Faculty
| Sally Streets, Director Emerita. Ms. Streets, renowned for her teaching and choreography, has been part of Berkeley Ballet Theater since 1981. Before coming to Berkeley, Ms. Streets performed with Mia Slavenska's Ballet Variante and The New York City Ballet. In the Bay Area, she held positions as Ballet Mistress and principal dancer with the Oakland Ballet and Pacific Ballet. Her teaching background includes positions as company teacher with the San Francisco Ballet and guest teacher with the Royal Ballet, Ballet Rambert and the New York City Ballet. She has also participated as Artistic Advisor for the Diablo Ballet in Walnut Creek. Ms. Streets continues to teach for BBT and enjoys choreographing ballets for BBT productions. |
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Ilona McHugh, Artistic Director, was born in Santa Barbara, California, and started ballet at age 7. She continued at Orange County High School of the Arts, and then with Marin Dance Theatre. Ms. McHugh joined American Ballet Theatre’s corps in 1998 where she danced for ten years. Her favorite roles include Olga in Kenneth MacMillan’s Anastasia, Big Swans in Swan Lake, Paul Taylor’s Airs, and Martha Grahm’s Diversion of Angels. She has taught regularly since 2004. |
| Susan Weber, Associate Artistic Director. While dancing in the Lar Lubovitch Dance Company, Ms. Weber assisted Mr. Lubovitch in setting works at the Royal Danish Ballet, Les Grands Ballets Canadiens, Pennsylvania Ballet, le Théâtre du Silence, the UCLA Dance Company, and on Lynn Seymour of the Royal Ballet. In recent years, she has worked as assistant to choreographer Mark Morris on his pieces for San Francisco Ballet: A Garden, Later, Sylvia, and Joyride, and has worked with Tina Fehlandt to set Mr. Morris' Gong at the Royal Ballet and Drink to Me Only With Thine Eyes at English National Ballet. Susan holds M.A. and B.A. degrees in Dance from UCLA, where she began teaching during graduate school. |
Photo: Fraser Bonnell |
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Deborah Moss, School Principal. Ms. Moss has worked and studied with Sally Streets since 1986. Prior to that time Deborah studied and taught at Stamp School in Albany, CA. Ms. Moss has participated in numerous teaching workshops where she has studied, among other things, the Cecchetti method, the Legat system, and Lester Horton technique. Deborah is a Fine Arts graduate of UC Berkeley. |
Graciela Acedo was a soloist at Ballet Nuevo Mundo de Caracas. Ms. Acedo has also danced with Oakland Ballet and Mark Foehringer Dance Project, among others. Ms. Acedo has taught at the University of Nebraska and Western Ballet, where she was Associate Director. She has conducted a teaching seminar with the National Ballet of Cuba.
Patricia Banchik began her training in Mexico City where she was born and raised. She attended college at Loretto Heights College in Denver, Colorado where she received a B.A. in Dance and Psychology. She has performed with David Taylor Dance Theater, Berkeley Ballet Theater, in Dance Brigade's Nutcracker, and with independent choreographers in the Bay Area. For the past twelve years she has also ventured into choreography, and in 2003 she formed her own dance company, "Kinesis," which has performed in several venues including Dance Is Festival and West Wave Festival. Ms. Banchik has been teaching at BBT since 1988.
| Marika Brussel trained on scholarship at the Joffrey Ballet School. She has danced professionally with companies around the country including Ballet Theater of New Mexico, Napoles Ballet Theatre, and Alameda Ballet. |
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Brooke Byrne was trained in classical ballet at Pittsburgh Theatre School as well as jazz, tap, and musical theater at the Melodia Arts Center. She double-majored in Dance and Theater at Bard College in New York, graduating with honors. Upon graduation Ms. Byrne was invited to perform with Festival Ballet USA in England. She then moved to the Bay Area where she was a founding member of Moving Basis Modern Dance Collective, a founding member of Las Estrellas, a soloist with Ballet Pampa Argentina tango company, and a member of Khadra International Dance Theatre, where she is now Artistic Director. Ms. Byrne has been teaching dance and fitness to children and adults since 1982.
John Butterfield founded New Urban Dance Company in 1989. The Company has performed in the Bay Area and Throughout Northern California. The acting branch of the Company, Butterfield 8, has performed at the Dean Lesher Region Center for the Arts and Town Hall Theater. As a dancer Mr. Butterfield has toured the US with Dance Through Time and has performed with ODC, Left Coast Dance, and Company Chaddick. He has received two Shelly awards; one for Choreography and one for Costuming.
