Summer Intensive Faculty & Guests

  • Maria Kowroski was born in Grand Rapids, Michigan, where she began her ballet training at age seven with the School of Grand Rapids Ballet. She entered the School of American Ballet in the fall of 1992. She became an apprentice with the New York City Ballet in the summer of 1994 and was invited to join the Company as a member of the corps de ballet in January of 1995. Promoted in the spring of 1997 to the rank of Soloist and in the spring of 1999 to Principal Dancer. Her repertoire includes Agon, Apollo, Chaconne, Concerto Barocco, Firebird, The Nutcracker, Jewels, A Midsummer Night's Dream, Mozartiana, Swan Lake, Serenade, Symphony in C, The Cage, The Concert, and Dances at a Gathering.

    As well as gracing the New York stage for more than 25 years, Maria also traveled globally, making principal guest appearances with world-class ballet companies along the way. In addition, she has worked with many of the dance world's leading choreographers, received the prestigious Princess Grace Award, and has been honored by the Jerome Robbins Foundation for her excellence in performing his works. Maria now serves as Artistic Director of New Jersey Ballet and hopes to bring her expertise to the table in order to help shape the arts scene across the Garden State.

  • Born in Miami, Florida, Craig Salstein began his training at the Ballet Academy of Miami at the age of eight and continued his training with the Miami City Ballet. In 1995, he was the Grand Champion of Ed McMahon’s Star Search. For two summers he trained with The Joffrey Ballet, the School of American Ballet and American Ballet Theatre’s Summer Intensive as a National Training Scholar. He then went on to dance with Miami City Ballet where he holds the record for performing the Nutcracker-Prince for four years and has the distinction of dancing the role in Scotland when Miami City Ballet became the first American company to present the production overseas.

    Salstein joined American Ballet Theatre’s Studio Company (now ABT II) in 2000, was promoted to the main Company in April 2002 and became a Soloist in March 2007. His repertory with the company includes the Bronze Idol and the Head Fakir in La Bayadère, Birbanto in Le Corsaire, Gamache in Don Quixote, Puck in The Dream, the first sailor in Fancy Free, the peasant pas de deux in Giselle, the Joker in Jeu de Cartes, the Beggar Chief in Manon, the lead Pontavedrian Dancer in The Merry Widow, the Nutcracker-Prince in The Nutcracker, a Carnival Dancer in Othello, a Groom in Petrouchka, Bernard and the Saracen Dancer in Raymonda, the Champion Roper in Rodeo, Mercutio in Romeo and Juliet, Catalabutte, the Indian Prince, Gallison and a Fairy Knight in The Sleeping Beauty, the Neapolitan Dance in Swan Lake, Gurn in La Sylphide, Eros and a Goat in Sylvia, the Devil in Three Virgins and a Devil, leading roles in HereAfter and Mozartiana and roles in Baker’s Dozen, Brief Fling, Company B, Désir, Drink To Me Only With Thine Eyes, Glow – Stop, Gong, In The Upper Room, Sechs Tänze, Seven Sonatas, Sinfonietta and Symphonic Variations. His created roles include Sin in Sin and Tonic and a leading role in Within You Without You: A Tribute to George Harrison and a featured role in Concerto No. 1 for Piano and Orchestra.

