Faculty

Danita Emma, Artistic Director
Ms. Emma has more than 30 years of experience as a dance teacher, coach, choreographer, adjudicator, and administrator. A master teacher in great demand, whose teaching is compared to that of the legendary Russian masters, she has been shaped and inspired by her lifelong relationship with her mentor, the world-renowned Madame Darvash. Ms. Emma's approach to technique is both demanding and articulate, combining the best of ballet tradition with a deep understanding of the body. Her students have gone on to perform with companies such as Atlanta Ballet, American Ballet Theatre, New York City Ballet, Joffrey Ballet, Dance Theater of Harlem, and Orlando Ballet.

After training at the Pennsylvania Ballet, American Ballet Theatre, and Boston Conservatory of Music, Ms. Emma earned a B.F.A. in dance from Brenau University. She has taught at the New Dance Group in New York City, Garden State Ballet Company, and Atlanta Ballet, and in studios, performing arts high schools, colleges, and regional companies throughout the Eastern Seaboard. For the past ten years she has taught at both the Southeast and Northeast Conferences of Universities and Colleges in Dance. She served as audition teacher and adjudicator for the Oakland Ballet. Throughout her career she has taught all levels of ballet technique, pointe, partnering, variations, performance, composition, dance history, world dances, and reconstruction work in studio, professional, and university settings. Ms. Emma has been assistant professor of dance at Hobart and William Smith Colleges and a visiting artist at Brenau University and the University of Georgia. Currently, she is on the faculty at Syracuse University. She was artistic director of the Binghamton University Summer Dance Institute for six years. In 2006, she designed and launched Syracuse University's premiere pre-professional summer dance intensive, where she continues as artistic director. In September 2009, Ms. Emma choreographed the opera Frida for the Society of New Music.

In all that she does—teaching, administration, choreography—Ms. Emma domonstrates her allegiance to promoting dance as an art form of the highest caliber.

2010 Faculty:

Madame Gabriela Darvash

World-renowned Kirov-trained teacher, Madame Darvash was artistic director and resident choreographer for the State Opera Ballet in Cluj, Romania, for 14 years. Mikhail Baryshnikov called her "one of the distinguished and fine ballet pedagogues in America."

Since 1972 she has resided in New York, running her own school from 1976 to 1988. Writing in the New York Times, Anna Kisselgoff and Jennifer Dunning praised her ability to create beautiful, strong, artistically expressive dancers. One of her students, a principal with New York City Ballet, writes, "her method of teaching has changed my life ... her devotion to this method and the care she takes with each of her students reminds me very much of the way Mr. Balanchine used to teach his classes."

For students who fall out of pirouettes or are unable to maintain balance securely, Madame's unique method, based on deep knowledge of anatomy and mechanics, is a revelation. At once simple and profound, her teaching enables each student to reach the maximum his/her capacity allows.

Kathryn Posin

Kathryn Posin studied composition with Louis Horst, Anna Sokolow, Merce Cunningham, and Hanya Holm. She has choreographed works for Ballet West; Netherlands Dans Theater; the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater; The Eliot Feld Ballet; The Ohio, Kansas City, Sacramento, Cincinnati, and Hartford Ballets; Balletmet; the Extemporary Dance Company of London; and Cloud Gate Dance Theatre of Taiwan.

Meet The Composer, the national organization serving composers throughout the United States, commissioned Stepping Stones for the Milwaukee Ballet, with composer Joan Tower, since performed by five ballet companies.

Ms. Posin choreographed the hit rock musical Salvation, with Bette Midler and Richard Gere, and The Cherry Orchard with Meryl Streep, directed by Andrei Serban at Lincoln Center. She coached Jennifer Jason Leigh in Al Pacino's Salome. The Kathryn Posin Dance Company, founded in 1972, has received support from the Guggenheim Foundation, The New York State Council on the Arts, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the Jerome Robbins Foundation.

Scheherazade, commissioned for the Milwaukee Ballet, was staged for the Louisville and Sacramento Ballets, and the Nevada Ballet Theatre. Ms. Posin teaches World Dance and The Art of Choreography at the Gallatin School of New York University.

BALLET

Momchil Mladenov
Principal dancer, Suzanne Farrell Ballet

Former principal dancer with the National Ballet of Bulgaria, Mr. Mladenov is currently a soloist with the Suzanne Farrell Ballet. A native of Bulgaria, he trained in the Vaganova Method at the National High School of Ballet in Sofia, Bulgaria from 1984 to 1993.

