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Elena M. Fillmore, a native of Fallon, Nevada
began her dance training at the age of 13. She studied with
such distinguished instructors as George Zorich, Melissa Lowe,
Jory Hancock, Michael Williams, Amy Ernst, Susan Quinn and
Sam Watson. She graduated with honors from the University
of Arizona, receiving both a BFA and MFA in Dance. Ms. Fillmore
danced professionally with the Louisville Ballet, BalletMet,
Colorado Ballet and most recently as a member of the Moving
Collective. She has danced internationally with jazz dance
companies QuinnWilliamsJazz and LaJAZDANZ and with the Space
Dream Musical Theater production in Berlin, Germany.
As a graduate student at the University of
Arizona, Ms. Fillmore received the “Outstanding Teaching
Assistant Award” for the 2001-2002 school year. She
has taught at schools across the country as a guest instructor
and also at Kentucky’s Governor’s School for the
Arts.
Ms. Fillmore was named Interim Director of
the Louisville Ballet School in 2008.
Bruce Simpson joined the Louisville Ballet in
2002, bringing with him over 30 years of experience in the
international ballet world. Born in Glasgow, Scotland, Mr.
Simpson studied at the Scottish Ballet School, making his
professional debut with Scottish Opera. Upon joining the Wuppertal
Dance Company, he toured throughout Germany and Belgium. In
1970, he joined South Africa’s State Theatre Ballet
(previously known as the Performing Arts Council of the Transvaal),
which became his home for the next 30 years.
After his promotion to principal dancer in 1975,
he performed an extensive repertory specializing in the great
classical roles, including Swan Lake,
Romeo and Juliet, The Sleeping Beauty, Giselle, La Fille Mal
Gardée, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Cinderella
and La Sylphide. He danced leading roles in The Three Musketeers,
Anna Karenina and Soft Blue Shadows by André Prokovsky;
The Merry Widow, Rosalinda and Papillon by Ronald Hynd; Don
Quixote by Rudolf Nureyev; and The Taming of the Shrew by
John Cranko.
Appointed Ballet Master in 1983 and Senior Ballet
Master in 1985, Mr. Simpson continued to perform with State
Theatre Ballet until his retirement from the stage in 1998.
He was also répetiteur, teacher and coach, refining
productions of the Company’s repertoire of over 60 ballets.
He has worked with some of the greatest dancers of our time,
including Natalia Makarova, Sir Antony Dowell, Dame Margot
Fonteyn, Ivan Nagy and Sir Fredrick Ashton.
Mr. Simpson has been a guest of the major
dance companies and schools throughout the world. In 2000,
he was invited to lead Texas Ballet Theater, where he was
commissioned to create new productions of The Nutcracker and
Swan Lake. Mr. Simpson was the jury co-chair at the 2006 USA
International Ballet Competition in Jackson, MS.
Helen Starr has danced and taught in 36 countries
on five continents. She was born in Kent, England, and trained
at the Royal Academy of Dance and the Royal Ballet School.
Graduating into the Royal Ballet, she toured extensively as
a soloist and assistant ballet mistress. During this time,
she worked with Sir Frederick Ashton, Sir Kenneth MacMillan,
Dame Ninette de Valois D.B.E., John Cranko, Leonide Massine
and Rudolf Nureyev.
Miss Starr joined the London Festival Ballet,
now English National Ballet, and
was made a principal dancer after dancing Odette in Swan Lake.
Her roles included the leads in Giselle, Coppélia,
Les Sylphides, Scheherazade, Prince Igor, Noir et Blanc, La
Sonnambula, Bourree Fantasque and The Sleeping Beauty. Her
partners have included such luminaries as John Gilpin, André
Prokovsky, Peter Schaufuss, Peter Martins, Frank Augustyn,
Alexander Lunev and Mikhail Baryshnikov, with whom she danced
La Sonnambula, the pas de deux from Le Corsaire and Petrouchka.
Recognized nationwide as a fine ballet teacher
and coach, Miss Starr has staged ballets in Europe and the
United States including Swan Lake, The Sleeping Beauty, Coppélia,
Giselle, Les Sylphides, La Fete Etrange, Ashton’s Les
Patineurs, plus original productions of Cinderella and Romeo
and Juliet. Her roles with the Louisville Ballet have included
Odette in Swan Lake, Princess Aurora in The Sleeping Beauty,
Giselle, Juliet in Romeo and Juliet, Hanna Glawari in The
Merry Widow, Colette in Paradise Gained, Desdemona in The
Moor’s Pavane and Hecuba in The Trojan Women.
