lopez has worked Ballet Mistress and repetiteur for the Miami City Ballet, Ballet Gamonet, Ballet de Monterrey in Mexico, Ballet de Santiago in Chile, Ballet de la Opera de Bordeaux in France and as guest touring Ballet Mistress with Les Ballet Trockadero. Mr. Gamero has served as Artistic Advisor with the Teresa Carreño in Venezuela, Ballet Master with the Ballet Nacional Dominicano and Western Ballet Theatre in Puerto Rico and has choreographed for the National Ballet School in Santo Domingo, the Alina Abreu Ballet School and the America’s Ballet School in Tampa, Florida. Since 2012, Mr. Gamero and Mrs. Lopez have served as artistic directors of Gulfshore Ballet in Fort Myers, Florida.

Kee-Juan Han is presently the Director of The Washington School of Ballet in Washington, D.C. He was director of the Arizona Ballet School from 1993 to 2003. Mr. Han has trained many prominent dancers, including David Hallberg, Principal of Bolshoi Ballet and American Ballet Theater, and many others who are dancing professionally around the world. In addition, he has coached many prizewinners in numerous international ballet competitions.

He also implemented the Teaching Syllabus for The Washington School of Ballet and has guided many teachers with their teaching.

His dance career began in his native Singapore, where he began his training at age ten with Florrie Sinclair and Goh Soo Khim. Upon graduation from the Australian Ballet School, he was invited to dance with the Sydney Dance Company, then the Goh Ballet in Canada, where he was also trained by Lin Yee Goh to teach the Vaganova method.

Additionally, he was Principal Dancer with the Indianapolis Ballet Theatre and was a Soloist with the Boston Ballet. He danced most of the principal roles in the classical repertoire, as well as the ballets by Balanchine and modern works by Jose Limon, Mark Morris, Ralph Lemon. Susan Marshall and Bebe Miller.

Mr. Han’s international teaching experiences includes guest teaching at the Singapore Dance Theatre, Edmonton Ballet Academy, Sydney Dance Company, Ballet Austin, Atlanta Ballet, Boston Ballet, Hubbard Street Dance Company, Vail International Summer of Dance festival, Jacob’s Pillow, Milwaukee Ballet and the Jackson International Ballet Summer School. He was also named the best teacher/coach at the Youth America Grand Prix (Long Beach) in 2000 and 2015.

Mr. Han was full time faculty at the North Carolina School of the Arts and was the recipient of The Excellence in Teaching Award at UNCSA. He is also the co-founder of the American Ballet Competition and featured in the Singapore Encyclopedia. He was awarded the 2008 Dance Teacher Award for best teacher of the year.

Under his direction, The Washington School of Ballet was awarded the best youth dance performance by Washington DC/Metro Dance and The School also won the Best School Award at the Youth America Grand Prix (Torrington) for 3 consecutive years and in Pittsburgh in 2015. He was on the cover of Dance Teacher Magazine with his student David Hallberg and was featured as the Teacher of Men.

Mr. Han is a frequent judge for numerous ballet competitions around the world and is a much sought after Master Teacher.

Born in Belleville, Illinois, dancer Christine Spizzo trained at the San Francisco Ballet School, the NC School of the Arts (now UNCSA), and at the School of American Ballet in New York.

Upon graduation, she joined the National Ballet of Washington (DC), and the Ballet Repertory Company (NY), ultimately joining American Ballet Theatre in 1975. A soloist with ABT, Spizzo appeared in numerous Live From Lincoln Center and Dance in America telecasts, as well as the Herbert Ross films “The Turning Point” and “Dancers,” and in Baryshnikov’s “Nutcracker” and “Don Quixote” video films.

Spizzo was a Principal dancer with Ballet Arizona from 1988-1990, and with the Nureyev & Friends North American tour in 1990. She performed in the Broadway company of “Phantom of the Opera” from 1990-2000.

Also during that time, Spizzo was an adjunct professor at both NYU and SUNY/Purchase. In 1996, she served as Artistic Coordinator of ABT’s inaugural Summer Intensive Program, and has remained a principal teacher in all subsequent ABT Summer Intensives (NYC, NC, Austin,TX).

