Staff

A word from Angela and bios of some of the teachers invited to teach at HBA…

As Huntington Center for Performing Arts is going into the fifth year I am proud to have been invited to redefine and hone the goals and teaching of dance at Huntington Ballet Academy. My goal is to teach young dancers the finest technique and to instill them with a love and passion for the arts and particularly ballet and dance. CONSISTENCY is the key to success and to achieve these goals I believe that the directors and teachers must also have a commitment to the community at large. To this end I have invited teachers who are willing to live in the vicinity and devote themselves to a consistent training ground. I am also committed to bringing in master teachers not only from NYC but from major companies through-out the country.

Angela Whitehill

Angela Whitehill, Founding Artistic Director of Burklyn Ballet Theater in Vermont, was trained by the National Ballet of Canada and at the Arts Educational Schools in London. She danced professionally with the Ballet Paris, Jack Emile Litler Productions in England and Europe. Ms. Whitehill was the founder and director of London School of Ballet U.S.V.I., New Jersey’s Shore Ballet Company and has worked as artist-in-residence at Castleton State and Colby-Sawyer Colleges.

She has also served as a costume designer to the Atlanta Ballet Co., Scottish American Ballet, International Ballet Competition, New Jersey Ballet and Burklyn Ballet Designs.

She is the recipient of eight Vermont State Arts Council grants, NJ Francis Hopkins Memorial Award, the NJ Institute of Technology Authors Award, Vermont Woman of Achievement Award and is listed in Who’s Who in Entertainment and Who’s Who Women of the World. She is the author of The Parents Book of Ballet (Meriwether, 1988, Second Edition – Princeton Books, 2003), The Young Professional’s Book of Ballet (Princeton Books, 1990), The Dancer’s Book of Ballet (iuniverse.com, 2000) and Ballet Magic – The Burklyn Story (QCP, 2001) and Nutcracker Backstage (Princeton Books, 2004). She is also the founder and Artistic Director of both Dance Counsel, an advice and counseling service to parents, young dancers and companies and Burklyn Designs, a costume design and seminar program.

David McAlister – David McAlister attended the prestigious North Carolina School of the Arts where he had the distinct privilege of training under former ABT soloist Warren Conover, notable Kirov dancer Nina Diniliva, and one of Balanchine’s seven greats; the late Melissa Hayden. From NCSA he took an apprenticeship with Cedar Lake Ensemble’s second company performing soloist and corps based contemporary works by Karen Merrick-Grundy, Lauri Stallings, Sean France and main company artistic director and former Ailey dancer Benniot-Swan Pouffer. At Charleston Ballet Theatre, under the direction of Jill Bahr, he danced Twyla Tharp’s “Baker’s Dozen”, Balanchine’s “Who Cares”, and Bahr’s “Rite of Spring”. Currently he is a principal dancer with the Ballet Theatre of Maryland (BTM). As a faculty member for BTM’s professional school of dance he has taught, choreographed, and coached students for all company and school performances. As passionate about teaching as his dancing, his ideas of teaching are conceived as fresh, energetic, and upbeat. In his view, by mixing a strong classical syllabus with an infusion of contemporary Limon- inspired quality of movement, young dancers will acquire a solid understanding of, and be able to adapt to today’s ever-changing dance world. He believes that a multi-faceted foundation of dance training will build stronger minds, bodies, and levels of artistic growth for his student.

Joan Kunsch – For the past 21 years Joan Kunsch has served as principle teacher and associate director of Connecticut’s Nutmeg Conservatory. Guest teaching and choreography have taken her throughout North America , Oslo, Stockholm and London (the Royal Ballet School, White Lodge, and the R.A.D. Teachers’ Course).As Artistic Director of Ballet Missippi, Binghamton Ballet and the Springfield (MO) Ballet she has trained dancers toward careers in over 60 professional companies in the U.S.A., Canada and Europe. Joan has taught at the Swedish Ballet School, The Norwegian Dancers College, and Butler University. Her choreography includes works for concert stage, television, sacred space and outdoor sites. She has written for Pointe Magazine, and has had poetry, published in the U.S.A., Norway, England and India. She served as the adjudicator of performances for the New York State Council on the Arts (under Kitty Carlisle Hart)

