Faculty & Guests
Summer Guest Artists for 2013
Sara Knight, Returning Artist 2013 (Weeks 1,2,3): Sara Knight is a graduate of England's Royal Ballet School, an Associate of the Royal Academy of Dance (A.R.A.D.), graduate of the Royal Ballet School Teachers' Training Course (R.B.S. Dip. TTC.) and first British graduate of Russia's Vaganova (Kirov) BalletAcademy. Sara is a recipient of the Royal Ballet Special Award for Excellence personally awarded by Dame Ninette de Valois, founder of the Royal Ballet.
Upon graduation, Sara was accepted to the Eifman Ballet Theatre, then remained in Russia and became Soloist with Leningrad State Ballet Theatre and The Russian Ballet of St. Petersburg. In the West, she danced with England's Northern Ballet Theatre, and was Principal Dancer with European Ballet of London, Configuration Dance USA, and the Rebecca Rice Dance Company, USA.
Sara has been invited to teach world-wide including: The 14th International Festival in France; Boston Ballet Company and the Boston Ballet School; Boston Conservatory; Laban Centre London; Arts Educational School of the United Kingdom; England's Northern Ballet Theatre; Ballet Mistress for London's Central School of Ballet; Assistant Artistic Director of the Ballet School of Stamford; and Co-Founder and Artistic Director of the Greenwich Ballet Academy, Greenwich, CT. Presently Sara is teaching in her new school SLK Ballet in Manhattan.
In addition, she is now in the process of forming an alliance with the French Riviera Ballet and Profession de Dance Frejus, France.
Sabir Yapparov, Returning Artist 2013 (Weeks 1,2,4,5): Sabir Yapparov received his academic and ballet training at the Perm Ballet Academy, Russia and studied with some of the finest teachers in his country, including Julius Plahkt. He was a soloist with the Sverdlovsk Academic Theatre of Opera & Ballet and with the Bolshoi Theater in Uzbekistan, and was a principal with the Odessa Academic Theater of the Opera and Ballet in the Ukraine. His repertoire included leading roles in the classical, neoclassical and contemporary ballets; Albrecht in Giselle, Prince Siegfried in Swan Lake, Prince Star in Masquerade, Prince Desire in Sleeping Beauty and Ivan in Hunchback Horse.
Mr. Yapparov worked with such prominent teachers and artists as A. Messerer, M. Plisetskaya and V. Gordeev. He was invited as a guest principal throughout the former Soviet Union, Italy, Hungary, Portugal, Finland, India, Spain and Canada. He was also awarded the rank of Honored Artist of the Ukraine.
Mr. Yapparov worked as a ballet master with the Sarasota Ballet for 11 years, serving, one year as Associate Artistic Director. In 2003-2004 he was a Visiting Professor in the Dance program at the USF School of Theatre and Dance in Florida, and was a guest faculty member at North Carolina Schoolof the Arts in 2007-2008. Mr. Yapparov most recently was both a Ballet teacher and the Assistant to Artistic Director at the Kirov Academy of Ballet in Washington DC. He was formerly the Director of the pre-professional C.O.R.P.S. program at Portland Ballet in Maine. Currently he is the Academy Principal for the Cincinnati Ballet Academy.
Andrea Basile, Returning Artist 2013 (Week 2): Andrea Basile has performed with many dance companies including San Francisco Ballet,
Cervilio Amador, Guest Artist for 2013 (Week 2): Born in Camagüey, and raised in Havana, Cuba, Mr. Amador received his training at The Vocational Ballet School in Camagüey, Cuba and The National Ballet School in Havana, Cuba. In 2001, at the age of eighteen, he joined The National Ballet of Cuba as a corps de ballet dancer and was promoted a year later to corifeo (demi- soloist).Mr. Amador came to the United States in 2003 and shortly after joined Cincinnati Ballet as a soloist. At the age of twenty-three he was promoted to Principal Dancer.
Mr. Amador has been invited to perform in many countries around the world such as Spain, Holland, Mexico, Costa Rica, Venezuela and Guatemala. He has also participated in many Galas in the U.S.
Momchil Mladenov, Guest Artist for 2012 (Week 3): born in Bourgas, Bulgaria, trained in the Vaganova Method and danced with The National Ballet of Bulgaria. In 1997, he earned a B.A. degree from the National Academy of Music in Sofia. He began his career in Americaas a dancer and Ballet Master at the Universityof Texas, El Pasounder the directorship of Ingeborg Heuser. He assisted choreographer Kathryn Posin and danced the lead in her production of Scheherazade at Milwaukee Ballet. In 2001, he joined The Suzanne Farrell Ballet. To date, Momchil is the only company member to dance the title role in The Suzanne Farrell Ballet’s restaging of Balanchine’s Don Quixote. Momchil founded Cultural Bridges Association and in partenrish with America for Bulgaria Foundation presented, Kathryn Posin, The Suzanne Farrell Ballet and the National Ballet of Bulgaria in a shared program titled "Balanchine and Farrell: American Ballet for Bulgaria" at the National Opera House in Sofia, Bulgaria in June 2011.
Guoping Wang, Guest Artist 2013 (Weeks 3,4): A native of China, Mr. Wang studied ballet at the Ballet Department of the Shanghai Dance School and in the graduate program at the Jacobs School of Music. He danced with the Shanghai Ballet Company from July 1980 to October 1991 and Mr. Wang joined Ballet Chicago in 1993 performing leading roles with the company through 1995. In 1997, while also a member of the Joffrey Ballet of Chicago, Mr. Wang was recognized by the Chicago Dance Community with a Ruth Page Award for Outstanding Dance Achievement. Mr. Wang has been on the faculty of the School of Ballet Chicago and a guest teacher and coach for the Indiana University Ballet Theater.
Devon Carney, Returning Guest Artist, 2013 (Week 5): Bio
Victoria Morgan, Returning Guest Artist, 2013: Bio
Past guest artists include:
Jay Goodlet, Deirde Carberry, Maria Calegari, Stephanie Heston, Anna-Marie Holmes, Darla Hoover, Alexandr Smirnov