Sandra Chinn was born in Berkeley and began ballet training with Jane Stamps in Albany. She graduated from the National Academy of Arts (Champaign, IL), and continued studies at the Joffrey Ballet School American Ballet Center. In New York City Ms. Chinn was a company member of Dennis Wayne's Dancers, Finis Jhung's Chamber Ballet USA, and Bob Bowyer's American Ballet Comedy. She was featured in the off-Broadway dance show "Funny Feet", for which she received a Drama Desk Award nomination for "Outstanding Featured Actress in a Musical". Ms. Chinn has taught for companies including ODC/Dance, Paul Taylor Dance Company, LINES Ballet, and Smuin Ballet.
Denise Collins trained, performed and studied for her Royal Academy exams with Santa Rosa Ballet Company and Ballet En Ronde. Working with various Bay Area schools and companies, she has taught ballet and creative dance to children for twenty years. Her background also includes Early Childhood Education and teaching pre-school.
Margaret Cromwell is originally from Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. After earning her BFA from North Carolina School of the Arts, she taught dance and visual art at a secondary school on the island of St. Lucia in the West Indies. She initially moved to the Bay Area to earn her MFA from Mills College. She had the pleasure of dancing, teaching, and touring with Axis Dance Company for two years and working with artists such as Margaret Jenkins, Joe Goode, Victoria Marks, Kate Weare and Sonya Delwaide. She was very honored to join the Margaret Jenkins Dance Company in 2008.
Sonya Delwaide is a native of Quebec and
Artistic Director and Resident Choreographer of Compagnie de Danse
L'Astragale. Since 1983 her choreography has been regularly presented
in Canada, the United States and more recently in France and Brazil.
She has taught at the National Ballet of Canada, Les Grands Ballets
Canadians, the Cegep of Drummondville and other professional studios
in the U.S. and Canada. Ms. Delwaide currently teaches at Mills College
in Oakland. Ms. Delwaide is a Fine Arts graduate of
York University in Toronto.
| Brandon Freeman, better known as “Private,” hails from Colorado. He started dancing in college and with Canyon Concert Ballet, before a very successful 12-year career with ODC, during which he was also a guest artist for BBT. In the Bay Area Mr. Freeman has worked with Marin Ballet, Western Ballet, Peninsula Ballet, Stephen Pelton, Kevin Ware, Katie Faulkner, and Sonya Delwaide. He was a principal dancer in the movie, "The Matrix II: Reloaded." Mr. Freeman earned an Isadora Duncan Award, with Brian Fisher, for Ensemble Performance in 2002, and received a nomination for Individual Performance in 2004 for his role in Brenda Way’s Investigating Grace. |
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Alice Gray began her ballet training at the Oregon Ballet Theatre school at the age of seven. She also attended the American Ballet school and Ecole de Danse in Perpignan, France. Upon graduation from high school she was accepted as an apprentice at Oregon Ballet Theatre. The following year she was promoted to company member. At OBT, Ms. Gray performed principal and soloist roles in The Nutcracker, Les Sylphides, and Giselle, among others. She was featured in many of Artistic Director James Canfield's contemporary ballets, and had the opportunity to be personally coached by Isabelle Fokine while rehearsing for Les Sylphides.
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Robert Greer, a native Californian, has been dancing throughout the U.S. for the past 15 years. Mr. Greer has performed in a number of ballet companies such as Augusta Ballet, Charleston Ballet Theatre, and Ballet Idaho. More recently he returned to San Francisco as a freelance dancer and teacher. He has enjoyed dancing in many ballets; some of his favorites are Lar Lubovitch’s My Funny Valentine, Jill Bahr’s The Rite of Spring, and Roy Gan’s Requiem. He appreciates the opportunity to share his passion for teaching and dance at BBT. |
Erica Rose Jeffrey studied dance at the Pittsburgh Ballet School before joining Ballet Internationale. After dancing professionally for several years, she attended Indiana University as a Wells Scholar and has degrees in Ballet and Mediation and Conflict Resolution. Ms. Jeffrey co-directed COUNTERPOINTe.
Corinne Jonas received her training at the Marin Ballet.
She danced with the Houston Ballet for nine seasons, where she performed
featured roles in Ben Stevenson's Peer Gynt, Swan Lake,
Cinderella, Alice in Wonderland, and others.