In 2000, Spizzo joined the dance faculty at UNCSA, where she worked for 10 years, receiving the Excellence in Teaching Award in 2006. She taught in the School of the Arts’ Preparatory Dance Program for several years, and is now an adjunct professor of dance at UNCSA. She is also on faculty at the Dancers’ Edge dance studio in Kernersville.

Christine is actively engaged as a Guest teacher and stager of classical ballet repertoire at
various schools throughout North Carolina, and in New York, New Mexico, Arizona, California, Connecticut, and Puerto Rico. Spizzo is the owner and co-founder, along with Mark McCullough, of Studio Elevé.

Alexandre Proia’s career includes performing, choreographing and teaching with many of the finest companies of the world. Trained at the Paris Opera Ballet, Alexandre was a soloist with New York City Ballet where he performed and debuted many principal roles by George Balanchine, Jerome Robbins and Peter Martins. He has also been featured on Broadway in Tony Award nominated and winning shows including Chronicle of a Death Foretold.
He was then invited to join the Martha Graham Company as a guest artist and worked for three years with Martha Clarke.
Alexandre has taught and choreographed for numerous companies and schools across the globe including New York City Ballet, Paris Opera, The Julliard School, Teatro Colon, Capetown City Ballet, New York University, Adelphi University, Joffrey School NYC and Lines School in San Francisco. He served on the faculty at Steps on Broadway and Peridance Capezio Center for years before being invited to join the Georgia Ballet as Artistic Director for the 2013-14 season.
In 2014, he created his new company, Proia Dance Project – a laboratory for new choreography, compositions and visual art – where he now serves as Artistic Director.

“I stress enjoying; celebrating. You should dance for the fun of moving, inside and out. Dance is not just a dream, it’s something to live by.” – Alexandre Proia

Jon Lehrer, who was raised in Queens, New York, took his very first dance class at age 19 at the University at Buffalo. While dating a dancer, Jon teased her about how easy it must be to get an A in a dance class. The girl dared Jon to try a beginning level modern dance class and his life was changed. After only two years of training at UB, Jon was asked to join the university’s Zodiaque Dance Company. In the summer of 1994, Jon received a scholarship to study at Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival and ultimately received his BFA in Dance from the University at Buffalo.

As a professional, Jon has danced with the Erick Hawkins Dance Company, Paul Sanasardo, John Passafiume Dancers, in Merv Griffin’s “Funderful” in Atlantic City, NJ, and the Radio City Rockettes Christmas Spectacular. In May 1997, Jon was hired into Giordano Jazz Dance Chicago, and after three years, was promoted to Rehearsal Director and then given the position of Associate Director two years later. During his ten years with Giordano, Jon also became the resident choreographer, creating seven original works on the company that received rave reviews all around the world.

Jon’s choreography has been set on numerous professional and university dance companies around the country, and he teaches master classes throughout the U.S. and around the world. Jon has been on the faculty of Jazz Dance World Congress, Dance Masters of America, Dance Teacher Summer Conference, and Chicago National Association of Dance Masters (CNADM) to name a few. In 2003, Jon had the honor of receiving the Distinguished Alumni Award from the University at Buffalo’s Zodiaque Dance Company for his accomplishments as a dancer and choreographer.

Jon was on the Advisory Board of Dance Spirit Magazine, was featured on the November 2007 cover of Dance Teacher Magazine, and has been reviewed and interviewed in Dance Magazine numerous times. In 2009, Jon was commissioned by CNADM to write the Modern Dance Syllabus, which is used by teachers across the country to teach modern dance. In 2010, Jon was honored with CNADM’s Artistic Achievement Award for his excellence and artistry in concert dance. Most recently, in 2015, Jon was given the prestigious Distinguished Alumni Award from University at Buffalo College of Arts and Sciences.

In July 2007, Jon moved to Buffalo, New York, to begin his much anticipated professional dance company – Lehrer Dance. The company showcases his unique choreography and definitive style.  Jon’s extensive background in both the modern and jazz dance idioms fosters choreography that is organic, artistic, accessible and often humorous, reflecting life experience and the human condition.

In the company’s short history, LehrerDance has received international recognition and kept audiences on the edge of their seats around the world with their trademark athletic style. As Dance Magazine said, “LehrerDance took the house not so much by storm as by quantum physics. Jon Lehrer’s strikingly original choreography transformed the stage into an energy field of super-charged particles.”

