Summer Guest Artists for 2012

Sara Knight, Returning artist for Week 1, 2012: 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.

Momchil Mladenov, Guest Artist for 2012, Week 1: 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.

Andrea Basile, Guest Artist 2012, Week 2: Andrea Basile has performed with many dance companies including San Francisco Ballet, ODCDance, Alonzo King’s LINES Ballet, Kate Weare Company, im'ij-re, and The Foundry.  Alonzo King choreographed "Pas" for Homer Avila and Ms. Basile, which premiered with Axis Dance Company, later toured to the KennedyCenter, and was also featured on the cover of Dance Magazine.  Ms. Basile is also an established dance photographer as well as a ballet teacher for Bay Area dance companies and schools. Apart from the dance world, she is co-owner of two businesses in San Francisco, Tao Barber Salon and Slate Skin Detail Studio.

Sabir Yapparov, Returning guest artist for Week 2, 3, and 5, 2012: 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 is now the Director of the pre-professional C.O.R.P.S. program at Portland Ballet in Maine.

Devon Carney, Week 4, 2012: Bio
Victoria Morgan: Bio
 

Past guest artists include:

Jay Goodlet, Deirde Carberry, Maria Calegari, Stephanie Heston, Anna-Marie Holmes, Darla Hoover, Alexandr Smirnov