 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. |
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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. |
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 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. |
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 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. |
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 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. |
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 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. |
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 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. |
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 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. |
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 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. 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. This
summer she will be traveling in Brazil. |
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 Matthew
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. www.matthewpowell.net |
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 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. |
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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. |
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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. |
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 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." |
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 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. |
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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. |
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