Ms Jonas danced with Diablo Ballet from 1995 through 2001,
where she performed a wide range
of principal and soloist roles and also coordinated Diablo Ballet's "adopt a
class" program.
Upon her retirement Ms. Jonas became Artistic Director of BBT, serving from
2001 through 2005.
David Kato is Youth Company Director and head of the Boys' Division of Berkeley Ballet Theater. A professional dancer since 1986, Mr. Kato trained at the Palo Alto Ballet School, Marin Ballet, and the Pennsylvania Ballet School. He has performed with Empire State Ballet, Marin Ballet, Peninsula Ballet Theater, and Margaret Wingrove Contemporary Dance Company, in addition to his appearances in many BBT performances, including The Nutcracker, Chopin for Two, and Coppelia.
Xiao Liu-Moore began her training in her native Hunan Province, China at age eleven. She won her first major award, capturing third place in the first Chinese National Dance Competition, in 1980. In 1982 she was awarded first place in the Hunan Province Dance Competition. In 1984 she took first place in the Outstanding Performers Competition in Hunan Province. She received her B.A. degree from Beijing Dance Academy in Classical Dance and Character Dance Teaching. In 1986 she was the first Chinese to receive a scholarship from the China Fund to the School of American Ballet in New York. As a dancer, instructor, and choreographer, Xiao has enjoyed working with various schools and companies around the San Francisco Bay Area.
Michael Lowe has danced, choreographed, and directed for the Oakland Ballet. Mr. Lowe's choreography includes Table for Two, Witness, The Emperor and the Nightingale, Dim Sum and Bamboo.
Kirsten Schwartz began her ballet training in Los Gatos under Paul E. Curtis, and continued with Suzanee Gibson Storti in Santa Cruz, from whom she learned to teach children and adults. After a year at at the San Francisco Ballet School on a Ford Foundation Scholarship, she then danced several years with Oakland Ballet, continuing her teaching there. After a hiatus that included college and graduate school, Ms. Schwartz returned to ballet at Berkeley Ballet Theater. She teaches writing at U.C. Berkeley and ballet for adults at the Albany Community Center.
Cassandra Seeger received her training on full
scholarship at both the San Francisco Ballet School and in
Los Angeles at the Westside Academy of Dance.
She enjoyed a ten-year career with the Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre
and with Ballet Arizona in Phoenix.
Ms. Seeger performed many soloist roles of the classical repertoire
and worked with leading choreographers such as Ohad Naharin, Lynn
Taylor-Corbett, Ib Andersen, and Ben Stevenson.
Ms. Seeger especially enjoyed dancing principal roles in Lynn
Taylor-Corbet's Ballad of You and Me, a piece set to the music of
Pete Seeger, her grandfather; Myrta in Giselle;
Desdemona in Jose Limon's The Moor's Pavane;
and Shirley in Lisa de Ribere's Harvest Moon.
Ms. Seeger has been teaching in the Bay Area for the past
nine years; she has earned a BFA in Illustration from the California
College of the Arts.
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Priya Starbuck, a native San Franciscan, trained at the Marin Ballet. In 1994 she apprenticed with the San Francisco Ballet; she joined the company in 1995. She was promoted to Soloist in 2002. Since leaving San Francisco Ballet in 2004 Ms. Starbuck co-created AuthenticSF, a company designed to cultivate more sustainable and flourishing relationships. Ms. Starbuck maintains private coaching on relationships and co-leads the Authentic Man Program in San Francisco. Ms. Starbuck is also a certified yoga teacher and has a private practice as a CMT. |
Teresa Taylor received her early training
with Eric Hyrst of the Royal Ballet.
While attending Southern Oregon University, where she graduated with Honors in
a double major of Theater and Humanities, she performed extensively with
the State Ballet of Oregon.
Performances include Swan Lake, Les Sylphides, The Nutcracker, and many
original ballets.
Ms. Taylor continued her training in San Francisco and Seattle before moving
to Boston to dance with the Ballet Theatre of Boston, Ballet New
England, and Boston Dance Company.
During this time, she performed Balanchine ballets Valse Fantastique
and Concerto Barocco, as well as performing in works by Agnes de Mille,
Isadora Duncan, Ted Shawn, and Ruth St. Denis.
Ms. Taylor has also appeared as a guest artist with the Minnesota Dance
Theater.
Rudy Apffel is BBT's principal accompanist. A well-known figure within the community of Bay Area dance studios, Mr. Apffel's attentive accompaniment helps BBT students learn to merge the skills of focus and discipline with their natural musicality.