Known as one of the most energetic and inspiring teachers across the country, Thom Clower’s “evangelistic” approach to teaching has touched the lives and careers of dancers around the world for 40 years. With extensive training in the Vaganova, Balanchine, Cecchetti, and Bournonville styles, Mr. Clower combines the qualities of each one to present a technique that is true and versatile.

Making his stage debut at the age of six, Mr. Clower began his professional training with George Skibine and Marjorie Tallchief at the Dallas Civic Ballet in 1968. He received a Ford Foundation Scholarship to the School of American Ballet in New York for two consecutive years, and also studied in Paris, Amsterdam, and London. He joined Dallas Ballet in 1978 where he spent eleven seasons performing with the company under Mr. Skibine and Flemming Flindt, and served as assistant Ballet Master for Dallas Ballet’s 1980 South American tour.

As Ballet Master, Mr. Clower assisted Flindt in staging his full-length NUTCRACKER, THE THREE MUSKETEERS, and PHAEDRA, and personally administrated the staging of Alvin Ailey’s THE RIVER, John Cranko’s JEU DE CARTES, Jeri Kylian’s ENGULFED CATHERDRAL, Fokine’s PRINCE IGOR and LES SYLPHIDES, and many others.

Mr. Clower served as Founding Artistic Director of Ballet Dallas and the affiliate school, the Dallas Conservatory of Ballet. Under his direction, Ballet Dallas was the resident professional ballet company for the Dallas area for eight years, carrying on the traditions of the former company. Mr. Clower also served as Ballet Master for Hubbard Street Dance Chicago. In this capacity, he was primary teacher for the company and rehearsal director for works by Twyla Tharp, Nacho Duato, Daniel Ezerlow, and Kevin O’Day. Mr. Clower then served four seasons as Artistic Director of Yuma Ballet Theatre, and Ballet Master of the affiliate school, Dancers Workshop. He joined the faculty of Allegro Ballet of Houston in 2009.

As a representative of the George Skibine Trust, Mr. Clower helps maintain the integrity of Mr. Skibine’s ballets, staging them across the country.

He served on selection panels for the City of Dallas, Tarrant County, and both the Texas and Arizona Commission on the Arts Peer Review Panels. He was awarded the prestigious Legacy Award for Achievement in the Arts by the Dallas Dance Council in 2000, and placed in the Yuma Ballet Theatre’s Hall of Fame in 2005.

Believing very strongly in Regional Dance America, Mr. Clower has served as the Director of Ballet at numerous RDA Craft of Choreography Conferences (NCI). He has been a guest teacher for Regional Festivals since 1992, was a guest teacher at the National Festival both in 1997 and 2007. Mr. Clower has proudly served in the capacity of Adjudicator for SERBA, RDA/NE, RDA/Mid States, and has been asked to Adjudicate for RDA/SW for the 2017 National Festival. He has served as Director of Ballet at The Glenda Brown Choreography Project numerous times.

Mr. Clower has staged and created ballets for companies all over the United States. He has also worked with many opera companies, including the Santa Fe Opera, the Dallas Opera, and the Lyric Opera of Dallas. Companies have performed his choreography all over the world,

Since 2001 Thom Clower has worked around the world as a freelance master teacher and choreographer. His work has included regional companies and schools, and professional companies such as Oklahoma City Ballet, Pittsburgh Ballet Theater and Atlanta Ballet. He has been a guest teacher at Broadway Dance Center, Associate Ballet Master for Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo, and has served annually as Ballet Master for Young! Tanzsommer/Austria since 2002

