Amelie Hunter began her dance training with the Baton Rouge Ballet Theatre, where she became a lead soloist and choreographer. She continued her ballet studies with the Royal Academy of Dance in London and studied modern dance with Sarah Rudner, Milton Meyers, and members of the Limon, Paul Taylor and Twyla Tharp companies. She has performed throughout the United States, in England and Indonesia and has set ballets on companies across the country. The Co-Chair of Orange Coast College’s Dance Department, Amelie 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.

Emilie Plauché Flink holds a BFA in Dance from the Julliard School. She is the Artistic Associate of the Twin Cities based performance group, Black Label Movement. A member and soloist with the Limon Dance Company from 1989 – 1999, Emilie was also a Limon Institute faculty member in New York City. As a choreographer she has created commissioned work for universities and companies all over the country, including Baton Rouge Ballet Theatre.

Helen Daigle began her training at the Decatur School of Ballet in Decatur, Georgia, and continued 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 professional career with Feld Ballets/New York. She has also danced with Ballet Hispanico and the Miami City Ballet and was a member of the Louisville Ballet for 20 years before her retirement in 2018.  Helen has returned to Baton Rouge on several occasions to guest with BRBT as Odette in Swan Lake, Act II, the title role in Cinderella, and a soloist in Beyond Ballet.

Meredith Broussard grew up training with The Dancers’ Workshop and performing in many BRBT productions including 12 Nutcrackers. She has guested with BRBT as the Azalea Fairy in The Nutcracker and the title role in Snow White. She is a graduate of the Joffrey Ballet trainee program in Chicago where she danced and toured with the company under the direction of Ashley Wheater. She has also trained at summer programs including those at School of American Ballet in New York City, The Royal Ballet in London, and on full scholarship with Texas Ballet Theatre where she danced for 2 years under the direction of Ben Stevenson. She continues to dance and train in NYC in ballet and as a certified instructor in Gyrokinesis and Gyrotonic.

Shelby Williams began her ballet training with the Baton Rouge Ballet Theater, and continued her professional training on scholarship at the Washington School of Ballet (Washington, DC) and the Houston Ballet Academy (Houston, TX). From 2007 to 2009, Shelby performed with Houston Ballet as a dancer of Houston Ballet II, under the direction of Claudio Muños and Stanton Welch. She then joined Dresden Semperoper Ballett (Dresden, Germany) for the 2009/2010 season. After joining the Ballet d’Europe (Marseille, France) in 2010, she performed soloist roles in neoclassical and contemporary pieces on tour with the company throughout France and Switzerland. In 2012, Shelby performed with Barcelona Ballet (Barcelona, Spain) under the direction of Ángel Corella on tour throughout Spain and in the USA. From 2012-2014 she was a soloist with Ballettmainz of the Mainz State Theater (Mainz, Germany) From 2014-2016, Shelby danced for Hessen State Ballet (Wiesbaden/Darmstadt, Germany) as a soloist where she performed works featured roles in full length story ballets and leading roles in works by international choreographers. Shelby is currently a soloist with the Royal Ballet of Flanders in Antwerp, Belgium and has been featured in many principal roles such as Pina in Café Müller and in William Forsythe’s Approximate Sonata.

Dwayne Holliday is a professional dancer and choreographer working out of Cologne Germany. He began his ballet training at the Dancers’ Workshop in Baton Rouge, La, after discovering ballet at Baton Rouge High School with Sharon Matthews his senior year. He finished his ballet training with the Houston Ballet and went on to dance with Ballet Memphis, Cincinnati Ballet, Milwaukee Ballet, Ballet am Rhein in Dusseldorf and Theater Ulm. In this time he danced works from such choreographers as Jiri Kylian, Mats Ek, Trey McIntyre, Paul Taylor, Youri Vamos, Ben Stevenson and many others. Following his ballet career, he completed his Bachelors in Contemporary Stage Dance at the Center for Contemporary Dance in Cologne, Germany and his Masters in dance studies. He is currently writing his doctoral dissertation, studying how artistic research is learned at five major European Universities. He wrote for 5 years as a critic for Dance Europe Magazine, covering most of the major continental European Companies. He is a freelance dancer and choreographer, producing works that have been shown in various theatres, festivals and museums. He has taught ballet and contemporary dance at various universities and professional companies in the United States and Europe. Dwayne is also a certified yoga and Gyrokenesis teacher, as well as enjoying exploring movement forms such as martial arts, and capoeira.