  • Noelani Pantastico was born in Oahu, Hawaii, trained at Central Pennsylvania Youth Ballet, and attended summer courses at Pacific Northwest Ballet School (PNB) from 1994 to 1996. She joined Pacific Northwest Ballet as an apprentice in 1997 and was promoted to corps de ballet in 1998, soloist in 2001, and principal in 2004. In 2008, she joined Les Ballets de Monte-Carlo as a soloist and was promoted to first soloist in 2009. In 2015, Ms. Pantastico returned to PNB as a Principal Dancer. In addition to her PNB repertory, Ms. Pantastico danced leading roles at Les Ballets de Monte-Carlo in Jean-Christophe Maillot’s Altro Canto, La Belle, Cendrillon, Choré, Faust, Men’s Dance for Women, Opus 40, Roméo et Juliette, Scheherazade, Le Songe, and Vers un Pays Sage; Marie Chouinard’s Body Remix; Alexander Eckman’s Rondo; Nicolo Fonte’s Quiet Bang; William Forsythe’s New Sleep; Emio Greco and Peter Scholten’s Le Corps du Ballet; Natalia Horeçna’s Tales Absurd, Fatalistic Visions Predominate; Johan Inger’s In Exact; Jiří Kylián’s Petite Mort; Pontus Lidberg’s Summer’s Winter Shadow; Matjash Mrozewski’s Pavillon d’Armide; and Jeroen Verbruggen’s Kill Bambi. She originated roles in Maillot’s Casse-Noisette Compagnie and Lac. Ms. Pantastico was also featured in the BBC’s 1999 film version of PNB’s production of Balanchine’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream. In 2004, she performed the second movement of Balanchine’s Brahms-Schoenberg Quartet as a guest artist for New York City Ballet’s Balanchine Centennial. In 2017, Ms. Pantastico choreographed Picnic for Sculptured Dance, a collaboration between Pacific Northwest Ballet and Seattle Art Museum presented at Seattle’s Olympic Sculpture Park. In 2019, Ms. Pantastico formed Seattle Dance Collective to provide space to nurture collaboration between artists and choreographers, providing thought-provoking work and high-caliber art to all. She continues to assist SDC as an artistic advisor.

    In February 2022, Ms. Pantastico retired from dancing on the main stage at Pacific Northwest Ballet to focus on teaching. In May 2022, she joined the prestigious faculty at CPYB, was promoted to Director of Pre-Professional Division in August 2022, and then elevated to Artistic Director in May 2023. Currently, Ms. Pantastico is a freelance teacher and coach for aspiring dancers nationwide.

  • Martin Harvey is a British dancer, actor, and educator. His early acting credits include Michael, west-end production of "Peter Pan," Oliver, west-end production of "Oliver," Young Pip (opposite Sir Anthony Hopkins) in Disney's "Great Expectations," Dominic Barber in the Central T.V. pilot, "Zero Option" and the same character in the resulting T.V. series, "Saracen." At 11 years old, Martin joined the Royal Ballet School, and after six years of training, he was offered a place with London's Royal Ballet Company. In a 15-year career, he danced many principal roles with the Royal Ballet, including Crown Prince Rudolf in "Mayerling," Onegin in "Onegin," Colas in "La Fille Mal Gardee," Lescaut in "Manon," and Mercutio in "Romeo and Juliet." He created multiple works with many of the world's leading choreographers before going on to appear as Johnny Castle in the hit west-end production of "Dirty Dancing." In 2009, he received the U.K. Critics' Circle Spotlight Award. Martin is now based in the U.S., where he has featured in various film, television, and stage productions, receiving rave reviews for his roles in "A Chorus Line" and "Carousel," and appearing regularly at the Metropolitan Opera House. Aside from his performance work, Martin is also a faculty member of Radix Dance Convention and the Associate Director New Jersey Ballet School.

  • HILARY NICOLAI began her training at age 8 and was dancing professionally with the Indianapolis Ballet Theater by age 14. She spent her summers training at The School of American Ballet, The Joffrey Ballet School, The Rock School of The Pennsylvania Ballet, The Washington School of Ballet, and The Chautauqua School of Dance before joining the Metropolitan Opera Ballet in New York City.

    As a student at SAB, Hilary appeared in Christopher Wheeldon’s Le Voyage and participated in the New York City Ballet Education Department’s Lecture Demonstration program, performing Peter Martin’s Eight Easy Pieces, Balanchine’s The Nutcracker, Cortege Hongrois and Puss n’ Boots for local area school children under the direction of Suki Schorer.

    Hilary danced principal roles in Swan Lake and The Nutcracker, under the tutelage of New York City Ballet principal dancers Patricia McBride and Jean-Pierre Bonnefoux, and performed in Petipa’s Giselle and Balanchine’s Serenade, Western Symphony, La Source and Four Temperaments. Hilary is an ABT® Certified Teacher, who has successfully completed the ABT® Teacher Training Intensive in Pre-Primary through Level 7 & Partnering of the ABT® National

    Training Curriculum. She is an accomplished instructor and is recognized for her uncompromising attention to detail and challenging her students to challenge themselves.

