Click on name to view biography.
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Kaleena Burks
Kaleena Burks was born in Nashville, Tennessee, and raised in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Ms. Burks was trained by Magda Aunon and Magaly Suarez, spending summers at the School of American Ballet, Ballet Austin, Miami City Ballet, and Central Pennsylvania Youth Ballet. In 2005, she was awarded first place in the pre-professional division of the American Ballet Competition and has been invited to perform in many galas, including the International Ballet Festival of Miami. Ms. Burks has danced with Cincinnati Ballet, Columbia Classical Ballet, and the Cuban Classical Ballet of Miami. With these companies, she has been featured in roles such as The Sugar Plum Fairy in The Nutcracker, Esmeralda in The Hunchback of Notre Dame, and The Dying Swan. This is Ms. Burk's second season with Kansas City Ballet.
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Stayce Camparo
Ms. Camparo began her training at the Westside Academy of Dance in Santa Monica, California, under the direction of Yvonne Mounsey. After attending summer courses at The Rock School in Pennsylvania, American Ballet Theatre, School of American Ballet and Pacific Northwest Ballet, she joined Pacific Northwest Ballet's Professional Division program and studied there on full scholarship for two years. Ms. Camparo has attended workshops with the National Choreographic Initiative in Irvine, California, the Jose Limon workshop in Fullerton, CA, and Alonzo King's LINES Ballet in San Francisco, CA. She has also danced and choreographed for Quixotic Fusion and Motion Dance Theatre in Asheville, NC. Ms. Camparo has performed in a number of ballets including Square Dance, Concerto Barocco, Lambarena, The Catherine Wheel Suite, Moves, as well as Callipe in Apollo and Emilia in The Moors Pavane and features in Brahms Paganini, Who Cares?, Lark Ascending and Splendid Isolation III. This is Ms. Camparo’s ninth season with Kansas City Ballet.
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Rachel Coats
Ms. Coats, a native of Miami, Florida, received her primary instruction from Tony Catanzaro, as well as at the Mencia-Pikieris School of Dance and New World School of the Arts. She spent her summers studying on scholarship at the School of American Ballet and Boston Ballet. Ms. Coats has performed with both Nashville Ballet and Boston Ballet. She has received awards from the National Society of Arts and Letters and ARTS–NFAA Foundations. Since joining the Company, Ms. Coats has enjoyed dancing in Afternoon of a Faun, Tchaikovsky Pas de Deux, Dark Elegies, Brahms Paganini, and End of Time, among many others. Some of her favorite roles have included Desdemona in The Moors Pavane, the title role in Firebird, the Stripper in Slaughter on Tenth Avenue, and Snow Queen and Sugar Plum Fairy in The Nutcracker. This is her tenth season with Kansas City Ballet. She is married to fellow dancer Logan Pachciarz.
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Kimberly Cowen
Ms. Cowen is a native of St. Louis, Missouri, and received most of her ballet training from Nathalie LeVine. She has also studied at St.Louis Ballet under Ludmila Dokoudovsky and Antoni Zalewski, at Pacific Northwest Ballet with Fleming Halby and Nina Danilova and at The Joffrey Ballet with Francesca Corkle and Winthrop Corey. She studied at the Kansas City Ballet School with Una Kai and Lisa Dillinger before joining the company in 1991, where she still dances today. Ms. Cowen has danced as Swanilda in Coppélia, Odette in Swan Lake, Titania in A Midsummer Night's Dream, Aurora in The Sleeping Beauty, the title role in Giselle, Carmen, Firebird and Romeo & Juliet. She has had the pleasure of dancing a wide variety of styles by famous choreographers such as George Balanchine, Jerome Robbins, Anthony Tudor, Todd Bolender, David Parsons, Paul Taylor, Merce Cunningham, Twyla Tharp, Vincente Nebrada, Nacho Duato, Margo Sappington, Trey McIntyre, Jessica Lang, Val Caniparoli, Mary Wigman and William Whitener. Ms. Cowen began teaching at the Somerset Ballet in 1998 and joined the Kansas City Ballet staff in 2002.
