Tatiana Berenova - Premiere Instructor
Born in Gorky, Russia, Tatiana received her training from the Moscow Choreographic Ballet Academy, the official school of the Bolshoi Ballet. She attained the rank Prima Ballerina at the National Academic Bolshoi Ballet Theatre of The Republic of Belarus and the Moscow Renaissance Ballet and was guest star with the Moscow Imperial Ballet, the Pushkin Academic Opera & Ballet Theatre of Nizhniy Novgorod, Philadelphia Ballet, Canyon Concert Ballet and Ballet du Soleil. In 1995 Ms. Berenova was awarded the First Place Gold Medal at the Third International Ballet Competition in Luxembourg. Her roles have included Odette/Odile in Swan Lake, Kitri in Don Quixote, Giselle and Myrta in Giselle, Princess Aurora in The Sleeping Beauty, Marie & Sugarplum Fairy in The Nutcracker and the roles of Cinderella, Raymonda, Firebird, Carmen, Esmeralda in ballets of the same name. During her professional career, Ms. Berenova has worked with great Russian Ballet Dancers Raisa Struchkova, Nikolai Fadeyechev, Nina Ocipyan and many others. She has toured Europe, the United States, and both the Near and Far East. Tatiana is married to fellow company member Pavel Homko and this is her second season with Continental Ballet.

Wilor Bluege - Premiere Instructor
Wilor has taught classical ballet and character dance since 1969 and has been choreographing since 1978. During her 25+ years as a dancer, she worked with Andahàzy Ballet, St. Paul Civic Ballet (Jo Savino), Children's Theater, and Branitski Ballet, performing corps, soloist, and principal roles in Giselle, Swan Lake, Sleeping Beauty, Les Sylphides, Pas de Quatre, Nutrcracker, Don Quixote, Scheherazade, Legend of Love, and in many other classical, character, modern, and jazz works created by other Twin City choreographers. As a choreographer, Ms. Bluege has created a large body of original work for the stage, showing an ability to generate quality dance pieces in a variety of styles: classical ballet, character, and contemporary. Ms. Bluege is the author/illustrator and artistic director/choreographer of the hour-and-a-half long ballet, The Golden Bough, A Fairytale Ballet for Children. In addition to that tour de force, she has taught dozens of excerpts from works by the world's greatest choreographers, including small and large ensemble pieces and solo variations from The Sleeping Beauty, La Bayadere, Raymonda, La Esmeralda, Swan Lake, and Don Quixote. Wilor has a comprehensive knowledge of Vaganova syllabus and offers the additional (and rare) specialty of being an accomplished teacher and choreographer of character dance (i.e., dances of various ethnic and cultural origins).

Vitali Krauchenka - Special Guest Instructor, born in Minsk, Bealarus, started his ballet training at six years old with National Ballet School in Belarus. After graduation he joined the National Ballet Theatre of Belarus, and then performed solo roles with the Latvian National Opera. He has also danced with Canada’s Atlantic Ballet Theatre and Ballet Jorgen of Canada. His repertoire includes classical and modern ballets like Swan Lake, Le Corsaire, Sleeping Beauty, Giselle, The Nutcracker, Tchaikovsky by Boris Eifman, Carmen and Le Sacre du Printemps by Kchistof Pastor, 3X by Chao Jeki Hua, Petrushka by Ben Jorgen. Viali has been dancing with American Ballet Theatre since 2004 and has performed as a guest artist throughout Europe, Asia and North America.

Shannon Corbett - Instructor
Shannon began her training in her hometown of Stillwater, Minnesota. She later attended Ballet Arts Minnesota under the direction of Bonnie Mathis. While there, she attended summer programs such as Milwaukee Ballet, Minnesota Ballet, Boston Ballet, Extreme Ballet at Kaatsbaan International Dance Center, and City Ballet of San Diego—all on scholarship. Upon graduating from high school, Ms. Corbett received a scholarship to attend Point Park College as a dance major. She later joined Ballet Arts Minnesota for their Springboard Apprentice Company for three years. Ms. Corbett began her professional career as a guest artist for Peoria Ballet, and later joined Ohio Dance Theatre as an apprentice. Since her launch as a professional dancer, she has spent seasons with the Augusta Ballet, Artisan Dance, Northern Plains Ballet and now Metropolitan Ballet. She has been privileged to dance the principle role in Ron Cunningham's Incident at Blackbriar and was most recently seen as Lucy in Northern Plains Ballet's Dracula.

Maureen Haworth - Premiere Instructor
Ms. Maureen Haworth is an Advanced Member of the Royal Academy of Dancing. She has been registered and accredited with the Royal Academy of Dancing since 1988. She is also a fellow of the National Association of Dancing. Ms. Haworth directed dance schools in London, England and Frankfurt, Germany before moving to the United States and joining the faculty of Ballet Arts Minnesota. She is now an instructor at The Metropolitan Ballet & Academy.

Katherine Krieser - Instructor
(University of Minnesota) Katherine Krieser brings performance and choreography experience, which includes principal roles as Princess and the Arabian pas de deux in the Nutcracker, and performances with Matthew Keefe, Peggy Seipp, Danny Buraczeski, and others. Katherine has also choreographed work for adjudication, which was accepted and performed in the annual RDA festival in Chicago. Her dance training and education includes the American Ballet Theater, University of Minnesota, Ballet Arts, Youth Ballet Company, and the Minnetonka Dance Theater and School, where she trained since 1988. She is the recipient of full dance scholarships from the Washington School of Ballet and Alexandra Ballet. She has studied with David Howard, John Meehan, Rebecca Wright, Bonnie Mathis, Ronald Tice, Marianne Simmons, and others.

Jennifer Conkey - Instructor
Jennifer has been dancing with Minnetonka Dance since she was four. Growing up in the studio she was in the first production of the MDTS Nutcracker and was also in the Youth Ballet Company for four years. Jennifer graduated from Alma College in 2006 with a B.A. in theatre and dance with distinction and a B.S. in mathematics. She is very thrilled to back teaching this year. Besides teaching dance, Jennifer is working on becoming a math teach by getting her Masters of Teaching through Hamline University.