    She holds a Bachelor of Arts in Literature and Writing from Columbia University where she graduated cum laude and is currently pursuing her MA in Dance Education with a concentration in ABT Pedagogy at New York University

  • Born in Maywood, Illinois, Craig Hall began his dance training at the age of four at Stairway of the Stars with Lois Baumann. At age 14, he began studying with Anna Paskevska at the Chicago Academy of the Arts and also studied at the Ruth Page Dance Foundation with Larry Long. He attended SAB’s 1996 and 1997 Summer Courses before enrolling as a full-time student in the fall of 1997. He was named a recipient of SAB’s Rudolf Nureyev Scholarship for the duration of his training at the School, and in 1999 he was awarded SAB’s Mae L. Wien Award for Outstanding Promise.

    During his final year at SAB, Mr. Hall originated the principal male role in Christopher Wheeldon’s Scènes de Ballet, which premiered during NYCB’s 1999 spring season and was performed at that year’s SAB Workshop Performances. In October 1999, Mr. Hall became an apprentice with NYCB, and he joined the Company as a member of the corps de ballet in February 2000. Mr. Hall was promoted to soloist in May 2007.

    During his career with NYCB, Mr. Hall danced featured roles in numerous ballets by George Balanchine, Jerome Robbins, and Peter Martins, and has also originated roles in works by Justin Peck, Christopher Wheeldon, Alexei Ratmansky, Benjamin Millepied, Jorma Elo, and Lynne Taylor-Corbett, among others.

    Upon his retirement from performing in 2016, Mr. Hall joined New York City Ballet’s artistic staff as a repertory director.

    Mr. Hall staged Justin Peck’s In Creases for SAB’s 2018 Workshop Performances and joined the School’s faculty in September 2018. His film work includes Columbia Pictures’ feature film Center Stage and the 2010 film adaptation of Jerome Robbins’ N.Y. Export: Opus Jazz

  • SARAH LANE began her dance training in Memphis, Tennessee at the Memphis Classical Ballet and later at the Draper Center for Dance Education in Rochester, New York. She joined American Ballet Theatre’s Studio Company in 2002, joining the main company as an apprentice in 2003 and the corps de ballet in April 2004. She rose to soloist in 2007 and principal in 2017, dancing principal roles in Manon, Giselle, Swan Lake, La Bayadère, Coppélia, Le Corsaire, Don Quixote, The Sleeping Beauty, Theme and Variations, and Whipped Cream, among others. Lane has performed as an international guest artist with Houston Ballet, San Francisco Ballet, Richmond Ballet, Teatro dell’ Opera di Roma, Kremlin Ballet, Barcelona Ballet, NBA Ballet Company and Hong Kong Ballet. Lane is also an international guest ballet teacher and an Integrative Nutrition Health Coach. She has worked as a guest rehearsal director for American Repertory Ballet and as the Director of the School of Ballet RI.

  • Matthew Dibble was born in Halifax, West Yorkshire, U.K. At the age of 11, he entered the Royal Ballet School, where he trained until graduating into the Royal Ballet Company. Matthew rose through the ranks, dancing many roles, including those created for him by choreographers such as Christopher Wheeldon, William Forsythe, Ashley Page, Twyla Tharp, William Tuckett, and Michael Clark. Following his time with the Royal Ballet, Matthew was invited to the United States to begin a close collaboration with famed choreographer Twyla Tharp. He became a member of Twyla Tharp Dance, later joining the cast of her smash hit musical “Movin’ Out” to the music of Billy Joel. He appeared in several parts, including the principal roles of Eddie and James in both the Broadway production in New York and the West End production in London.

    In 2010, Matthew once again appeared on Broadway, creating a principal role in Tharp’s musical “Come Fly Away,” a role he reprised for the Tony Awards and for a national tour. Two decades after first inviting Matthew to join her company, Tharp continues to create many featured works for him, including Yowzie and Beethoven Opus 130, featured during Twyla Tharp Dance’s 50th Anniversary Tour. Along with dancing, Matthew now has the great honor of staging both Benjamin Millepied and Twyla Tharp’s works in the United States and abroad, along with leading master classes and workshops for students and professionals alike.

