Southland Ballet Academy | Intensives & Master Classes

Guest Faculty

Claire Baulieu has studied ballet and jazz techniques in France, as well as at the Alvin Ailey American Dance Center in the US as a Fulbright Scholar. While at the Ailey School, she specialized in the Lester Horton technique of modern dance and has subsequently received two Fulbright awards from the Franco-American Commission to student the theory and repertory of the Horton technique. In 1984, as a graduate teacher of the French Ministry of Culture, Mrs. Baulieu established the modern dance program of the Paris Opera Ballet School. Two years later, she became the Artistic Director of the Bagnolet Dance Conservatory. She also began choreographing and has since received awards for her choreography from the French Dance Federation. Mrs. Baulieu currently continues to head the Bagnolet Dance Conservatory and teaching at the Paris Opera Ballet School. She also appears as a master teacher and a jury member of dance competitions around the world, also conducting examinations on behalf of the French Ministry of Culture.

Evelyn Cisneros Former Principal Dancer for the San Francisco Ballet. Since 2000 Cisneros has taught at summer intensive courses for the Kansas City Ballet, the Boston Ballet School, as well as at the New York City Ballet Workout at the Bay Club in San Francisco. She has staged ballets for Val Caniparoli and Michael Smuin for companies in America and abroad. Cisneros has been featured on the covers of Dance Magazine, Ballet News and Hispanic Magazine, and received numerous awards for her community activism and artistic achievements. In May of 1999, Cisneros retired from the San Francisco Ballet with a Gala performance in her honor, and in celebration KQED produced a 1/2 hour documentary of her life, entitled Evelyn Cisneros, Moving On. Born in Long Beach, California and raised in Huntington Beach, Cisneros began studying ballet at the age of eight. She began her apprenticeship with the San Francisco Ballet in 1976 and joined the company in 1977. She has danced the leading roles in a diverse repertoire of classical ballets such as Swan Lake, Sleeping Beauty, Romeo and Juliet, La Sylphide and La Fille Mal Gardee.

Taeler Cyrus is a recent honors graduate from the Ailey/Fordham B.F.A. program in dance. She has studied at numerous summer dance intensives including Jacob's Pillow, American Dance Festival, the Laban School and Impulstanz. Ms. Cyrus has also performed works by William Forsythe, Christopher L. Huggins, Darrell Grand Moultrie, Dwight Rhoden and Nathan Trice. She has performed at venues such as the Apollo and New York City Center and in the Holland Dance Festival. Ms. Cyrus is a Liberace Scholarship recipient and received the Emerging Young Artist Award from the California Alliance for Arts Education. This is her second season with Ailey II.

Jean-Yves Esquerre Mr. Esquerre first studied dance with Monique Malo and continued his training at Maurice Béjart’s Mudra School in Brussels. Mr. Esquerre danced with Les Ballets du XXème Siècle, Hamburg Ballet, and Nederlands Dans Theater. Mr. Esquerre began his teaching career at Brussels’ Conservatoire de Danse and Mudra School. In 1986, he was appointed ballet master of Le Ballet du Louvre in Paris and from 1988 to 1992, served as artistic director of Les Ballets de Monte-Carlo. In 2007, Mr. Esquerre joined the faculty of SF Ballet School.

Megan Fairchild is a principal dancer with New York City Ballet. Ms Fairchild was born in Salt Lake City, Utah, and began her dance training at the age of four, studying with Judy Levitre and Kaelynne Oliphant at Dance Concepts in Sandy, Utah; and at the Ballet West Conservatory in Salt Lake City with Sharee Lane, Deborah Dobson, and Maureen Laird. While at the Ballet West Conservatory, Ms. Fairchild was also a Ballet West trainee. Ms. Fairchild entered the School of American Ballet (SAB), the official school of New York City Ballet, in the fall of 2000. In November 2001, Ms. Fairchild became an apprentice with New York City Ballet, and in October 2002 she joined the Company as a member of the corps de ballet. Ms. Fairchild was promoted to the rank of soloist in February 2004, and in January 2005, she was promoted to principal dancer.

