Tatiana
Berenova, Born
in Gorky, Russia, Tatiana received
her training from the Moscow Choreographic Ballet Academy, the official
school of the Bolshoi Ballet. She attained the rank Prima Ballerina at
the National Academic Bolshoi Ballet Theatre of The Republic of Belarus
and the Moscow Renaissance Ballet and was guest star with the Moscow
Imperial Ballet, the Pushkin Academic
Opera & Ballet Theatre of Nizhniy Novgorod, Philadelphia
Ballet, Canyon Concert Ballet and Ballet du
Soleil. In 1995 Ms. Berenova was awarded the
First Place Gold Medal at the Third International Ballet Competition in Luxembourg. Her roles have
included Odette/Odile in Swan Lake, Kitri in Don
Quixote, Giselle
and Myrta in Giselle,
Princess Aurora in The
Sleeping Beauty, Marie & Sugarplum Fairy in The Nutcracker and the
roles of Cinderella,
Raymonda,
Firebird, Carmen, Esmeralda
in ballets of the same name. During her professional career, Ms. Berenova has
worked with great Russian Ballet Dancers Raisa Struchkova, Nikolai Fadeyechev, Nina Ocipyan and many
others. She has toured Europe, the United States, and both the Near and Far East. Tatiana is married to fellow company
member Pavel Homko and this is her second season with MDT.
Sam Feipel has been dancing
tap, jazz, and acrobatics since he was seven; starting ballet and modern when
he was twelve.
Mr. Feipel has studied at the Central Illinois
Ballet and the School of Ballet Chicago, and has been a guest artist
for the Ketchikan Theatre Ballet of Alaska. Mr. Feipel is a company member of Minnesota Dance Theatre.
Leah Gallas received her
training at Ballet Arts Minnesota, spending summers at the San
Francisco Ballet and the Boston Ballet on full scholarships. Gallas
became an apprentice with the Colorado Ballet, performing demi-solo roles and later joined the Ohio's Dayton Ballet
as a company member. She then danced as a principal with the Virginia Ballet
Theatre, performing in various roles including Marie Taglioni in Pas de Déesses
and Young Girl in Abyss.
Now in her third year with the Minnesota Ballet, she has won praise in
the principal roles of Swanilda (Coppélia),
Cinderella, and Marie in The
Nutcracker, for which the News Tribune enthused: "Gallas
floated beautifully throughout the stage space and projected warmth and
innocence." Leah would like to thank her family for their support.
Pavel Homko, Born in Minsk, Republic of Belarus, Pavel received
his training from the Belarus Choreographic Ballet Academy with Serge Pestekhin. He has appeared as a soloist with the National
Academic Bolshoi Ballet Theatre of The Republic of Belarus and as guest
Principal with Philadelphia Ballet Theatre, Georgia Ballet, Canyon Concert
Ballet and Ballet du Soleil.
Mr. Homko has danced the principal roles of Prince Siegfried in Swan Lake, Count Albrecht and
Hilarian in Giselle,
Prince Charming in Cinderella,
Pier Grenguare in Esmeralda,
Lucien in Pequita
and others. He has toured much of Europe and the Far East dancing principal
and soloist roles. Pavel is married to fellow company member Tatiana Berenova and
this is his second season with MDT.
Mifa Ko was born in Tokyo and studied with
the Matsuyama Ballet School. She also
trained at the Academie de Dance Classique Princess Grace in Monte Carlo, the Bolshoi
Ballet in Russia, and the Boston
Ballet School, where she had the opportunity to perform with the company in
The Nutcracker
and Le Corsaire.
Mifa has worked with Valentina Koslova
at the Daring Project, the New Dance Group, and Connecticut
Ballet. Most recently, she was a member of the James Sewell Ballet
performing in Minneapolis and touring
nationally. Performing at the Opening Ceremonies of the Olympic Games in Nagano has been one of
the highlights of her career. Mifa currently dances for MDT.