  • Pavielle Versalles is a Minnesota Native who trained with Minnesota Dance Theatre & School and later joined the company at MDT. She has studied at Miami City Ballet and under the fellowship program at Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater. Pavielle has had the honor of performing works by Loyce Houlton, Lise Houlton, Jean Emile, Dwight Rhoden and Hope Boykin.

    In 2019 Pavielle founded Concept Pavielle, a private ballet coaching and mentoring program for young dancers looking to pursue their passion. Under her training, Pavielle's students have gone on to receive generous scholarships to premiere ballet academies around the world and have received significant recognition at Youth America Grand Prix.

  • ALEXANDRA GONZALEZ started her dance training in Miami, Florida. At the age of seven, she continued her ballet training in Colombia at the Ana Pavlova Ballet Academy. At the age of fifteen, she received a full scholarship to join the San Francisco Ballet School where she wasfeatured in Dance Magazine. She then joined the San Francisco Ballet Company under the direction of Helgi Tomasson. After dancing with San Francisco Ballet, she moved back to Miami were she guested with Miami City Ballet, Ballet Florida, Americas Ballet, and Michel Uthoff Dance Theater, among other companies. She attended the New World School of the Arts under the direction of Daniel Lewis, where she graduated with a Bachelors of Fine Arts in Dance Performance in 2004. In New York City, Alexandra has danced with Cedar Lake Dance Company, Ballet Hispanico, The Metropolitan Opera, and Thomas Ortiz Dance Company.Alexandra has taught at Peridance Center, Ballet Hispanico, Gelsey Kirkland Ballet, New Jersey Dance Theater Ensemble, and Rutgers University.She currently teaches at Kean University and is excited to join New JerseyBallet School in September 2024.

Masterclasses

  • ROBBIE FAIRCHILD made his Tony nominated Broadway debut in 2015 as Jerry Mulligan in  the Tony Award-winning musical An American in Paris, which he reprised in London’s West End  in 2017. He was awarded the Drama Desk, Outer Critics Circle, Theater World, National Dance  and Astaire Award for this performance and was nominated for the Evening Standard and Drama  League Awards. From 2009 to 2017, Fairchild performed as a Principal Dancer with the New  York City Ballet. His other theater credits include Monster in Mary Shelly’s Frankenstein  (Signature Theater, Chita Rivera Award), Harry Beaton in Brigadoon (New York City Center),  Will Parker in Oklahoma! (Royal Albert Hall, London), Mike Costa in A Chorus Line  (Hollywood Bowl), and Bill Calhoun in Kiss Me Kate (Roundabout Theater Company’s 2017  Gala). Television: Étoile (Prime Video), Soundtrack (Netflix), Mixtape (FOX Pilot), Julie’s  Greenroom (Netflix), Oklahoma! (BBC Proms), Romeo in Romeo and Juliet and Carousel Boy  in NY Philharmonic’s Carousel (PBS’s Live from Lincoln Center), Dancing With The Stars, The  Late Show With Stephen Colbert, Live with Kelly and Michael, CBS Sunday Morning, and 60  Minutes. Film: Tom Hooper's Cats, An American in Paris Live (West End Production), The  Chaperone and NY Export: Opus Jazz. Represented by CAA. @robbiefairchild

  • Al Blackstone is an Emmy-winning director, choreographer, and educator. A former Broadway performer (Wicked the Musical), his passion for bringing people together to experience something meaningful drives him to make dances, tell stories, and encourage joyful connection. Born in New Jersey and raised in a dance studio, he has called New York City home for more than a decade. In that time he has created emotional work for the stage and screen, thrown dance parties for charity, and introduced hundreds of people to one another. With a focus on storytelling and a deep love of jazz dance, Blackstone “infuses his work with humor, theatrical flair, and sharp technique- a combo that has earned him many fans (NY TIMES)". Inspired by generations of dance educators before him, Al’s dance classes are known around the world for their positive energy and unifying structure and his influence can be see in many of the young teachers and choreographers of today. He has been on faculty at JUMP Dance Convention since 2012 and his classes at Broadway Dance Center and Steps on Broadway helped define theater jazz for the 21st century. Al is also the cofounder of MOMEN NYC, an NYC-based brand focused on providing memorable experiences for adult dancers, deepening their love of dance and strengthening their sense of togetherness. Awards include the 2011 Capezio ACE Award, 2018 Carbonell Award for Best Choreography, and the 2020 Emmy Award for Outstanding Achievement in Choreography for Variety/Reality Programming.

