Peter Anastos, Artistic Director

Peter Anastos has choreographed over 100 stage works for the finest national and regional ballet companies in the United States as well as for modern dance companies, theater, film and television. He has also choreographed in Europe, Asia and Latin America and his ballets are performed worldwide. He was the founding Director/Choreographer of Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo and served as Artistic Director for Garden State Ballet and Cinncinati Ballet. Mr. Anastos enjoys a longstanding collaboration with Mikhail Baryshnikov and their projects together include American Ballet Theater’s Cinderella, CBS Television’s Baryshnikov in Hollywood (Emmy Award nomination), White Oak Dance Project and the photography book The Swan Prince for Bantam Books. Mr. Anastos was also invited to create a new work for the White Oak Dance Project. Mr. Anastos has the rare honor of receiving two Guggenheim Foundation Fellowships in Choreography and four Fellowships from the national Endowment for the Arts. He was the subject of a New Yorker Magazine Profile by the foremost American dance writer, Arlene Croce. For the Broadway stage he choreographed I Hate Hamlet and Where She Danced, based on the life of Isadora Duncan. Other major theatre credits include 33 Variations (Arena Stage, Washington, DC) and Chess (National Company). He has choreographed several television specials and two Hollywood films, Addams Family and Addams Family Values, both for Paramount Pictures. He has directed opera for the Washington Opera at the Kennedy Center and for the Opera Company of Philadelphia and was choreographer-in-residence for the Santa Fe Opera and Sundance Theatre Festival, part of Robert Redford's Sundance Institute in Utah. A writer and historian, Mr. Anastos has published essays about ballet for the New York Times, LA Times, Dance Magazine, Ballet News, DanceInk and Ballet Review, where he is a member of the Editorial Board. He is a contributor to the new book, Reading Dance , Random House, New York, 2008. Mr. Anastos directed the Ballet Project at Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival and has taught ballet technique in New York and throughout the United States.

Alex Ossadnik, Ballet Master

Alex Ossadnik was born in Soviet Union occupied East Germany and attended the Palucca School in Dresden from 1979-1987 and trained in the Vaganova Method in classical ballet, as well as modern, jazz, folkloric and improvisation. He joined the ballet company of the German National Theatre Weimar as a principal dancer at the age of 20. After the collapse of the East Block in 1989, he joined Ballet Theatre de Bordeaux (France) under the direction of Paolo Bortuluzzi. He has performed in such companies as Nevada Dance Theatre and Oregon Ballet Theatre, as well as a guest artist in Alabama, California, New Mexico and Texas. Mr. Ossadnik has worked over the past ten years in various capacities with artists of the Alberta Ballet, Boston Ballet, Colorado Ballet, Joffrey Ballet, New York City Ballet, Oregon Ballet Theatre and Pennsylvania Ballet.

Heather Hawk

Heather Hawk studied ballet in Indiana, at the Stone-Cameron School in Chicago, the Ruth Page Foundation and Chicago City Ballet School. Heather attended the School of American Ballet in New York and was invited to study with the Royal Danish Ballet in Copenhagen. She joined the New York City Ballet and danced ballets by Balanchine, Robbins and Martins and appeared in films of Balanchine’s The Nutcracker and the Balanchine Celebration for PBS. She has also danced with Pennsylvania Ballet, Ballet Chicago and the Lyric Opera of Chicago. She graduated from New York University. Heather began her teaching career at the School of Ballet Chicago and continues as guest faculty. In New York, she taught at Steps, Studio Maestro, Ballet Academy East, La Guardia High School and for the David Howard Foundation and is faculty at the Ballet School of Stamford, Connecticut.

Racheal Nole

Racheal Nole is a graduate of the Kirov Academy in Washington D.C. and was a principal ballerina with Nevada Ballet Theatre. Before joining Nevada Ballet Theatre, Racheal danced with Ballet Internationale in Indianapolis and the Maryland Ballet. Racheal's repertoire includes principal roles in George Balanchine's Who Care's?, Val Caniparoli's Lambarena, Kathryn Posin's Scheherezade and Bruce Steivel's Dracula, A Midsummer Night's Dream, The Nutcracker, Coppelia, and Romeo and Juliet. She has also danced works by Roy Tobias, Peter Anastos and Sonia Dawkins. She is married to fellow Principal Dancer, Zeb Nole.