Sara Knight – Is presently on the faculty with Edward Ellison Ballet in NYC and is the co-founder and Artisti Director of the Greenwich Ballet Academy in Connecticut. She is a graduate of England’s Royal Ballet School and was formerly on faculty at Boston Ballet School. As a dancer she was a member of the Eifman Ballet Theatre, “one of Russia’s prime cultural exports” (Arts, The Guardian, UK), Soloist with Leningrad State Ballet Theatre and The Russian Ballet of St. Petersburg. In the West, Knight danced with England’s Northern Ballet Theatre, and was Principal Dancer with European Ballet of London, Configuration Dance USA, and the Rebecca Rice Dance Company in Boston USA. Ms. Knight is a graduate of the Royal Ballet School Teachers’ Training Course (R.B.S. Dip. TTC.) under the direction of Valerie Adams, and first British graduate of Russia’s Vaganova (Kirov) Ballet Academy since its founding in 1738 under imperial decree, a heritage and legacy in the world of ballet spanning 268 years. Knight is fluent in English, French and Russian, and has been featured in print, radio and television.

Christopher Fleming – As a member of the New York City Ballet, Mr. Fleming danced principal and soloist roles in works by George Balanchine, Jerome Robbins. With Mr. Balanchine’s encouragement he embarked on a career as a choreographer and received a fellowship from the National Choreographic Institute. Mr. Fleming has also served as the Artistic Director of the Compañia Colombiana de Ballet at the Teatro Colon in Bogotá, Colombia and of Bay Ballet Theatre in Tampa, Florida. He has choreographed a broad variety of works appearing in the repertoire of a number of different companies including The Atlanta Ballet, The Sarasota Ballet, Southern Ballet Theatre, Ballet Concierto, Dayton Ballet and The Ohio Ballet. Mr. Fleming has directed for the stage anadinternational tour of the play K2 and choreographed the world premiere of Honky Tonk Angels the Garth Brooks musical. His work was seenOff-Broadway in 1996 with the choreography for Anne Frank and Meat the American Jewish Theatre. In addition he has choreographed “The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe” (1999)and “Candide” (2000) for the Hal Prince Theatre in Philadelphia. In the new millennium, Mr. Fleming has created “The Edge of Assurances “for the Ohio Ballet. “Janice and Joe”, “Playball” (a 9 inning baseball ballet)
“The Legend of Metatron”, The Who’s “Tommy” and “The Three Musketeers” for the Dayton Ballet. As well as two new works for The State Ballet of St. Petersburg (Russia) and “Dvorak Story” The story of Anton Dvorak for the Czech National Ballet. The “Helen Keller Story” for Cleveland’s Dancing Wheels Company. Mr. Fleming can be seen on MTV’s hit show MADE as the Ballet Coach. In addition to his work as a choreographer, he has developed many professional young dancers, over the past nine years in his capacity as Assistant Director of Philadelphia’s The Rock School for Dance Education and in September 2009 he will join the faculty at Goucher College, Baltimore, MD as an assistant professor in the dance department

Amy Brandt – Amy Brandt, has been a professional dancer for 13 years. Currently she dances with the Suzanne Farrell Ballet in Washington D.C. and Ad Hoc Ballet in New York City. As a member of the Milwaukee Ballet she danced principal and soloist roles. Ms. Brandt received her ballet training at Milwaukee Ballet School, Milwaukee, WI and Ruth Page Foundation in Chicago, Ill. She has been a guest teacher at many prestigious schools across the country and holds a BA degree in English from Marymount Manhattan College.

Jessie Fry Started her training with Joseph Giacobbe and began performing professionally for Delta Festival Ballet at the Age of 16. She also studied with NY Performance Works in NYC. She danced with the Joffrey II Concert Dancers in NYC, before joining Ballet Aspen where she danced many principle roles including Clara in their Nutcracker. She then joined the Colorado Ballet and continued her professional career in Greensville Ballet in NC. At the school of Greensville Ballet, Jessie began to teach a variety of levels. From there she went to dance with Ballet Theatre of Maryland becoming a principal dancer after one year while teaching in their school. Jesse has spent the past 8 years as principle dancer and core teacher at Burklyn Ballet Theatre Summer Program. She won critical acclaim for portrayal of the White Rabbit in Alice in Wonderland and Beauty and the Beast at the Edinburgh, Scotland.