    He resides in Queens with his husband Abraham and has kept a journal since he’s 12.

  • Wendy Whelan is the Associate Artistic Director of New York City Ballet. One of the most acclaimed dancers of her generation, she followed a storied 30-year career at NYCB with a variety of multi-disciplinary projects with cultural organizations around the world. She was named NYCB Associate Artistic Director in February 2019. As a dancer with NYCB, Whelan counted principal roles in more than 125 ballets in her repertory, dancing virtually all of the major Balanchine roles, working closely with Jerome Robbins on many of his works, and was also the dancer most choreographed on in NYCB history, creating leading roles in more than 50 new works by such choreographers as William Forsythe, Twyla Tharp, Alexei Ratmansky, Christopher Wheeldon, Jorma Elo, Lynne Taylor-Corbett, Wayne McGregor, Peter Martins, and numerous others. Following her retirement from NYCB in 2014, she cultivated multidisciplinary performance projects with a range of collaborators including choreographers Kyle Abraham, Joshua Beamish, Brian Brooks, Alejandro Cerrudo, Lucinda Childs, Daniele Désnoyers, Javier De Frutos, David Neumann, Annie-B Parson, and Arthur Pita.

    Whelan began studying dance in Louisville with Virginia Wooton, a local teacher, and at the Louisville Ballet Academy. In 1981 she received a scholarship to the Summer Course at the School of American Ballet and a year later, enrolled as a full-time student at SAB. She was named an apprentice with NYCB in 1984 and joined the corps de ballet in 1986. She was promoted to Soloist in 1989 and to Principal Dancer in 1991. Her awards include the Dance Magazine Award in 2007, and in 2009 she was given a Doctorate of Arts, honoris causa, from Bellarmine University in her hometown of Louisville, Kentucky. In 2011, she received both the Jerome Robbins Award and a Bessie Award for Sustained Achievement in Performance.

Special Talk / Q&A

  • Born in Kansas City, Missouri and raised in San Pedro, California, Misty Copeland began her ballet studies at the age of 13 at the San Pedro City Ballet. At the age of 15 she won first place in the Music Center Spotlight Awards. She then began her studies at the Lauridsen Ballet Center. Copeland has studied at the San Francisco Ballet School and American Ballet Theatre’s Summer Intensive on full scholarship and was declared ABT’s National Coca-Cola Scholar in 2000. Copeland joined ABT Studio Company in September 2000, joined American Ballet Theatre as a member of the corps de ballet in April 2001, and was appointed a Soloist in August 2007. She was promoted to Principal Dancer in August 2015. Her roles with the Company include Terpsichore in Apollo, Gamzatti, a Shade and the Lead D’Jampe in La Bayadère, Milkmaid in The Bright Stream, the Fairy Autumn in Frederick Ashton’s Cinderella, Blossom in James Kudelka’s Cinderella, Swanilda and the Mazurka Lady in Coppélia, Gulnare and an Odalisque in Le Corsaire, Kitri, Mercedes, Driad Queen, the lead gypsy and a flower girl in Don Quixote, Duo Concertant, the Masks in Christopher Wheeldon’s VIII, Lise in Las Fille mal gardée, the Firebird in Alexei Ratmansky’s Firebird, Flower Girl in Gaîté Parisienne, Giselle, Zulma and the peasant pas de deux in Giselle, Queen of Shemakahn in The Golden Cockerel, Pierrette in Harlequinade, the title role in Jane Eyre, Manon and Lescaut’s Mistress in Manon… Read more at: www.abt.org/people/misty-copeland/?type=performer