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.