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Gabriel Davidsson
Born in Sweden, Gabriel Davidsson began dancing at the Royal Swedish Ballet School at age 10. In 2001, his family moved to the United States, where he enrolled at the Draper Center for Dance Education on full scholarship. He performed in various productions with the Rochester City Ballet, such as The Nutcracker and original pieces by Artistic Director Jamey Leverett. In 2007, Mr. Davidsson was invited to attend the Kirov Academy of Ballet on full scholarship where he studied under the tutelage of Anatoli Kucheruk for two years. With Kansas City Ballet, he has performed the Snow King in The Nutcracker, the Pas de Deux in Concerto Grosso, as well as the Trio in Robert Hill's Piano Concerto #2. In the summer of 2011, Mr. Davidsson choreographed three pieces with his brother and toured to Korea to perform them in his father's organ concert. This is his third season with Kansas City Ballet.
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Marty Davis
Mr. Davis began his dancing career at the age of 7 with Meredith Baylis in Los Angeles, California. When he was 13 he began studying at Le Studio in Pasadena, California with Charles and Philip Fuller on full merit scholarship, while attending Los Angeles County High School for the Arts. While there he received a Dance Achievement Award and was also named a semi-finalist for the Annual Spotlight Awards. Mr. Davis studied summers on merit scholarship with the San Francisco Ballet and two years with the Boston Ballet. He has spent the last two years in the Trainee Program at the Boston Ballet on full merit scholarship. Some of the ballets Mr. Davis has performed include: La Sylphide, Allegro Brillante, Divertimento #15, La Fille mal gardee, and Don Quixote. He has had featured roles as Trepak in The Nutcracker and Salute. This is his fifth season with the Kansas City Ballet.
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Michael Davis
Michael Davis began his ballet training at the Marya Kennett Dance Centre in Goshen, NY, at the age of 10. After attending summer courses at The Rock School for Dance Education in Pennsylvania, he was accepted into their year-round residency program on a merit scholarship. Upon graduating from The Rock School, he joined Oregon Ballet Theatre in 2007 and danced for two years under the direction of Christopher Stowell and Damara Bennett. He has performed in George Balanchine’s Valse Fantasie, Slaughter on Tenth Avenue, Serenade, Allegro Brillante and Symphony in C, as well as Val Caniparoli’s Lambarena. This is his third season with Kansas City Ballet.
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Michael Eaton
Michael Eaton began his professional ballet career with San Francisco Ballet and was most recently a soloist with Tulsa Ballet. He has toured internationally and performed at the Royal Opera House Covent Garden and the Paris Opera House. Mr. Eaton earned the bronze medal at the 1995 Helsinki IBC, was a finalist at the 1999 Jackson IBC and performed a tap solo for First Lady Barbara Bush at the 1992 Republican National Convention. He has danced featured roles in works by Balanchine, Robbins, Tharp, Van Manen, Welch, Caniparoli, Tomasson and five pieces by Duato. Some of his favorite roles are the Champion Roper in Rodeo and the Third Sailor in Fancy Free. This is Mr. Eaton’s fourth season with Kansas City Ballet.
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Arielle Espie
Arielle Espie is originally from Fort Myers, Florida, where she trained with the Gulfshore Ballet School. At age 14, she was invited to attend the winter term at the School of American Ballet in New York City. There, she received four years of training with instructors such as Kay Mazzo, Susan Pilare, and Suki Schorer. Ms. Espie's repertoire includes many ballets such as Serenade, Stars and Stripes, Valse Fantasie, Bourrée Fantasque, Scènes de Ballet, Square Dance, Giselle, Slaughter on Tenth Avenue, Mozartiana, and The Catherine Wheel Suite. Ms. Espie originated a role in William Whitener's Mercy of the Elements. She has performed featured roles in Paquita and Le baiser de la fée. Ms. Espie was one of 10 students honored with the privilege to train exclusively with Ethan Stiefel at the Stiefel and Stars program. She was also named the Lisa and Perry Scholarship Recipient from 2009-2010 during her final year at the School of American Ballet. This is Ms. Espie's second season with the Kansas City Ballet.
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Travis Guerin
Travis Guerin started dancing at the age of 8 in Spokane, Washington, taking tap and jazz classes at a local studio. At age 14, his focus shifted to ballet. He was accepted to the Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre's Graduate Program at age 17. In 2009, he was asked to study at the San Francisco Ballet School. The next year, he became part of the first season of Cincinnati Ballet's Second Company. Along with his passion for dance and performance, Mr. Guerin loves to choreograph and has had works premiered for the Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre's Graduate Program, the San Francisco Ballet School and the Cincinnati Ballet's Second Company. This is Mr. Guerin's first season with the Kansas City Ballet.