Yury Fateyev was born in Leningrad. He graduated from the Vaganova Choreographic School in 1982, and in the same year was accepted into the Mariinsky (Kirov) Theatre's ballet company. His repertoire includes the ballets Giselle, La Bayadère, Paquita, Swan Lake, Romeo and Juliet, The Creation of the World, Carnaval, La fille mal gardée, The Knight in the Tiger's Skin, and others. Since 2003, Fateyev has been a coach of the Mariinsky Theatre's ballet company. In this capacity, he has prepared premieres of productions by George Balanchine, Roland Petit, John Neumeier, Alexey Ratmansky, William Forsythe and Christopher Wheeldon. Fateyev has been a guest teacher at the Royal Ballet in London and the Bolshoy Theatre in Moscow, and has also taught at the Swedish Royal Ballet and the Pacific Northwest Ballet (USA), where he helped to stage excerpts from Le Corsaire (the Mariinsky Theatre's production). He took the complete version of this ballet to the Danish Royal Ballet. Fateyev has taken part in the Kings of Dance project in Russia and the USA and in the Stieffel and Stars project in the USA. Since 2008, he has been Acting Director of the Mariinsky Theatre's ballet company.

John Gardner was born in Lafayette, Louisiana, and began his ballet training at age 12 with Gwen Ashton in Lafayette, and subsequently trained at the National Academy of Arts in Champagne, Illinois, under the direction of Michael Maule. He received a scholarship to the American Ballet Theatre (ABT) at the age of 16 and joined ABT’s second company three months thereafter, in 1977. In 1978 he joined ABT’s main company and was promoted to the rank of soloist in 1984. Mr. Gardner’s diverse repertoire included many soloist and principal roles, representing an extensive range of styles and giving him the opportunity to work with some of the great ballet choreographers of the 20th century, including Antony Tudor, Jerome Robbins, Agnes DeMille, and George Balanchine.

In 1991, Mr. Gardner joined Mikhail Baryshnikov’s White Oak Dance Project, affording him the opportunity to work closely with choreographers such as Merce Cunningham, Paul Taylor, Mark Morris, Lar Lubovicth, and Martha Graham. Mr. Gardner created numerous roles during his time with the White Oak Dance Project and toured extensively in Europe, the United States, Asia, and South America. He returned to ABT, in 1995, where he danced a wide variety of roles with the company until 2002. In 2000, Mr. Gardner, together with his wife Amanda McKerrow, began working for the Antony Tudor Trust, staging and coaching his superlative ballet; The Leaves are Fading, around the country.

During the course of his career, Mr. Gardner has achieved an excellent reputation as a master teacher and coach for ballet on both the professional and student levels, and has stage numerous ballets for professional companies and school across the United States.

ALEXANDER KALININ was born in Moscow, Russia and began his dancing career at the age of four with his father. Mr. Kalinin graduated from the prestigious Bolshoi Ballet Academy. He has performed and toured as a soloist in over 60 countries with the most prestigious dance companies in the former Soviet Union.

After immigrating to the United States in 1981, Mr. Kalinin has performed on stages from New York to Las Vegas, Reno and Australia as well as throughout Southern California. He has appeared on television including The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, and Life with Bonnie on ABC. He has performed for Microsoft founders Bill Gates and Paul Allen. He regularly performs in Southern California with many ballet companies including recently the role of Sancho Panza in Don Quixote and Carabosse in The Sleeping Beauty with Southland Ballet Academy of Orange County. He also performs other notable roles with Pacific Festival Ballet and Santa Clarita Ballet among others.

He has taught dance for over 29 years in the U.S. as well as abroad. He is known throughout the world as a teacher and performer of great skill and strength rivaled only by his “feel” for the music. Kirov students said that Mr. Kalinin gets the students excited about character and brings interesting life experiences to class. The Reno Gazette Journal praised him as a choreographer able to set new standards in Russian Dance. Gelsey Kirkland of the New York City Ballet said of him, “Character Dance is greatly needed in this country, and Alexander Kalinin is a true inspiration as an artist and teacher.”