Katherine Krieser (University of Minnesota). Katherine Krieser
brings performance and choreography experience, which includes principal roles
as Princess and the Arabian pas de deux in the Nutcracker, and
performances with Matthew Keefe, Peggy Seipp, Danny Buraczeski, and others. Katherine has also choreographed work
for adjudication, which was accepted and performed in the annual RDA festival
in Chicago. Her dance
training and education includes the American Ballet Theater, University
of Minnesota, Ballet Arts, Youth Ballet Company, and the Minnetonka
Dance Theater and School, where she trained since 1988. She is the
recipient of full dance scholarships from the Washington School of Ballet
and Alexandra Ballet. She has studied with David Howard, John Meehan,
Rebecca Wright, Bonnie Mathis, Ronald Tice, Marianne Simmons, and others.
Barry Leon has been receiving
acclaim for his work for over three decades. His performance experience
includes principal roles in most of the classical repertoire in addition to the
works of Balanchine, Van Manen, Tudor, Tetley Nebrada, Aiello, and other renowned choreographers. Barry
received his dance training in Buffalo, NY under Kathleen
Crofton and Frank Bourman, excelling in tap and jazz
as well as ballet. He attended the School of American Ballet as a Ford
Foundation Scholarship recipient. A scholarship to Harkness
House for Ballet Arts allowed him to further his training with David
Howard, Maria Vegh and Claudia Cravey.
After touring Europe with the Harkness Ballet, he returned to New York and studied with
Maggie Black before joining Pennsylvania Ballet. He quickly rose to
principal dancer and stayed with the company for six years. Upon leaving Pennsylvania
Ballet he danced for Eliot Feld Ballet and
was also permanent Guest Principal for New Jersey Ballet. Currently he
is on the faculty of Ballet Arts MN and the School of Lakeville City
Ballet. He has also taught ballet as part of the dance department at the University of Minnesota. As time permits,
he continues to dance as a guest artist and teach master classes with a number
of dance companies and schools throughout the US.
Michelle May-see Mahowald is currently
pursuing a Bachelor of Science in Ballet Performance with an Outside Field in
English Literature. Before joining the IU Ballet Theater, Ms. Mahowald
trained with the Continental Ballet Company in her native Minnesota, and has attended
such nationally recognized summer programs as American Ballet Theater in
New
York. During her two years with IUBT, Ms. Mahowald
has performed in Serenade
(Spring Ballet 2003), Glassworks
(Fall Ballet 2004), Viva Vivaldi! (Fall Ballet
2004), and as Lead Mirliton and “Chinese” in The Nutcracker (2004). Ms.
Mahowald received first place in 2005’s National Association of Arts and
Letters held January 2005. Ms. Mahowald has been training with with Violette Verdy,
Glenda Lucena, Jacques Cesbron
and Gouping Wang.
Amy Pennaz A Minnesota native, Amy has been dancing in
the Twin Cities for 10 years, performing in local Nutcrackers with Ballet Arts Minnesota
and Minnesota Dance Theatre. She apprenticed with the Colorado Ballet
and has trained over the summers at the Milwaukee Ballet, Colorado
Ballet, Royal Winnipeg Ballet, the Kirov
Ballet Academy in Washington D.C., and the Boston
Ballet. This summer she hopes to attend the Paul Taylor summer intensive.
She performed last spring in Metropolitan Ballet Project's Romeo and Juliet. Amy
has a degree in Biomedical Engineering and will be attending the physical
therapy program at the College of St. Catherine this fall.
Mathew Powell began his training
at the West Virginia School of Ballet and moved to New York City at the age of 16
to study with Peter Boal, Peter Martins, Jock Soto,
Stanley Williams, and many other teachers at the School of American Ballet.
This experience provided Mr. Powell with the opportunity to dance as a guest
soloist with the San Francisco Opera, perform in various pieces in New York City, and ultimately
led to being hired by The Pacific Northwest Ballet. Mr. Powell spent
three years with PNB performing soloist and principal roles that included
tours throughout Europe and Asia. Mr. Powell is
currently a company member of The Kansas City Ballet which boasts some
of the best known works in both the classic and contemporary repertoire. In
addition he has choreographed three ballets for the company's choreographic
workshop and is an invited faculty member of The Kansas City Ballet School.