Phyllis Rothwell Affrunti

Phyllis Rothwell Affrunti trained at The Ballet School of Chapel Hill in North Carolina and continued at the Academy of the Maryland Youth Ballet. She danced with Pennsylvania Ballet, Southern Ballet Theatre and as a principal for Charleston Ballet Theatre, Eugene Ballet and Ballet Idaho performing lead roles in Balanchine’s Allegro Brilliante, Tarantella, Who Cares? and Serenade. Since joining Ballet Idaho she has been featured as Giselle, Carmen, Clara, Sugar Plum Fairy, Princess Florine, Lilac Fairy and Wendy in Bruce Steivel’s Peter Pan and has been featured in many of Toni Pimble’s works. Phyllis has worked with choreographers such as Jean Pierre Bonnefoux, Christopher Fleming, David Parsons and Eddy Toussaint.

Jared Hunt

Jared Hunt, originally from Ogden, Utah, started dance training at the age of eight with Bene Arnold at the Ballet West Conservatory. He performed soloist roles with Nevada Ballet Theatre in performances such as Peter in Peter Pan, the Nutcracker Prince and Snow King in The Nutcracker, Albrecht in Giselle, Demetrius in A Midsummer Night’s Dream along with principal roles with choreography by Bruce Steivel, Peter Anastos, Agnes De Mille, Sir Frederick Ashton, Twyla Tharp and Val Caniparoli. He has also performed with Utah Opera, Utah Ballet and Ballet Idaho/Eugene Ballet and at the Kennedy Center, throughout Europe, the Vail International Dance Festival and was a guest artist with the Seoul Ballet Theatre in South Korea.

Monique Betty

Monique Betty, from Pocatello, Idaho, began her training with the late Marius Zirra and attended Brindusa-Moore Ballet Academy where she studied under Sergiu Brindusa, Florin Brindusa and Beth Moore. She has attended summer programs at American Ballet Theatre, Brindusa-Moore Ballet Academy, Rocky Mountain Ballet Theatre and Ballet Idaho. She has danced Myrtha in Giselle, Princess Florine in The Sleeping Beauty, numerous variations from Paquita, La Bayadere and Cinderella and various other classical and contemporary ballets.

James Brougham

James Brougham was born and raised in California and started dance training at the age of twelve in Marin County. He attended the San Francisco Ballet School on full scholarship and continued at Pacific Northwest Ballet also on full scholarship. He has performed in both San Francisco Ballet’s and Pacific Northwest Ballet’s The Nutcracker and in Prodigal Son, The Concert, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Who Cares? and Cortege Hongrois.

Sarah Ellis

Sarah Ellis received her early training with the Giacobbe Academy of Dance in Louisiana and also trained with Ballet Austin, Dance Aspen, Delta Festival Ballet and Pennsylvania Ballet. She danced with the Houston Dance Theater in soloist and principal roles. Sarah attended the University of Oklahoma School of Dance and completed a Master of Fine Arts in Ballet Performance. She danced soloist roles for the Montgomery Ballet and later joined the Alabama Ballet where she performed in Swan Lake, Romeo and Juliet, Don Quixote, The Firebird, Cinderella and Balanchine’s The Nutcracker. She also choreographs and performs as a guest artist.

Graham Gobeille

Graham Quinn Gobielle started dancing in his home town of Fort Collins, Colorado and received training from Melissa Corr and Scott Ranagan. In 2006, he joined Ballet West 2 in Salt Lake City, Utah. He also participated in Ballet West for Children, an outreach program dedicated to bringing ballet to schools all over Utah.

Audrey Lynn Honert

Audrey Honert grew up in Colorado, where she started dancing at age five. She then joined Colorado Ballet at sixteen and was an apprentice there for two years. Audrey moved to Seattle and continued her training as a Professional Division student at the Pacific Northwest Ballet for the past year. She has attended various summer programs which include Pacific Northwest Ballet, American Ballet Theatre and Sacramento Ballet. She won second place in the regional Youth America Grand Prix in Denver in 2006.

Adrienne Kerr

Adrienne Kerr began ballet in Albuquerque with Karen Alwin and Deanna Encinias. The youngest student in Boston Ballet's summer program, she has since received scholarships to other internationally-recognized curriculums. In Youth America Grand Prix competitions, Adrienne won third place and performed in New York. She was a scholarship student at Pacific Northwest Ballet prior to joining Ballet Idaho as a 17 year old in 2008.