Vladimir Kolesnikov was born in St. Petersburg, Russia and trained at the Vaganova Ballet Academy. After joining the Kirov ballet, Vladimir was promoted to Principal Dancer and toured with the company throughout the world. In 1986, Vladimir received a Master’s degree in ballet pedagogy from the Vaganova Academy and embarked on a teaching career while continuing to perform with the Kirov Ballet. In 1992, Vladimir was invited to join the faculty of the Universal Ballet Academy in Washington, DC and then to Boston Ballet, where he taught graduate level classical and character dance. Vladimir was on the faculty of Debbie Allen Dance Academy from 2001-2008, and is currently the Artistic Director of the Pacific Coast Academy of Dance in San Clemente. In addition to teaching, Vladimir was involved in staging many projects around the U.S., including working as an assistant choreographer to Kevin McKenzie at ABT.

Sabrina Lenzi was born in Rome, Italy. She began her dance training at the age of nine with Walter Zappolini at the Opera of Rome. She continued her training with Victor Livtinov and finished her ballet formation at the Academie de Dance Classique de Montecarlo with Marika Besobrasova. In 1984, Ms. Lenzi joined the Stuttgart Ballet under the direction of Marcia Haydee and was promoted to soloist in 1989 and to principal in 1994. In 1995, Ms. Lenzi joined the Birmingham Royal Ballet under the direction of David Bintley, as a principal. Ms. Lenzi has made guest appearances with The Stuttgart Ballet and the Birmingham Royal Ballet in all major opera houses of the world, as well as guest solo appearances in Italy, England, and Germany. In 2002, Ms. Lenzi retired from the stage after 18 years of professional dancing. In 2004, Ms. Lenzi began teaching ballet and pilates at Houston Ballet's Academy.

Vladimir Malakhov began his dance training in the Ukraine and continued his studies at the Bolshoi Ballet Academy. He joined the Moscow Ballet as the company's youngest Principal Dancer. Mr. Malakhov joined the Vienna State Opera Ballet as a Principal Artist in 1992, and later the National Ballet of Canada in 1994. He became a Principal Dancer at American Ballet Theatre in 1995. Mr. Malakhov became the First Soloist and the Artistic Director of the Berlin State Opera Ballet in 2004.

Amanda McKerrow Ms. McKerrow is one of America’s most acclaimed ballerinas. She has the honor of being the first American to receive a gold medal at the International Ballet Competition in Moscow in 1981. Since then she has been a recipient of numerous other awards, including the Princess Grace Foundation Dance Fellowship.

Ms. McKerrow was born in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and began her ballet training at the age of seven at the Twinbrook School of Ballet in Rockville Maryland. She later studied with Mary Day at the Washington School of Ballet, where she danced with the company for two years and toured extensively throughout the Untied States and Europe.

Ms. McKerrow joined the American Ballet Theatre under the direction of Mikhail Baryshnikov in 1982, was appointed to soloist in 1983, and became a principal dancer in 1987. Her repertoire includes: the leading roles in Cinderella, Don Quixote, The Sleeping Beauty, Swan Lake, La Sylphide, and The Nutcracker. She has been acclaimed for performance s of shorter works by George Balanchine, Antony Tudor, Sir Frederick Ashton, Jerome Robbins, and Juri Kilian. Ms. McKerrow has created roles in ballets by choreographers such as Twyla Tharpe, Clark Tippet, James Kudelka, Agnes De Mille, Choo San Goh, and Mark Morris. She has also appeared as a guest artist throughout the world.

In 2000, together with her husband John Gardner, Ms. McKerrow began working for the Antony Tudor Trust, staging and coaching his superlative ballet The Leaves are Fading around the country. Ashe has also staged numerous other ballets for professional companies and schools across the United States. During her last ten years performing as a principal ballerina with the American Ballet Theatre, she spent as much time as she could working with students and young dancers. Upon her retirement from ABT in 2005, she has devoted the majority of her time to teaching and coaching this great art form that she loves so much.