Ted Sothern is a native of Minneapolis and has danced
extensively with Minnesota Dance Theater. While dancing with Washington
Ballet he toured China, the Philippines and performed in
the Olympic Arts Festival in Seoul, Korea. He has been a
member of American Repertory Ballet, North Carolina Dance Theater
and Southern Ballet Theater. Having performed many works by
choreographers including Sal Aiello, Vicente Nebrada,
Judith Jamison, Alvin Ailey, William Forsythe,
Balanchine and Petipa has made him at home in classical or contemporary roles.
Sal Aiello choreographed the role of Hans/Nutcracker Prince on him while he was
a principle dancer with NCDT. Recently he has toured Japan extensively with Ballets
Grandiva performing a variety of classic,
contemporary and comedic ballets. Look for him in upcoming productions with Ballet
Of The Dolls.
Julia Tehven - After several years
training with Loyce Houlton's Minnesota Dance
Theatre, Julia Tehven was invited to join the company where she perfomed in a diverse repetoire
of acclaimed choreographers such as Tetley, Petipa, Ashton,Balanchine and many of Houlton's original ballets.
Since 1988 Julia has danced with Ballet of the Dolls, participating in
the creation of several original ballets and roles including Micheala (Carmen),
Marie (Nutcracker?!),
the title role of Giselle
and others. Julia has performed at Chanahassen
Dinner Theater and has acted at the Jungle Theater. She has danced
with the James Sewell Ballet and for local choreographers such as Jen
Hart, Penny Freeh, and Matthew Keefe. Julia is a
recipient of a 2004 McKnight Fellowship for Dancers, funded by the McKnight
Foundation and administered by the Southern Theater.
Erin Warn currently a company
member with Ballet Minnesota, received her training through Classical Ballet Academy and the University of Utah. She has performed
in such classics as The
Nutcracker (Rose and Snow Queen), Coppelia, and Swan Lake.
Keith Glenn Born in Houston,
Keith began his dance training with the Houston Ballet Academy at age
eight. Upon graduating from the academy, Keith was accepted into the company,
where he was fortunate to dance such roles as Fritz in The Nutcracker, and a
lead in Five Poems
and Etudes.
Last year in his first season with the Minnesota Ballet he drew praise
from the News Tribune for his performance as the Mouse King in The Nutcracker that gave
the audience "its first taste of masterful showmanship from the ballet
company's members."
Kristina Drill, a native of Minnesota, began her dance
training in Rochester under the
instruction of Janet M. Johnson. Kristina has attended numerous summer dance
programs where she received instruction from those including Damian Woetzel, Bojan Spassoff, Lindsay Fischer, and Johnny Eliasen.
Most recently, Kristina performed with Continental Ballet Company. While
with CBC, Kristina performed in excerpts from Paquita, Rodeo, Coppelia,
and other original works in addition to her roles as Rat Queen, Flower Queen,
and Dolls in The
Nutcracker, and the Jester and Summer Fairy in Cinderella. Along with
dancing, Kristina is currently pursuing her Doctor of Physical Therapy from the
College of St. Catherine.
Jennifer Rockwell is an alumus of the Walnut Hill School for the Fine Arts
in Natick, MA. Ms. Rockwell
danced as a soloist with Rosella Hightower's Jeune
Ballet International in France, and with the Amherst
Ballet and Pioneer Valley Ballet after returning to the United States. In France and the
U.S. Ms Rockwell danced
such roles as Swanhilda in Coppelia, the
Dewdrop Fairy in the Nutcracker,
and Aurora in The Sleeping Beauty. She
holds a BFA in dance and a BA in psychology from the University of Massachusetts
Amherst, and since moving to Minneapolis, has been seen
most recently as a guest artist in Minnesota Dance Theater's Nutcracker Fantasy.