Originally from Baton Rouge, Helen began her training at the Decatur School of Ballet in Decatur Georgia. Upon her family’s return to Louisiana she continued her training at the Dancer’s Workshop under the tutelage of Molly Buchmann and Sharon Mathews. She has also studied at The Joffrey Ballet School and The School of American Ballet. She performed with the Baton Rouge Ballet Theatre junior and senior companies before beginning her her professional career with Feld Ballets/New York. She has also danced with Ballet Hispanico and the Miami City Ballet.
Helen joined the Louisville Ballet in 1998 and has enjoyed seventeen wonderfully fulfilling seasons. She has performed featured roles in a range of works including Lark Ascending, In the Glow of the Night, Who Cares?, Serenade, Lamberena, Scheherazade, Company B, Etesian and Cold Virtues. She has performed principal roles in such full length ballets as The Magic Flute, Don Quixote, Giselle, Nutcracker, Swan Lake, The Sleeping Beauty, La Sylphide and A Cinderella Story. She has originated roles in ballets choreographed by Val Caniparoli, Amy Siewert, Helen Pickett and Adam Hougland.
Helen has had the pleasure of staging Hougland’s Rite of Spring, Cold Virtues and Fragile Stasis on companies including Louisville Ballet, Cincinnati Ballet, Tulsa Ballet and Smuin Ballet. She was thrilled to work as Adam Hougland’s rehearsal assistant as he created Ten Beautiful Objects for the Louisville Ballet in 2013. Helen took on the role of Cast Manager for the Nutcracker Children’s Cast with the launch of Louisville Ballet’s new Brown-Forman Nutcracker in 2009, and has been a member of the Louisville Ballet School Faculty since 2005, teaching students from age 8 to adult. She has taught at summer intensives in Shreveport and Baton Rouge, Louisiana; Baltimore, Maryland; and Louisville, Kentucky. She is happy to call Louisville home where she lives with her husband Brad and their two children Keiran and Iris.

Jeffrey Stocker is a master acting teacher and director with over 35 years of professional experience in NYC and across the country. He created a course at the Joffrey Ballet School called ACTING FOR THE DANCER that incorporates the use of acting exercises to develop expression that is vital in the performance of the dancer.

He has served on the faculty of the Joffrey Ballet School, Portland Festival Ballet, Magnus Midwest, and the Magnus Northwest. In Portland, Oregon he has taught master acting classes in musical theatre at the Portland Civic Theatre and Portland Center Stage. Mr. Stocker is the founder and director of the American Readers Theatre- a 501(3)c not for profit performing arts organization that promotes literacy through the arts of dance, music, and theatre with companies located in New York, Pennsylvania, and Oregon. He has been awarded grants from the Noel Coward Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts.

As a professional acting coach in New York City, he has coached Tony Award winning actors Karen Ziemba (Contact), Melissa Jaret (Hairspray), Crista Moore (Gypsy) and Sean McDermott (Miss Siagon). He has directed Frances Sternhagen, Tammy Grimes, Marion Seldes, Joan Copeland, and Cliff Robertson at the National Arts Club in New York City where he served as a Board of Governor and Chair of the Theatre Arts Committee for over 10 years.

Mr. Stocker is honored to be asked to join the faculty of the RDA/Festival in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and be part of the tribute to the legacy of John Magnus.

Amelie Hunter, Chair of the Orange Coast College Dance Department for the past six years, holds an MA from UCLA in Dance Ethnology and an MFA from New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts in Performance and Choreography.  A full-time faculty member at OCC since 2001, Amelie teaches ballet, Pilates and modern dance, and directs the dance department’s certificate programs, faculty dance concert, and Pilates guest speaker series.

A Louisiana native, Amelie began her dance training with the Baton Rouge Ballet Theatre, where she later became a lead soloist and choreographer under the direction of Molly Buchmann and Sharon Mathews.  She continued her ballet studies with John Marshall, Lawrence Rhodes, Cindy Green, and faculty members of the Royal Academy of Dance in London.  She studied modern dance with Sarah Rudner, Milton Meyers, and members of the Limon, Paul Taylor and Twyla Tharp companies. Amelie’s interest in world dance led her to study classical dance in Java and Bali and to perform with La Meri’s Ethnic Dance Arts Company.  She has performed throughout the United States, in England and Indonesia.

Winner of many state and local grants and honors, she is a choreographer who has set ballets on companies across the country, with six of her works placed on the National Choreography Plan for Regional Dance America.  A student of Kathy Grant and Jillian Hessel, she is certified in Polestar’s Allegro and post-rehabilitation Pilates programs.  Amelie is also a certified Gyrokinesis® instructor and a graduate of the American Ballet Theatre teacher training program.  For over twenty years, she has taught for the Twin City Ballet Company’s summer dance workshop and guest teaches and choreographs nationally.