Kerry Nicholls has taught and performed extensively for numerous dance companies and institutions throughout Europe and worldwide, and her experience spans a diverse dance practice spectrum. Regularly teaching for Wayne McGregor | Random Dance, DV8 and New Adventures companies to name a few, she is widely regarded as one of Britain’s leading contemporary technique teachers. k|n|d|c (Kerry Nicholls Dance Company) was founded in 1999 as a vehicle to promote her own choreographic research. Since its inception, Kerry has created numerous works for the company as well as receiving independent commissions from institutions and companies within Europe and the U.S.A. She was appointed Co-Director of Creative Learning for Wayne McGregor | Random Dance in 2007, in addition, to becoming the artistic advisor for the English National Ballet School in 2008. Currently external assessor for the Royal Ballet School, Kerry is also a lecturer at the Rambert School of Ballet and Contemporary Dance.

Gary Norman, Senior Classical Teacher, Royal Ballet School, UK. Norman trained at The Australian Ballet School, Norman was taken into The Australian Ballet in 1970 and within two years was promoted to Principal Artist. He has performed all the leading roles in the major classical ballets as well as creating roles in many new works by international choreographers. Norman has also performed with the National Ballet of Canada and the Royal Winnipeg Ballet and has appeared as guest Artist with the Hong Kong Ballet and The Philippines Ballet. He was Senior Lecturer at the Victorian College of the Arts, and Principal Teacher for many years at The Australian Ballet School moving into the role of Principal Ballet Master of The Australian Ballet two years prior to moving to London and The Royal Ballet School.

Born in Moscow, Russia, Gennadi Saveliev began his ballet studies at the Bolshoi Ballet School at the age of nine. At 18 he joined the Bolshoi Ballet Grigorovich Company where his repertoire included the Chinese Doll in The Nutcracker, one of the four cavaliers in Raymonda and the pas de trios in Swan Lake. Saveliev has also danced with the Nevada Dance Theatre, Tulsa Ballet, Los Angeles Classical Ballet and the New Jersey Ballet. Saveliev won the Silver Medal at the 1996 New York International Ballet Competition and was a finalist at the Nagoya Ballet Competition in 1999.

Saveliev joined American Ballet Theatre as a member of the corps de ballet in January 1996. His repertoire with the Company includes the Bronze Idol, the Head Fakir and the Rajah in La Bayadère; the first movement in Bruch Violin Concerto No. 1; the Lead Mazurka/Czardas Dancer in Coppélia; Conrad, Ali, the slave and Lankendem in Le Corsaire; the pas de deux Diana and Acteon; a leading role in Diversion of Angels; Espada in Don Quixote; Demetrius in The Dream; Henry in Christopher Wheeldon’s VIII; the Pastor in Fall River Legend; the pas de deux Flames of Paris; Albrecht, Hilarion and the peasant pas de deux in Giselle; Lescaut in Manon; Camille in The Merry Widow; the Nutcracker-Prince and the Cavalier in The Nutcracker; the Painter in Offenbach in the Underworld;Prince Gremin in Onegin; Sergei in On the Dnieper; a Friend of the Family in Pillar of Fire; the Warrior Chieftain in the Polovtsian Dances from Prince Igor; Beranger and the Lead Hungarian Dancer in Raymonda; Paris, Tybalt and Romeo in Romeo and Juliet; Prince Désiré and the Bluebird in The Sleeping Beauty;Prince Siegfried, Benno, von Rothbart (Act III) and the Lead Czardas Dancer in Swan Lake; Orion in Sylvia; Lucentio in The Taming of the Shrew; leading roles in Ballet Imperial, In The Upper Room, The Leaves Are Fading, Les Sylphides, Symphonie Concertante, Theme and Variations and Without Words; as well as roles in Black Tuesday, Clear, HereAfter, Jabula, Overgrown Path, Petite Mort and Symphony in C. He created a leading role in Rabbit and Rogue.

Saveliev is a member of Angel Corella and Friends and Stiefel and Stars touring companies and is also the founder and artistic director of Youth America Grand Prix, America’s first student ballet scholarship competition.