Born in Vienna, Austria, Mr. Kern studied with
the Ballet School of the Vienna
State Opera and at the Academie de la Danse de Princess Grace,
Monte Carlo.
He has received many awards including the Rudolf
Nureyev Scholarship Award, the Paris International Dance Competition
– prix d’interpretation and an Award for Artistic
Achievement from the New York International Ballet Competition.
Mr. Kern has performed as a soloist and principal
dancer with the Vienna State Opera Ballet, Basel Ballet, the
Joffrey Ballet, Ballet Internationale and Charleston Ballet
Theater. He has danced leading roles in most of the major
classical and romantic ballets and won critical acclaim for
his interpretation of roles in ballets by Ashton, Cranko,
Massine, Nureyev, Neumeier, Spörli, Balanchine, Kilian
and many more.
Under the guidance of Irina Kolpakova and Vladilen
Semyonov, he became a teacher and coach. He has been the Associate
Artistic Director of the Channel Islands Ballet (California)
and a guest instructor with schools, colleges and companies
around the USA, Europe and Japan.
Tamara Begley is a graduate of the Youth Performing
Arts School and has earned a BFA in Choreography and Performance
from the University of North Carolina Greensboro. She recently
completed an internship in Washington, D.C. at Dance Place,
one of the nation’s most prolific presenters of dance.
Ms. Begley has performed with John Gamble Dance
Theatre in North Carolina, Amir Kolben and Jessica Marchant
in Washington, D.C., and Art! Art! Barking Dog Dance Company
in Louisville. For the past two seasons, she has co-produced
Moving Collective, a new Louisville-based effort to promote
modern dance. Ms. Begley joined the Louisville Ballet School
faculty in August 2006, as a Modern Dance instructor for upper
level students.
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Linda Ford Braun began dancing at the age of
four years old with Libby Starks Dance Studio in Louisville,
Kentucky. By age twelve Ms. Braun was a member of the Louisville
Ballet Company and was on full scholarship with the American
Ballet Theatre in New York. While in New York Ms. Braun studied
with some of the ballet greats such as; Valentina Pereyaslavec,
Mme. Swaboda, Jacques d’Amboise, George Skibine, Maggie
Black, William Dollar, Fernand Nault, and Nels Jorgensen.
Ms. Braun also studied with Luigi, Hymee Rogers, June Taylor,
Phil Black and other great tap and musical comedy teachers.
Ms. Braun continued her career with the Louisville
Ballet Company as a Soloist and has choreographed for Actors
Theatre Louisville, Miss Kentucky Pageants, and various community
theatre productions. For the Theatre/Drama Departments of
Seneca High School and Trinity High School, Ms. Braun has
choreographed school productions of Grease, The Pirates of
Penzance, Man Of La Mancha, Sugar, Fiorello, Strike Up The
Band, How To Succeed In Business Without Really Trying, Mack
& Mabel, Brigadoon, and Carousel. Ms. Braun is in her
eighth year with the Louisville Ballet School where she teaches
Ballet in the Primary and Elementary Divisions.
Amy Trier Delaney, a Louisville native, holds
a Bachelor of Science in Ballet Pedagogy from Indiana University,
Bloomington. She has studied with, among others: Jean Pierre
Bonnefoux, Jacques Cesbron, Nancy Bielsky, Finis Jung, Robert
Barnet, Jurgen Pagels and Pat Gano.
Mrs. Delaney directed the dance department at
Appel Farm Arts and Music Center in New Jersey for four years,
where she produced shows for the Center and the local community.
She was associated with the Bronx Dance Theatre in New York.
Mrs. Delaney also taught for the Indiana University Ballet
Program (which included creative movement to pointe classes,
beginning through advanced levels.) Mrs. Delaney was invited
to teach for the Kennedy Center Imagination Celebration here
in Louisville.
Mrs. Delaney has performed principal roles with
the Indiana University Ballet Theatre and University Opera.
As a teenager, Mrs. Delaney performed with Young Dancers Company
of Louisville. She has also performed with AfterImages Dance
Company. She taught at Ursuline School for the Performing
Arts for their dance program and was on the faculty at Sacred
Heart Academy as their dance instructor. Mrs. Delaney also
served as a choreographer for both USPA and SHA productions.