Angela Napier

Angela Napier, from Canby, Oregon, received early training from Willamette Ballet Academy and Allegro Dance Studio before attending Pacific Artists Dance Center. She attended summer intensives at the School of American Ballet and Pacific Northwest Ballet, where she continued as a professional division student and performed in Symphony in C, The Sleeping Beauty, The Nutcracker and in Swan Lake. In 2007, Angela earned her Bachelor of Fine Arts in Ballet from Texas Christian University and since then has been performing in Portland, Oregon with Bouand Dance Company. In addition to dance, Angela is also a certified Stott Pilates Instructor.

Ryan Jolicoeur-Nye

Ryan Jolicoeur-Nye is from Maine and received his professional training from the Bossov Ballet Theatre and the Royal Winnipeg Ballet School, Professional Division. He received the Arnold Spohr Scholarship and the Renne Highway Scholarship at Royal Winnipeg Ballet. He has appeared in The Nutcracker, Don Quixote, Coppelia, Swan Lake, Carmina Burana, Pulcinella, Carnival of the Animals and Give Me Much and Many. Ryan is also an award winning choreographer.

Jessica Sulikowski

Jessica Sulikowski grew up in Jackson, New Jersey and graduated as an honors student from Jackson Memorial High School’s class of 2008. She has studied dance with the Academy of Dance Arts and has been a successful candidate of the Royal Academy of Dance major examinations. She has attended summer intensive workshops at the Kirov Ballet, Princeton Ballet, the Washington School of Ballet and Steps on Broadway and has been a pre-professional dancer with the Company of Dance Arts in The Nutcracker, The Sleeping Beauty as Aurora, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz and La Linda.

Mary Slate

Mary Slate grew up in Florida and began her ballet training with the Orlando Ballet School, later graduating from the Virginia School of the Arts in Lynchburg, Virginia. She performed a variety of works including La Bayadere and Harald Lander’s Etudes and traveled to Ruel Mal Maison, France to perform in their Millennium celebration. Mary performed with the Orlando Ballet for six seasons. She performed in several Balanchine ballets and in contemporary works by Fernando Bujones, Salim Gualoos and Bruce Woods. Most recently, Mary performed with the Lyric Opera of Chicago in their production of Dr. Atomic.

Elisa Belnap

Elisa Belnap, born in Pocatello Idaho, began her early ballet training under the late Marius Zirra. She later attended the Brindusa-Moore Ballet Academy where she studied extensively with Sergiu Brindusa and Beth Moore, as well as Florin Brindusa, Richard d’Alton, and Vladimir Bykov. She has performed roles in Giselle, Les Sylphides, The Sleeping Beauty and Coppelia along with multiple variations from many other classical ballets.

Robert Ryan Callan

Robert Ryan Callan, from Spokane, Washington, began his career in Musical Theatre and has trained and danced with Ballet Spokane for six years. Favorite roles performed include The Poet in Les Sylphides, contemporary works by choreographer Amy Seiwart and his own comedic version of Rose Adagio from The Sleeping Beauty as Aurora herself.

Michelle Leilani Davis

Michelle Leilani Davis received her dance education at the Academy of Nevada Ballet Theatre in Las Vegas before joining the company as a trainee and danced roles in Don Quixote, The Nutcracker and Cinderella. She then trained at Academy of Colorado Ballet and danced such roles as Lilac Fairy, Puss n’ Boots and Diamond Fairy. Michelle also attended summer programs with Orlando Ballet, Nevada Ballet Theatre, American Ballet Theatre, Colorado Ballet and Ballet Idaho.

Amanda Murray

Amanda was born in Wenatchee, WA and began her classical ballet training at the age of five at the Joan Shelton School of Ballet. She received classical Russian training at the San Diego Academy of Ballet and also studied at the the Jillana School under full scholarship. She danced her first pas de deux at the age of thirteen in Les Sylphides. Other roles include parts from the The Nutcracker, Snow White, Alice in Wonderland, River Scenes, Raymonda, La Bayadere, Don Quixote, La Sylphide and Serenade.

Sada Popick

Sada Popick has been dancing at the Portland Ballet Academy and Youth Company for the past two years. Previously, she studied at Oregon Ballet Theatre and attended summer intensive courses at San Francisco Ballet, Boston Ballet, Oregon Ballet Theatre, Richmond Ballet, Joffrey Workshop, Ballet Austin and Ballet Idaho. She has performed roles in Les Sylphides, La Sylphide, The Sleeping Beauty, Giselle, Paquita, Coppelia and The Nutcracker.