Larissa Saveliev, Ms. Saveliev was trained at the Bolshoi Ballet Academy in Moscow. As a member of Bolshoi Ballet, she has toured throughout Russia, England, France, Belgium, Italy, Spain, Brazil, Egypt, and Japan. Her repertoire includes most of the ballets from the classical repertoire, including Swan Lake, Les Sylphides, Sleeping Beauty, Coppelia, The Nutcracker, Le Corsaire, Raymonda, and Giselle, as well as works by Yuri Grigorovich, George Balanchine, Antony Tudor, and Agnes de Mille. Since coming to the United States in 1995, Ms. Saveliev has continued her dance career with such companies as the Los Angeles Classical Ballet, The New Jersey Ballet, and Tulsa Ballet. In 1999, she was chosen to choreograph for the Princess Grace Awards Ceremony. A respected dance educator, Ms. Saveliev appears as a master teacher and stages classical ballet productions at schools around the country.

Andrea Schermoly (Andi) was born in South Africa where she attended the National School of the Arts in Johannesburg. She was trained in the Vaganova technique. She also studied RAD, Contemporary, Flamenco and African. During this time Andi also competed around the world as a member of The South African Olympic Rhythmic Gymnastics team. She received a full scholarship to The Royal Ballet School, London, where she completed her dance education. While in school she danced with Rambert Dance Company. After graduation she joined Boston Ballet. Later she was invited to join Netherlands Dance Theatre and began at NDT2. After three years, she was offered a contract with NDT1. Andi enjoyed years of professional performance and touring with Netherlands Dance Thetre. She had the extraordinary experience of performing existing repertoire as well as new creations by choreographers such as Jiri Kylian, Mats Ek, Paul Lightfoot, Sol Leon, Ohad Naharin and many other great contemporary choreographers.
Andi has choreographed professionally for The South African Ballet Theatre, Mzansi Dance Company, NDT Workshops, Quixotic Fusion Company and Boston Ballet 2 as well as many solos for students attending dance competitions through the US and Europe.

Gailene Stock, Director, Royal Ballet School, UK. Stock trained initially in Australia and then at The Royal Ballet Upper School as a result of a scholarship awarded by the Royal Academy of Dance. Stock danced as a Principal Artist with The Australian Ballet, the National Ballet of Canada and the Royal Winnipeg Ballet, performing many of the leading roles in the major classics and also many dramatic works. Following a sixteen year professional dancing career, she accepted the position of Director of the National Theatre Ballet School, Victoria, Australia for eight years and The Australian Ballet School for nine years, before taking on the role of Director of The Royal Ballet School in 1999. In 1997 Stock was awarded the Order of Australia for services to ballet. Internationally acclaimed, her knowledge and experience is regularly sought in the dance community worldwide. She has participated as a jury member in many international competitions including the role of President of the Prix de Lausanne, Switzerland and the Youth America Grand Prix, New York.

Misha Tchoupakov, Associate Professor, University of Utah Department of Ballet. Born and raised in Moscow, Russia, Tchoupakov performed with the Bolshoi Ballet, as well as with the Colorado Ballet, Sarasota Ballet of Florida, Los Angeles Classical Ballet, Vienna State Opera Ballet, and San Francisco Opera Ballet. He also holds an M.F.A. in Dance Pedagogy and Choreography from the Moscow State Institute of Choreography and he had taught for Colorado Ballet, Houston Ballet, Oregon Dance Theatre, Ballet West, David Taylor Dance Theatre, State Street Ballet, Ballet Arlington, Guangzhou Ballet of China, and Galili Dance in Netherlands. He was also on the faculty of the Royal Ballet School and the Elmhurst School for Dance in Association with Birmingham Royal Ballet in the UK. Tchoupakov currently serves as Rehearsal Director for the YAGP in New York and is an internationally renowned guest teacher.

Andrew Veyette was born in Denver, Colorado, and began his dance training at the age of nine, studying with Betty Downs at Dance Arts in Visalia, California. Mr. Veyette continued his studies at Westside Ballet in Santa Monica, California. While at Westside Ballet, Mr. Veyette trained with Yvonne Mounsey and was personally coached by Nader Hamed. Mr. Veyette entered the School of American Ballet (SAB), the official school of New York City Ballet, in the fall of 1998. In the spring of 2000, Mr. Veyette became an apprentice with New York City Ballet, and later that season he joined the Company as a member of the corps de ballet. In March of 2006 he was promoted to soloist. In May 2007 Mr. Veyette was promoted to principal dancer.