Instructors and Visiting Guest Artists
Trudi Angel is the Artistic Director for Northern California Ballet. She danced with the Munich State Opera-Ballet Company (now the Bavarian National Ballet) and the Los Angeles Ballet. For the last twenty years she has been continuously growing and improving Northern California Ballet. During that time she has choreographed numerous full length classical ballets and has brought them to several northern California communities.
Evelyn Cisneros-Legate Director of Ballet Pacifica Academy Born in Long Beach California and raised in Huntington Beach, Cisneros began studying ballet at the age of 8 in an effort to overcome her profound shyness. Cisneros later received full summer scholarships to the San Francisco Ballet School and the School of American Ballet and upon completing her high school education, she began her apprenticeship with the San Francisco Ballet in 1976. In 1977 she joined the Company under the directorship of Co-Artistic Directors, Lew Christensen and Michael Smuin. Cisneros soon began dancing principal roles, many choreographed for her by Smuin himself. She performed her original roles in national television broadcasts of A Song for Dead Warriors and The Tempest, as well as the title role of Cinderella and noteworthy “live broadcast” from the White House in 1982. Her success continued under San Francisco Ballet Artistic Director, Helgi Tomasson, appointed in 1985. 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 Gardeé. Numerous resident and visiting choreographers have created works for her including Tomasson, Val Caniparoli, James Kudelka and Mark Morris. Her contemporary repertoire included works by George Balanchine, Jerome Robbins, Stanton Welch and Jiri Kylian. She has toured the world performing with the Company and as a guest artist. read more
Tom Barber began taking ballet classes at Florida State University. Shortly thereafter he received a scholarship to study at the Southern Academy of Ballet Arts under the generous guidance of Charles Hagain, Natalia Botha and Gwynne Ashton. Tom has since danced with Southern Ballet Theatre, Louisville Ballet, Nashville Ballet, Cincinnati Ballet, Dayton Ballet, and Ballet Memphis. Enjoying traveling opportunities, he has been fortunate to perform in his off-season summers with Boca Ballet Theatre and Pas de View in Florida, Nutmeg Ballet in Connecticut, Artisan Dance Theatre in Montana and Chautauqua Dance Company in New York. He has also been a performer on Cruise ships. Currently he is teaching and performing in the Florida area. He is also a frequent guest artist for Northern California Ballet.
Temuuzhin Bold was born in Mongolia and moved to Russia when he was 12 years old. He attended the State Academic Choreographic Institute of Perm from 1987 to 1995 where he received ballet technique training from U. M. Sidorov, a nationally recognized artist in Russia. He has performed with the famed Bolshoi Ballet and was a soloist with the State Academic Theatre of Cheliabinsk and the Russian Chamber Ballet in Moscow. Mr. Bold toured 27 cities in the United States in 2000 and 2001 as a soloist with the Moscow Ballet, where he appeared in 62 performances over a period of 2 months. Since moving to San Francisco in late 2000, he performs regularly with the Classical Ballet of California and has recently been a guest soloist in their productions of Le Corsaire and Giselle.
Juan Carlos Amy-Cordero grew up in Boston, Massachusetts. Currently he is a dancer with the Eugene Ballet Company and ballet Idaho, where he has danced soloist and principal roles in many ballets such as the role of Puck in A Midsummer Night's Dream, the Nutcracker Prince in The Nutcracker, the Blue Bird in The Sleeping Beauty, Benvolio in Romeo and Juliette and Athos in The Three Musketeers as well as dancing in the premiers of many contemporary works by Toni Pimble. He trained at the Boston Ballet school as well as the San Francisco Ballet School.
Leslie Crockett received her formative ballet training from her parents, Barbara and Deane Crockett, early members of the San Francisco Ballet Company. Subsequently, she studied on full scholarship with Robert Barnett of the Atlanta Ballet, William Christensen of Ballet West, Alan Howard of Pacific Ballet and Lew Harold and Ruby Christensen of the San Francisco Ballet. Ms. Crockett was a principal dancer with the Sacramento and Pacific Ballet, and soloist with San Francisco Ballet. She spent 13 years as a faculty member of the San Francisco Ballet School and is currently teaching at Marin Ballet in San Rafael.