In 1997 he earned a B.A. from the National Academy of Music in Sofia. As a college student, he was a principal dancer with the National Ballet of Bulgaria. His honors and awards include Laureate of “Arabesque” Competition and prize for best performance in P.I. Tchaikovsky’s Sleeping Beauty, Perm, Russia (1998), Laureate of Masako Ohya World Ballet Competition, Osaka, Japan (1995), prize for Best Partner in “seniors” category at the National Ballet Competition, Dobritsch, Bulgaria, and a nomination for “Crystal Lire," Bulgaria.

He began his U.S. career in 2000, as a dancer and ballet master at the University of Texas, El Paso. In 2002, he became an assistant to well-known choreographer Kathryn Posin and danced the lead role in her production of Milwaukee Ballet’s "Scheherazade." In 2005 he danced at The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts as the title character in the revival of George Balanchine “Don Quixote” and performed Balanchine's "Divertimento No.15." More information: www.momchilmladenov.org

Shannon Parsley
Assistant Ballet Master and Artistic Coordinator

Shannon Parsley is a native Texan and joins the artistic staff in her third role with the Boston Ballet, having performed as a dancer in the Company and a teacher in Boston Ballet School. She began her dancing career with the Fort Worth Ballet, followed by the Miami City Ballet where she was promoted to soloist in 2001. Ms. Parsley joined Boston Ballet in 2002 while continuing to dance as a soloist with the Suzanne Farrell Ballet. Some of her many principal and soloist roles include Balanchine's Emeralds, Who Cares?, Agon, Duo Concertante, La Source, Divertimento #15, Apollo, and the revival of Divertimento Brillante. In addition to Ms. Parsley's vast Balanchine repertoire, she has also performed works by Sir Frederick Aston, Paul Taylor, Mark Morris, Marius Petipa, and Rudolph Nureyev (Giselle, Myrta). In 2004, she danced at the Kennedy Center Honors in recognition of Suzanne Farrell. She has also appeared as a guest artist with Angel Corella in Cadiz, Spain. In 2005, Ms. Parsley traveled to Edinburgh, Scotland, with the Suzanne Farrell Ballet to dance leading roles in Balanchine's Don Quixote, as well as stage the children in the production. She was invited by the Balanchine Trust to stage Serenade for the North Carolina School of the Arts and assisted on the staging of the children for last year's Boston Ballet production of A Midsummer Night's Dream.

Jared Redick
Principal for Boston Ballet School, Norwell Division

A former soloist with Boston Ballet, Jared Redick began his ballet training with his mother, Julia Redick, at Conservatory Ballet in Reston. He went on to study at North Carolina School of the Arts, Mikhail Baryshnikov's School of Classical Ballet and the School of American Ballet. Redick danced with San Francisco Ballet and Fort Worth Dallas Ballet prior to joining Miami City Ballet as a soloist in 1996. His repertory there included leading roles in George Balanchine's Divertimento #15, Agon, Swan Lake, Theme and Variations, The Nutcracker, Emeralds, The Steadfast Tin Soldier and Western Symphony; Jimmy Gamonet's Divertimento EspaÃ±ol, D Symphonies, Carmen and Partita; Paul Taylor's Arden Court, Company B and Funny Papers; Giselle (Hilarion and Peasant Pas de Deux); and Sir Frederick Ashton's Les Patineurs. Redick joined Boston Ballet as a member of the corps de ballet and was promoted to soloist in 2003. He has been featured in Marius Petipa's The Sleeping Beauty, Mikko Nissinen's The Nutcracker, Ashton's La Fille mal gardée (Alain), John Cranko's Onegin (Lensky) and The Taming of the Shrew (Hortensio), Rudi van Dantzig's Romeo and Juliet (Mercutio), Val Caniparoli's Lady of the Camellias (Gaston) and Sonata for Two Pianos and Percussion, James Kudelka's Cinderella, William Forsythe's In the middle, somewhat elevated, Jorma Elo's Plan to B, Jiri Kylian's Sarabande, Helen Pickett's Etesian, Mark Morris' Up and Down and Balanchine's Monumentum/Movements, Duo Concertan, Rubies and Divertimento No. 15. Redick was also a soloist with Suzanne Farrell Ballet, and was most recently featured in Balanchine's Don Quixote at the Edinburgh Festival in Scotland. In addition, Redick is an accomplished photographer whose work has been featured in Playbill, Dance Magazine, Pointe magazine and The Boston Globe.

Karen Brown
Assistant Professor, University of the Arts, Philadelphia

A native of Augusta, Georgia, Karen Brown was a member of the Dance Theater of Harlem for 22 years, and principal for much of that time. In 1994 she originated roles in Robert Garland’s The Joplin Dances and Alonzo King’s Signs and Wonders. She has performed a wide variety of repertory works, including pieces by George Balanchine, Geoffrey Holder, John Taras, Agnes de Mille, Glen Tetley, and Louis Johnson. For six years, Brown adjudicated and taught in Dance Theater of Harlem’s extensive community outreach program during the company’s yearly residencies at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. She has been artistic director of Oakland Ballet and director of education at the Atlanta Ballet Centre for Dance Education. Ms. Brown is a member of Paradigm and serves on the board of Dance USA.