Mrs. Delaney founded, owned and directed The A.R.T. Centre
– an Academy of Dance. She currently teaches and choreographs
in the Louisville and Southern Indiana area. Mrs. Delaney
joins the faculty of the Louisville Ballet School this year
and teaches ballet in the Elementary Division.
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Margie Fitzpatrick's professional ballet training
began at the age of eight with the Pittsburgh Ballet Theater.
At age 11, she began training with former Kirov Ballet Master
Mansur Kamaletdinov. Ms. Fitzpatrick holds a B.F.A. from the
University of Cincinnati-College Conservatory of Music. While
there, she was awarded two scholarships and was chosen to
perform many leading and supporting roles in original ballets
choreographed by faculty and guest artists from the Cincinnati
Ballet and Houston Ballet. Upon graduation, she was chosen
to perform the Sugar Plum Fairy in the New Castle Regional
Ballet's The Nutcracker. Ms. Fitzpatrick has been teaching
for eight years. Her credentials include New Castle Regional
Ballet, Starlight Dance Studio in Scottsburg, IN, and Director
of the Harmony Elementary Dance Club in Goshen, KY. Ms. Fitzpatrick
is married with two children. She teaches ballet in the Primary
Division and in both the Youth and Adult Open Divisions.
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Loren Freed, originally from New York, teaches
dance and creative movement to individuals of all ages and
experience. She holds a Master’s degree in early childhood
education and certification as an elementary and K - 12 dance
teacher. She has worked as a teaching artist for school districts
in four states and also teaches yoga for children in schools
and for community organizations. Ms. Freed teaches ballet
in the Primary Division and Dance Access in the Youth Open
Division.
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Jo Ann McDonald has a particular appreciation
for movement and fitness. Growing up as an overweight child,
she felt uncomfortable and embarrassed when participating
in activities, and her sedentary lifestyle led to her growing
up to be a morbidly obese adult. When Jo Ann hit her twenties,
she became more aware of the consequences associated with
obesity, and decided to make a change. Slowly, but surely,
she began integrating exercise into her daily routine and
made small changes in her nutrition. As her health improved,
she gained an amazing level of energy and wellbeing. She began
to love all forms of exercise, particularly Pilates. She appreciated
how the focus on alignment and control helped correct the
effects of long-term obesity on her body. In 2004, Jo Ann
and her husband, James, moved to Louisville to apprentice
at Core Pilates in the East End. There, she trained under
teachers from many different backgrounds, including master-level
instructor and Louisville Ballet faculty member, Montse Cosin.
Jo Ann is now a nationally certified instructor and personal
trainer as well. She works with clients with all levels of
fitness, helping sedentary adults and children take the first
steps toward active lifestyles, training athletes, old and
young to utilize their core to increase their performance,
and dancers, teaching them to increase mobility in necessary
areas and controlling mobility where they require stability.
Jo Ann joins the Louisville Ballet School faculty this year
and looks forward to helping the young dancers develop good
movement habits that will take them painlessly through their
careers.
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Christy Corbitt Miller a native of Atlanta,
GA, is returning for her fifth season as a first soloist with
the Louisville Ballet. Since joining the Louisville Ballet,
she has enjoyed dancing principal and soloist roles in Who
Cares?, Agon, Lambarena, Serenade, Four Last Songs and Les
Sylphides. Previously, she danced with Altanta Ballet, Ballet
Memphis and, most recently, Texas Ballet Theater, where she
performed title roles in Ben Stevenson’s Cinderella
and Giselle. Ms. Miller has also enjoyed performing more contemporary
works like Paul Taylor’s Company B, Stanton Welch’s
Fingerprints and Adam Hougland ’s Devolve and Fragile
Stasis.
Ms. Miller has taught at schools in Georgia
and Texas including the official school of Texas Ballet Theater.
She joins the Louisville Ballet School faculty this year and
teaches ballet in the Intermediate level.
Bill Ramser a Louisville native, has performed
as a dancer in over 30 musical stage productions such as Kiss
Me Kate, Carousel, Guys and Dolls, Pajama Game, and South
Pacific. Mr. Ramser was the lead dancer in the musical, Okalahoma,
at the Cape Cod Musical Tent.
Mr. Ramser studied in New York, Chicago and
Louisville with such notable teachers as Ernest Carlos, Edna
McRay, Irma Flanedy and Lilias Courtney. As a teacher for
25 years, Mr. Ramser has shared his knowledge and love of
dance with students throughout Louisville and Southern Indiana.
He teaches all levels of tap dance.
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