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Aisling Hill-Connor
Ms. Hill-Connor is in her 13th season with Kansas City Ballet. After training for 11 years with Ballet Austin Academy in her hometown of Austin, Texas, she continued on to North Carolina School of the Arts where she trained with such teachers as Melissa Hayden, Warren Conover and Nina Danilova. She performed in a variety of ballets including George Balanchine's Western Symphony, Ton Simon's Fractal Course, The Nutcracker and her personal favorite, Intermezzo by Eliot Feld. With Kansas City Ballet, Ms. Hill-Connor has performed principle roles in George Balanchine's Agon, Slaughter on Tenth Avenue, and Stravinsky Violin Concerto, Val Caniparoli's Lambarena, and Jerome Robbins' Afternoon of a Faun, as well as soloist roles in Handel Trio by Alonzo King and The Dying Swan solo.
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Nadia Iozzo
Nadia Iozzo, originally from Toronto, Ontario, received the RAD Solo Seal Award before moving on to spend four years at Alberta Ballet. Now in her fifth season with Kansas City Ballet, Ms. Iozzo has performed leading roles in George Balanchine's Who Cares?, Trey McIntyre’s The Naughty Boy, and Yuri Possokhov’s Firebird; along with soloist roles in Paul Taylor's Company B, Peasant Pas de Deux in Giselle and Arabian in The Nutcracker. She can also be found on Bravo TV in the Joni Mitchell/Jean Grand Maître production The Fiddle and the Drum and in the CBC TV special The Secret of the Nutcracker. In 2008, she hosted the first Creating Dance for a Cure fundraiser for the Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation.
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Geoffrey Kropp
Geoffrey Kropp began his ballet training in his hometown of Bakersfield, California. After dancing at the Rock School for Dance Education in Philadelphia for a year, he joined Pacific Northwest Ballet (PNB) School's Professional Division. At PNB, he performed several ballets with the company including Prodigal Son, The Merry Widow, Carmina Burana, and he danced the lead in Paquita in the annual school performance. Since joining Kansas City Ballet, Mr. Kropp has danced featured roles in works by George Balanchine, Twyla Tharp, Todd Bolender, Yuri Possokhov, Bruce Marks,Jerome Robbins, and Anthony Tudor, among others. His favorite roles include Albrecht in Giselle and the leads in Balanchine's Who Cares? and Tchaikovsky Pa de Deux Mr. Kropp has also performed with the National Choreographers Initiative, ARC Dance, Owen Cox Dance Group, and UMKC's Conservatory of Music and Dance. This is Mr. Kropp’s seventh season with Kansas City Ballet.
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Anthony Krutzkamp
Anthony Krutzkamp was born in Alexandria, Kentucky. He began his formal training with Petrus Bosman and David Keener. Mr. Krutzkamp joined Kansas City Ballet where he was cast as the Cat in Balanchine's Renard that was restaged by Todd Bolender. At the completion of that season, he joined Cincinnati Ballet where he was promoted every season until he reached the rank of principal. He has performed such roles as Prince Desire in Sleeping Beauty, Prince Charming in Cinderella, Siegfried in Swan Lake, Shakrier in 1001 Nights, and Romeo in Romeo & Juliet. He has also had the lead in works by George Balanchine including Emeralds in Jewels, Theme and Variation, Chaconne. Contemporary works include ballets by Twyla Tharp, Jorma Elo, Adam Houghland, and Darrell Grand Maultrie. Internationally, Mr. Krutzkamp has been a guest artist in Flames of Paris, Don Jose in Carmen, Solar in La Bayadere, Cavalier in The Nutcracker, and Don Q Suite in Fokouka, Japan. Recently, he was a guest artist in Okinawa, Japan as Solar. He is excited to return to Kansas City Ballet.
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Luke Luzicka
Mr. Luzicka began his training with his mother, Laura Reinschmidt, at The Classical Ballet School in Gladstone, MO, at the age of 4. At 18, he left Kansas City to attend the University of Utah and dance with its resident company. The following year, he received an apprenticeship with the Boston Ballet and left the University to pursue his dancing career. After two years, he was promoted into the corps de ballets and danced with the main company for three seasons. Mr. Luzicka returned home to dance with the company he grew up watching, Kansas City Ballet, in 2006. Although he has danced professionally for six years, he says that his training with his mother continues to this day. This is Mr. Luzicka's sixth season with Kansas City Ballet.