Julia Boudreaux Mayo is a native of Louisiana, where she performed with the Baton Rouge Ballet Theater under the direction of Molly Buchmann and Sharon Mathews. Julia continued her dance training in New York City and holds a BFA in dance from The Juilliard School under the direction of Lawrence Rhodes, and an MFA in dance performance from New York University’s Tisch School for the Arts. Julia was a member of Cherylyn Lavagnino Dance and has performed nationally and internationally with various companies. Her choreography has been performed throughout New York City, Wyoming, and Louisiana. Julia was on faculty at the Atlanta Ballet Centre for Dance Education for three years working with students of all ages, including their pre-professional division. She served as the director of the dance program at Western Wyoming Community College from 2012-2014 and is currently a member of the dance faculty at DeSales University.

Taylor Mitchell is a native of Baton Rouge, where he trained with the Dancers’ Workshop and the Baton Rouge Ballet Theatre. He received his BFA in dance from the University of Arizona along with the “Creative Achievement Award” for choreographic works set on The U of A School of Dance Ensemble and the musical theater department. He has danced and had his work performed internationally in Germany and Italy, and is currently a member of Thodos Dance Chicago.

Terri Ayanna Wright is an honors graduate of the Ailey/Fordham BFA Program in Dance with a minor in computer science. She began her formal dance training in Baton Rouge with the Baton Rouge Ballet Theatre and continued in Houston, TX, eventually joining Exclamation Dance Company directed by Kenneth Epting. Ms. Wright attended dance intensives at METdance, Debbie Allen Dance Academy, ArchCore40, Lar Lubovitch Dance Company, and Alonzo King LINES Ballet. She has performed works by Martha Graham, Matthew Rushing, Hope Boykin, Nathan Trice, Astrid von Ussar, and Troy Powell. In 2012 and 2014, Ms. Wright danced in Alvin Ailey’s Memoria during Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater’s New York City Center season. She is currently a dancer with Ailey II.

Jesse was born and raised in Baton Rouge, where he studied classical singing, dancing and acting at LSU. In Baton Rouge he performed with the Baton Rouge Little Theatre, Aubin Lane Dinner Theatre, LSU Theatre and the Baton Rouge Ballet Theatre. After a year as a solo singer and dancer on the exclusive Royal Viking Cruise ships, he moved to New York, where he performed in Evita, A Chorus Line and La Chaim. Jesse’s European career started a few years later in Amsterdam, where he sang on many national radio shows and appeared several times on national TV as a singer and dancer. After choreographing Stepping Out there, he moved to Vienna, Austria where he performed leading roles in Cats, Les Miserablés, Kiss of the Spider Woman, Romeo and Juliet, choreographed shows, including Into the Woods, taught at the Max Rheinhard Seminar, and directed several internationally acclaimed musicals and theater pieces. He also sang the leads in several world-renowned theaters in Austria, including the Opera House in Graz and the Landestheaters in Innsbruck and Salzburg. In 1991, after the Velvet Revolution in Prague, he co-founded Prague’s first English-speaking theater company (Artists for Prague) where he produced, directed, choreographed and performed. Finally, in Hamburg he played Chagall in Dance of the Vampires (directed by Roman Polanski). In 2005, he took a break from the stage and started college in Hamburg for his degree in German Sign Language Interpreting. For the last 5 years he has been working with world-class choreographer John Neumeier and his company, the Hamburg Ballet, as well as other top stars of the international ballet scene as a physio-therapist. Now, after officially “coming out of retirement”, he plans to return to the stage as a singer, choreographer and director.

Whitney Dufrene, originally from Louisiana, is a performer, teacher, choreographer and musician based in Manhattan. She trained with Baton Rouge Ballet Theatre, Point Park University, and graduated with a BFA in dance from Belhaven University. Whitney performed with Ad Deum Dance Company, and has also served as company director for Dance du Coeur and director of dance for Creative Dreams Outreach Center. She has choreographed work for Ad Deum, Dance du Coeur, Belhaven’s Dance Ministry, Baton Rouge Ballet Theatre, and Weave Dance Collective. She has also danced in Jerusalem with the TDC as a part of the Feast of Tabernacles and is a current member of Awakening Movement in NYC. Her deepest passion and joy is working to see the arts bring breakthrough, justice, hope, healing and freedom in individuals. Whitney currently dances with Doug Varone and Dancers in New York.