Leslie DeWitt is NCB's instructor for Pre-Ballet. Ms. DeWitt holds a California Teaching Credential and specializes as an instructor for the very young in musical and rhythmic movement.
Richard Gibson is a former member of the Joffrey Ballet and the San Francisco Ballet. He received his training from Olga Ziceva, Guillermo Del Oro, and at the San Francisco Ballet. He later studied with Robert Joffrey, Valentina Perjaslavic, and at the School of American Ballet. He served as Director for the Royal Conservatory in Hague and as Ballet master and company teacher for the Nederlands Dans Theatre. He later became Company Teacher and Principle Teacher for the Joffrey Ballet and Joffrey School. He has been guest teacher for the Eliot Feld Ballet, Harkness Ballet, North Carolina School of the Arts, National Ballet of Canada, and the Batsheva and Bat Dor Dance Companies of Israel.
Solange Gomes was born in Sáo Paulo, Brazil, where she received her fine arts training. She attended the Royal Ballet Academy and then went on to study several contemporary dance techniques. Since 1990 she has focused entirely on Flamenco. She danced with and choreographed for the Christiane Boulhosa y Albán Flamenco. She has also danced with the Alma Flamenca Dance Company. She is currently artistic director and choreographer for Pasión Flamenca and is on the faculty of the Ballet West Conservatory.
Matthew Hope grew up in Boise Idaho where he started dancing at the American Festival Ballet, now Ballet Idaho. He also received training at Hubbard Street. Matt has performed works by many notable choreographers including David Parsons, Daniel Ezralow, Twyla Tharp, James Kudelka and Lynn Taylor Corbett. For the past ten years Matt has worked for Ballet Idaho / Eugene Ballet as a dancer, choreographer, and teacher. In 2003 and 2004 Matt was the Children’s Rehearsal Director for Ballet Idaho’s production of The Nutcracker working with over 150 children. He was also the Artist in Residence at Ballet Idaho teaching their Learning through Dance program at many different Idaho public schools. As a choreographer, Matt has created works for Ballet Idaho, Idaho Dance Theatre, Drop Dance Collective, Balance Dance Company and for many other organizations. In 2004 he received a Fellowship from the Idaho Commission on the Arts for his contribution as an artist. He currently lives in Portland Oregon where he performs with the modern dance company BodyVox and teaches Ballet and Modern throughout the Portland area.
Bruce King, a professional ballet and fencing master, returns to NCB after a brief hiatus in which he opened his own ballet studio in the High Sierra. Mr. King has trained dozens of students who have gone on to careers in classical ballet and related stage arts. King specializes in the training of young dancers. This will be his third NCB Summer Workshop where he will direct the popular children's division, teach in the advanced ballet division, and teach fencing. Mr. King retired from the stage in 1991, however when not teaching he still performs principle character roles for Sacramento ballet. He is also affiliated with Nevada Festival ballet in Reno. Professor King holds M.A. and B.A. degrees in Theatre Arts and a community college teaching credential. In 1993 Mr. King passed the Federation Francaise d'Danse Ballet Teachers examination and earned a Fencing Masters Certificate in Paris, France.
Jennifer Martin is a principle dancer with Eugene Ballet Company/Ballet Idaho. A native of Long Beach, CA, she trained under the direction of Patricia Stander and David Wilcox at the Long Beach Ballet Arts Center. She has performed with Long Beach Ballet, Los Angeles Classical Ballet, Francisco Martinez Dance Theater, Royal Winnipeg Ballet, and the Montana Ballet. The Eugene Ballet/Ballet Idaho has featured Ms. Martin as the Sugar Plum Fairy, the Rancher's Daughter in "Rodeo," Odile in "Swan Lake ", Juliet in "Romeo and Juliet," Fairy Godmother in "Cinderella," and in Toni Pimble's "Still Falls the Rain," and "Rhapsody in Blue."
John Mello is a freelance choreographer and writer who received his early ballet training from Suzanne Storti and Arlene Garver. He has also studied with Antonio Mendes, Richard Gibson, Irina Kosmovska, John Clifford, Joffrey Ballet in New York City, San Francisco Ballet School, the Academy of Ballet, the Conservatory of Ballet and the School of American Ballet in New York. He has worked with Dame Alicia Markova of England's Royal Ballet as well as with Hans Brenaa and Anne Marie Vessel of the Royal Danish Ballet.