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Caitlin (Cooney) Mack
Ms. Mack, a native of Seattle, trained at Pacific Northwest Ballet School for 11 years on full scholarship. She performed with the company in a variety of ballets including The Nutcracker, Cinderella and Don Quixote. Ms. Mack spent summers at the School of American Ballet and the Rock School of Pennsylvania. Since joining Kansas City Ballet, some of Ms. Mack's most memorable performances have been in Lambarena, Nine Sinatra Songs, As Time Goes By, Change of Heart, Paquita, Deuce Coupe, Great Galloping Gottschalk, The Moor's Pavane, Company B, Brahms Paganini, The Catherine Wheel Suite, Who Cares?, and the Cowgirl in Rodeo. Ms. Mack has also been a guest artist with Ballet Bellevue where she danced as Swanhilda in Coppelia. This is her 10th season with Kansas City Ballet.
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Jill Marlow
Jill Marlow began her training at the Draper Center for Dance Education in Rochester, New York, under the direction of Timothy Draper. Additionally, Ms. Marlow spent time studying at American Ballet Theatre, Boston Ballet and Indiana University. She started out her professional career with Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre before heading to Cincinnati Ballet, where she most recently spent the last seven years. Ms. Marlow has enjoyed dancing in La Bayadere, Giselle, Swan Lake, Who Cares?, Lambarena, Concerto Barocco, and particularly Chaconne which was performed at The Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. Some of her most notable roles have included Juliet in Romeo and Juliet's balcony pas de deux, Lilac Fairy in Sleeping Beauty, Fairy Godmother in Cinderella, Titania in A Midsummer Night's Dream, Stomper in Twyla Tharp's In the Upper Room, Waltz Girl in Balanchine's Serenade, Marie in Val Caniparoli's The Nutcracker, as well as featured roles in Adam Hougland's Mozart's Requiem and K281. Along side the last nine years of her professional career, Ms. Marlow recently graduated with highest honors in August 2011 from the University of Cincinnati. She now holds a B.S. in Health Promotion/Education with a focus in Community Health. She is pleased to start her first season with Kansas City Ballet.
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Charles Martin
Charles Martin received his primary ballet training from Penny Askew at the Western Oklahoma Ballet Academy in Clinton, Oklahoma. He also studied intensively at the American Ballet Theatre, Joffrey Ballet School in New York, and the Glenda Brown Choreography Project in Austin and Kansas City. He has performed extensively with the Western Oklahoma Ballet Theatre in addition to guest performances with Allegro Ballet of Houston, Texas, and Remix Dance Group touring Austria. Mr. Martin has also had 11 choreographic works selected for the Regional Dance America/Southwest Festival concerts, two receiving the Monticello Award. With Kansas City Ballet, he has been featured in soloist roles in Brahms Paganini, Piano Concerto #2, Lambarena, Concerto Grosso, As Time Goes By, Nine Sinatra Songs, A Solo in Nine Parts, and The Moor's Pavane. This is his fifth season with Kansas City Ballet.
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Marcus Oatis
Marcus Oatis, a native of Kansas City, began his training with the summer program Ailey Camp and subsequently began studying at the Center Dance and Kansas City Ballet. Additionally, Mr. Oatis performed with Ailey Camp The Group and Paseo Academy of the Fine and Performing Arts. While completing his B.M. in music performance, he began working with Omaha Dance Project under the direction of Sara Mau and Jonathan Fagan as well as Central Dance Theatre and Arcanium Dance. With Kansas City Ballet, Mr. Oatis has been featured in Jessica Lang's Splendid Isolation III and Jose Limon's The Moor's Pavane. This is his fourth season with Kansas City Ballet.
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Tempe Ostergren
Tempe Ostergren studied on full scholarship at The School of American Ballet in New York City. After graduating, she went on to join the Pacific Northwest Ballet in Seattle where she danced numerous solo and principal roles. Among some of her favorites were Sugar Plum in Stowell's Nutcracker, Balanchine's Divertimento #15, Martin's Fearful Symmetries, Stowell's Quaternary, and Caniparoli's Torque. She then joined Boston Ballet where some of her repertoire included Dew Drop and Snow Queen in The Nutcracker, Stepsister in Kudelka's Cinderella, Effy in La Sylphide, Jumping Girl in Balanchine's Who Cares?, Wheeldon's Polyphonia, soloist ballerina in Tharp's In the Upper Room, Kylian's Falling Angels and Six Dances as well as numerous roles in the classics such as pas de trois in Swan Lake and Sleeping Beauty, and Amour in Don Quioxte. Ms. Ostergren was thrilled to perform the title role in Giselle with Kansas City Ballet. This is her second season.