Lynne Charles
Faculty member, San Francisco Ballet School and Company

A former principal dancer with Hamburg Ballet and Bejart Ballet, Lynne Charles won the bronze medal for the USA in the Varna International Ballet Competition. In 1987 she became the first American invited to dance with the Kirov Ballet and was a guest artist again in 1988 and 1989. She has taught at Frankfurt Ballet, Finnish National Ballet, and Les Ballets de Monte-Carlo, among many others. Among her awards and exceptional achievements are the 1979 Berliner Best Artist of the Year award and her status as the first and only non-Russian dancer to be personally coached by Galina Ulanova for the role of Giselle.

Joseph Cipolla

Joseph Cipolla danced with and later taught for England’s Birmingham Royal Ballet. He is co-founder of the Cape Cod dance ensemble, Configuration. He is the chair of the dance department at the Academy of Performing Arts on Cape Cod.

He has studied ballet for almost 30 years, beginning at the American Academy of Ballet. He joined Dance Theater of Harlem in 1979 and performed principal roles with that company for seven years. Since then he has been a member of The Birmingham Royal Ballet, dancing leading roles in many of the company’s productions.

He has danced at the White House and for the closing ceremony of the Olympic Games. He is named in Who’s Who in America and People of Today.
More information: www.configurationdance.org/home.html

Anthony Salatino
SU Drama Department

Syracuse Stage's award-winning choreographer, Mr. Salatino is an associate professor in Syracuse University's drama department.

He choreographs new life into such classics such as Peter Pan and A Christmas Carol or conceives, directs, and choreographs original productions for drama students.

A graduate of the Juilliard School, during his dance career he was a soloist with the New York City Opera Ballet, Ballet Brio, and the Juilliard Dance Ensemble, and performed with the City Center Company at the White House. He is the former artistic director of the Fort Worth Ballet and Hartford Ballet, has served in the Syracuse Ballet in various directorship positions. He is the recipient of choreography fellowships or awards from the National Endowment for the Arts and the American College Theatre Festival Kennedy Center. More information: http://vpa.syr.edu/drama

MODERN & JAZZ

Lois Welk
Dance USA/Philadelphia

Lois Welk, founder and director of American Dance Asylum, Inc., is the director of Dance USA/Philadelphia.

She teaches modern dance and creative movement and is well known for her site-specific productions in Upstate New York, such as The Parking Ramp Dance, The Carousel Dance, and The Hiawatha Island Dance.

A native of Buffalo, she studied at SUNY Buffalo and SUNY Brockport, where she earned a B.A. in dance. She founded the American Dance Asylum Inc. in 1974. She developed a nationally recognized program of concert dance, a jazz series, family programming, and a world folk music festival.

Karen Koyanagi

Trained in Canada, Karen Koyanagi has a BFA (Honors) in Dance from York University (Toronto) and a BSC in Marine Biology from the University of British Columbia. Before moving to Binghamton, she danced in Toronto, Vancouver, and San Francisco. While primarily working in modern dance, she has choreographed musicals, been involved in music and performance videos and collaborated with innovative high tech performance artists.

She has taught for organizations such as Binghamton University, Whitney Center for Dance, 171 Cedar Arts, Inc., the Southern Tier Institute, and the Imagination Celebration. Ms. Koyanagi has been a frequent performer with the American Dance Asylum and was a founding member of the B.F. Harridans Women's Morris. Ms. Koyanagi served as Task Force Chair working with the New York State Department of Education to develop a statewide Regents exam for dance.

In addition to teaching, Ms. Koyanagi is an adjunct dancer with The Liz Lerman Dance Exchange. This year with the Liz Lerman Dance Exchange, she performed in Boston, Washington, DC and Birmingham, Alabama. She teaches at the Rod Serling School of Fine Arts at Binghamton City Schools, New York and is artistic director of the Rod Serling Dance Company.

Kim Hale
SU Drama Department

Kim Hale is an assistant professor at SU's College of Visual and Performing Arts. Her areas of expertise are jazz and theater dance.

She made her musical theater debut in the national tour of Applause. She has also appeared in musicals, revues, and industrials throughout the U.S. and abroad. She adjudicates and teaches master classes for numerous dance conventions across the country and serves on the dance faculty of the Perry Mansfield Performing Arts School and Camp in Colorado.
More information: http://vpa.syr.edu/drama

[Return to top]