A native of Watson, Louisiana, Molly is currently performing on Broadway in New York City. Molly danced with the Baton Rouge Ballet Theatre’s Junior and Senior Company and performed in “The Nutcracker: A Tale from the Bayou,” for nine years. She also sang in the Livingston Parish Children’s Choirs, trained in the parish’s gifted and talented programs for both voice and theater and performed in numerous shows with Theatre Baton Rouge. Molly has a Bachelor of Music degree with emphasis on music theater from Oklahoma City University. She performed on the Disney Dream cruise ship before moving to New York City in 2012 where she is now performing on Broadway in the new musical, “Anastasia”.

Le’Tiger Walker found a passion for dance at the young age of six and began his training at The Dancers’ Workshop, home of Baton Rouge Ballet Theatre, where he was a pre-professional company member. Throughout his training he attended summer intensives on scholarship at Baton Rouge Ballet Theatre, Debbie Allen Dance Academy, and Garth Fagan Dance Summer Movement Institute. He is a graduate of Baton Rouge Magnet High School with performing arts honors in Ballet, under the direction of Sharon Mathews and Rebecca Acosta.

Le’Tiger currently dances with Garth Fagan Dance in Rochester, NY. After attending the Garth Fagan Dance Summer Movement Institute in July 2015 Mr. Garth Fagan, Tony Award winner for Best Choreography for Walt Disney’s The Lion King, invited Le’Tiger to audition for and later join his company in September 2015. As the youngest company member with Garth Fagan Dance, Le’Tiger has performed in the Rochester Fringe Festival, the historic Joyce Theatre, Garth Fagan Dance’s 45th Anniversary home season at Nazareth College, and multiple performances near upstate New York and Los Angeles, California.

A native of Baton Rouge, Louisiana, Ben began his dance training with Madalyn Montegudo and Marianne Hebert. He went on to dance with Baton Rouge Ballet Theater, receiving scholarships for summer programs at Ballet Austin, Harid Conservatory, Nashville Ballet, Houston Ballet, and Hubbard Street Dance Chicago. 

He holds a Bachelors degree in Ballet Performance from the Jacobs School of Music at Indiana University, where he was mentored by Guoping Wang, Doricha Sales, and Violette Verdy. He danced featured roles in all ballet department productions and was able to collaborate in projects outside the Jacobs School as well, dancing for cellist Dr. Sophie Weber and in multiple works by choreographer Esther Widlanski.

Ben danced as a trainee with Ballet Memphis, and later joined Denver’s Ballet Nouveau Colorado (now Wonderbound), where he danced for two seasons under the leadership of Garrett Ammon and Dawn Fay. With BNC, he danced in several world premiers including the company’s premier performance at the Ellie Caulkins Opera House, as well as in collaborations with RedLine Art Gallery and the Colorado Symphony.

Upon leaving dance company life, Ben has performed with Houston Grand Opera, the Arvada Center Theater, Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival, Central City Opera, and the Boston Early Music Festival. His concise technique and formidable stage presence add a distinct style to his performance, proving him to be a most versatile performer capable of productions ranging from contemporary to classical.

A noted teacher as well, he is skilled to teach ballet, jazz, and repertory to beginners through adults. He served as a primary instructor and ballet master for the Indiana University Pre-college Ballet program, and was on the faculty at School of Ballet Nouveau Colorado (now the Colorado Conservatory of Dance) for two years.

Ben is a member in good standing of both Actors’ Equity Association and the American Guild of Musical Artists.

A native of New Orleans, Louisiana, Elizabeth began her dance training at Jefferson Ballet Theatre under the direction of Kimberly and Kenneth Beck. After moving to Baton Rouge, she went on to dance with Baton Rouge Ballet Theatre and performed such roles as the Azalea Fairy in the “Nutcracker – A Tale from the Bayou” and Rapunzel.  She attended multiple summer programs including Houston Ballet, Orlando Ballet, and Boston Ballet.  Elizabeth continued her training at The Harid Conservatory in Boca Raton, Florida under the direction of Swetlana Osiyeva.  She then joined the Professional Division of Texas Ballet Theater where in 2019 she was promoted to the rank of trainee with the company.