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Logan Pachciarz
Mr. Pachciarz began his professional career at the age of 15 with Twyla Tharp's dance ensemble Tharp!. He toured across the United States premiering three new works entitled Sweet Fields, Heroes, and Route 66. He then continued his formal dance education at the North Carolina School of the Arts under the tutelage of Ton Siman, Fernando Bujanes, and Warren Conover. At age 18, he joined the Boston Ballet II and was then promoted to the main company where he enjoyed working with such choreographers as Rudi Van Dantzig, Christopher Wheeldon, and Ben Stevenson. Mr. Pachciarz joined Kansas City Ballet in 2001. In his 11 years with the Company, he has enjoyed dancing in numerous works including Jardi Tancat, Dark Elegies, The Catherine Wheel Suite, and Flower Festival pas de deux. Some of his favorite roles have included Albrecht in Giselle, the title role in Romeo & Juliet, Blue in Green solo in Jaywalk, the solo man in Brahms Paganini, and Iago in The Moor's Pavane. He is married to fellow dancer Rachel Coats.
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Catherine Russell
Ms. Russell trained at the Rock School of the Pennsylvania Ballet, where she often performed with the company. She spent one year dancing with Massachusetts Youth Ballet performing lead roles in Balanchine’s Apollo, Divertimento #15 and Napoli before joining Kansas City Ballet. Ms. Russell’s most notable performances include Lisette in La Fille mal gardee, the Moor's Wife in The Moor's Pavane, the pas de trois in Paquita, the Stairway to Paradise soloist in Who Cares?, Somethin’ Stupid in Nine Sinatra Songs, and Hortense in Cakewalk, as well as featured roles in The Catherine Wheel Suite, Pas de Dix, Napoli, and The Still Point. Ms. Russell is also a nationally certified massage therapist. She is in her 12th season with Kansas City Ballet.
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Yoshiya Sakurai
Yoshiya Sakurai began his training with his mother in his hometown of Niigata City in Japan. At age 14, he attended Canada's National Ballet School. There, he danced in several ballets including Sinfonietta, Jiri Kylian's Evening Songs, Four Last Songs, First Say by R. Dantziry, Ein von rie by S. Matthews. In 2006, he received Peter Dwyer Scholarships from Canada Council for the Art. At American Repertory Ballet, Mr. Sakurai performed the Prince in The Nutcracker. In 2008, he joined the Boston Ballet II and danced in Rubies and the Spanish Dance in The Nutcracker. This is Mr. Sakurai's second season with Kansas City Ballet.
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Angelina Sansone
Having lived in numerous locations, Ms. Sansone most recently hails from Charlotte, North Carolina. She left home at age 14 to attend the Harid Conservatory with a full tuition scholarship. After completing her education at Harid, she spent two seasons with the Joffrey Ballet of Chicago where she appeared in Robert Altman's 2003 film The Company. Following her stay with Joffrey, Ms. Sansone worked toward her B.S. in ballet at Indiana University before she joined KCB in 2005. In her two seasons with KCB, she has been featured in End of Time, Apollo The Concert , Great Galloping Gottschalk, Dark Elegies, Splendid Isolations III, Mozartiana and as Dew Drop in The Nutcracker. She had the opportunity to perform Ben Stevenson's End of Time at the International Dance Festival of Colombia. This is Ms. Sansone's seventh season with Kansas City Ballet.
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Laura Wolfe
Laura Wolfe, originally from Montgomery, AL, began studying ballet at Montgomery Ballet and furthered her training at the Alabama Dance Theatre. She attended and received scholarships to Joffrey Ballet School, Ballet Academy East, School of American Ballet, and American Ballet Theatre. From 2007 to 2008, she trained at Ballet Academy East, under direction of Darla Hoover, where she took classes with remarkable teachers from New York City Ballet, Pacific Northwest Ballet, and American Ballet Theatre. In the summer of 2010, she attended the ballet program at Jacob's Pillow and performed in the season opening Gala. Ms. Wolfe's favorite roles include Kitri and Amour in Don Quixote, Swanilda in Coppelia, Mirliton in The Nutcracker, and Peasant Pas de Deux from Giselle. This is her fourth season with Kansas City Ballet.