CoCo Loupe holds a BFA from the University of Southern Mississippi and an MFA from Ohio State University in Dance/Choreography. In the past 25 years she has been an ADF student (1988, 1989 and 1992), an indie dance group dreamer, a pick-up performer and a university educator. Her work has been performed all over the place but not everywhere.

In 2006, her work “In The Clear” was presented at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts inWashington, D. C. as part of the National College Dance Festival. In Columbus, Ohio, she was a member of CAW: creative arts of women and was founder and co-operator of a dance/arts space called FEVERHEAD. She was also awarded an Individual Excellence Award for Choreography in 2012 by the Ohio Arts Council (OAC).

In 2013, CoCo moved back to the South and since then has created new worksfor LSMSA in Natchitoches, Louisiana, the HUB Dance Collective and the USM Repertory Dance Company (RDC) in Hattiesburg, Mississippi. She was a commissioned, collaborating artist/teacher, along with Peter Kyle, K.J. Holmes, Claire Porter and BeBe Miller, for Taking Place Columbus in Columbus, OH, and she created a new student work for the University of Louisiana at Lafayette fall dance concert. She also co-produced and performed in two Ten Tiny Dances concerts and produced the BR Blender at the Manship Theatre in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, with Mina Estrada. She served as adjunct faculty at The University of Southern Mississippi in 2014-15 and as Dance Faculty at the Trollwood Performing Arts School in Summer of 2015.

John Magnus brought the joy of dance to countless students and will always be remembered for his contagious enthusiasm for all aspects of life. He was a legendary faculty member at the RDA/SW festivals and students could not wait to study under his tutelage. In addition to ballet, he taught many lessons beyond the ballet studio that had a positive impact on his many students. John was a giver; he provided wisdom and insight. Our royal gem of dance is truly missed, but his artistry and influence on countless lives will continue for years to come.

Jeffrey Gribler began dancing at age 7 in his hometown of Dayton, Ohio. His 10 years of study at the Schwartz School of the Dance included six years of performing experience with the Dayton Ballet. In 1975, at the age of 17, he was offered an apprenticeship with Pennsylvania Ballet. He joined the Corps de Ballet in 1976 and was promoted to Principal Dancer in 1982.

Mr. Gribler has an extensive repertoire of both classical and modern works. He has danced leading roles in numerous ballets by George Balanchine, including Prodigal Son, Bugaku, The Four Temperaments, Agon, Who Cares? and A Midsummer Night’s Dream. His roles in contemporary works include Paul Taylor’s Arden Court and Company B, Merce Cunningham’s Arcade, William Forsythe’s Steptext and Love Songs, Kevin O’Day’s Col Legno and Lar Lubovitch’s Concerto 622 and Waiting for the Sunrise. He has also danced leading roles in classical repertoire, such as Siegfried and Benno in Swan Lake, Albrecht in Giselle, Franz and Dr. Coppelius in Coppelia, a Stepsister in Cinderella, and Mercutio in John Cranko’s Romeo and Juliet.

Mr. Gribler was Ballet Master for Pennsylvania Ballet from 1986 to 2014. Among his responsibilities was the task of rehearsing the children who appear in the Company’s annual production of George Balanchine’s The Nutcracker. He choreographed several works for Shut Up and Dance, the annual benefit for MANNA, and Cricket Dances, which was performed by Pennsylvania Ballet in October 1998. He has staged works by Lynne Taylor Corbett and Peter Martins around the United States and Europe. Mr. Gribler retired from the stage in June 2001, after 26 years of performing but continued performing character roles in ballets such as Coppelia (Dr. Coppelius), Swan Lake (Wolfgang), La Sylphide (Madge, the witch) and La Fille Mal Gardee (Widow Simone).

 

Mr. Gribler’s involvement with RDA stems back to the original organization, known as the National Association for Regional Ballet. As a member of Dayton Ballet, he performed at six Festivals for the Northeast Region. He has served as the Adjudicator for the Northeast Region in 1990, 1993, 1997 (first National Festival), 2003, 2008 and 2015, the Southwest in 1995 and the Southeast in 2002. He has created 4 ballets on RDA companies.

After 39 seasons with Pennsylvania Ballet, Mr. Gribler is now a freelance master teacher and occasional choreographer.