Executive Artistic Director
JAMALE GRAVES
MTV AWARD WINNING CHOREOGRAPHER
Jamale Graves has choreographed several Broadway productions including Village Wooing, Going Back Home, Martha Wash at Town Hall, and a special season of Jamale Graves Live at Lincoln Center.
In addition, Jamale has choreographed numerous music videos, international tours, television commercials, and motion films, such as The War starring Kevin Costner, Red Corner starring Richard Gere, Condition Red starring Nicolas Cage, and When We Were Kings: The Story of Muhammad Ali. For his choreographic innovation, he has made guest appearances on Regis & Kathy Lee, Good Morning America, Good Day New York, VH1’s Top 100 Videos, MTV’s Top 10 Dance Videos, and the MTV & BET Awards.
In addition to having been named MTV Choreographer of The Year and BET R&B Choreographer of The Year, Jamale is a recipient of The Smithsonian Institute Award for his choreography featured in A Woman Called Truth: The Story of Sojourner Truth. He holds a Peabody Award for his feature in the PBS documentary Dance in America: Everybody Dance Now, the Golden Rose Award for Commercial of The Year featuring supermodel Claudia Schiffer, and numerous American Music, Billboard, and Platinum Artist Awards. Jamale is proud to have been part of the creative team to bring the Oscar Award winning film When We Were Kings to the ‘silver screen’.
Jamale Graves a graduate of Webster University is known as one of the most sort after teacher of Ballet, Jazz, Modern, Tap, Contemporary and Musical theater at many University and educational facilities both Internationally and throughout the United States.
Jennifer Bryan
Jennifer Bryan’s early training started with Allegheny Ballet Company and Central Pennsylvania Youth Ballet. She was chosen as a guest dancer to participate in The Carlisle Project, a young choreographer’s workshop, directed by Barbara Wiesberger. As a young teenager, through scholarships and stipends, her later training came from the San Francisco Ballet School, Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre School, and The Joffrey Ballet School in NYC. Jennifer has performed professionally with The Joffrey Ballet, NYC, Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre, New Jersey Ballet Company, and Ballet Met of Columbus, OH. She has enjoyed working with numerous world-renowned teachers and choreographers throughout her training and career.
She resigned from performing professionally to raise her two children. As the Ballet Coordinator for Dublin Dance Center in Columbus, OH, Jennifer taught classes, choreographed, and set classical works on pre-professional ballet students in an intensive program she created for over six years. Upon returning to her hometown of Altoona in 2009, she joined Penn State University’s faculty at the main campus in State College. Jennifer also creates, directs, teaches for and choreographed for the Ballet Theatre of Penn State as well as teaching the PSU Summer Dance Intensive.
Students have attended prestigious summer intensive programs or year-round trainee positions at the American Ballet Theatre, Ballet Austin, Bolshoi Ballet, Boston Ballet, Butler University, Florida State University, Fort Wayne Ballet, The Joffrey Ballet School, Kaatsbaan, LA Ballet, North Carolina Dance Theatre, The Orlando Ballet, Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre, Point Park University, The Rock School of Pennsylvania Ballet, and the School of American Ballet among others.
GUEST FACULTY
Dina Bilofsky
Dina Bilofsky began her training at the Allegheny Ballet Company when she was five years old. She studied under the direction of Deborah Anthony and Cristin Burwell. At the age of sixteen, she was invited to study year round at the School of American Ballet, the official school of the New York City Ballet. Dina spent her summers on full scholarship at the Pacific Northwest Ballet School in Seattle, WA. At eighteen, she received an offer to join the Los Angeles Ballet under direction of Colleen Neary and Thordal Christensen. For six seasons, Dina danced numerous roles with the Los Angeles Ballet including featured roles in Christensen/Neary’s “The Nutcracker”, “Swan Lake”, “Don Quixote”, and George Balanchine’s “La Valse”. While dancing for the Los Angeles Ballet, she was recognized for her leadership, sharp eye, and teaching abilities, which then became utilized when she was appointed a company teacher and rehearsal mistress to Colleen Neary. Dina began her teaching career as a guest for the Allegheny Ballet at the age of seventeen. While in Los Angeles, she joined the faculty at the Brentwood Academy of Dance and later became a primary teacher of the Los Angeles Ballet School. In 2010, Dina began choreographing, and choreographed her first ballet, “Fly”, for the School of American Ballet’s student choreography workshop. She then created “Danzas Argentinas” in 2011 and “Simple Symphony” in 2014 for the Los Angeles Ballet’s choreography workshop. Dina has created many other works for the Brentwood Academy of Dance, Los Angeles Ballet School, Allegheny Ballet, and Blair Dance Academy.
Deborah Anthony
Founding Director, Deborah Anthony has been teaching in Central Pennsylvania since 1960. She received her professional training at the National Academy of Ballet, the June Taylor School of Dance and Michigan State University. Mrs. Anthony has both judged and choreographed for the Miss Pennsylvania Scholarship Pageant. She has also designed choreography for numerous theatre and musical productions, including the Altoona Symphony. Many of her students have received national and international scholarships to attend such prestigious school as the School of American Ballet (New York City Ballet), San Francisco Ballet, Joffrey Ballet, Pennsylvania Ballet, and the Prix de Lausanne International Ballet Competition. Many of her students are now members of professional companies. In 1985, under Mrs. Anthony’s artistic direction, the Allegheny Ballet Company became a regional ballet company, after its acceptance as a performing member of the National Association of Regional Ballet. In 1991, she was appointed to the Advisory Panel of the Pennsylvania council on the Arts. Her leadership qualities have not gone unnoticed, as she has been elected to the Executive Board of Directors of Northeast Regional Dance America since 1987.
Besides producing and directing two full-length ballets along with many concerts consisting of a variety of repertoire each season, Mrs. Anthony also performs lecture-demonstrations for art groups, schools, and service organizations.
Paul Boos
Born in Sioux Falls, SD, Mr. Boos relocated himself to NY at 15 to study dance on full scholarship at the Harkness House. Following this, he studied on scholarship at the American Ballet Theater School, and finally the School of American Ballet. It was at SAB, while working extensively with both George Balanchine and Jerome Robbins that Mr. Boos developed an intimate understanding of the connection between music and movement. After dancing a principal role in Balanchine’s Symphony in C as part of the SAB workshop, Mr. Boos was asked to join New York City Ballet at the age of 18.
Mr. Boos went on to dance with NYCB for 13 years before launching into the international scene as a guest teacher, initially with the Royal Danish Ballet where he taught for 3 years. In 1992, Mr. Boos was entrusted by the George Balanchine Trust to become a sanctioned repetiteur. Since then he has gone on to stage ballets all over the world with such companies as the Paris Opera, Bolshoi, Maryinsky, La Scala, the Ballet de Monte Carlo, and others.
Known for his exacting eye and devotion to musicality, Mr. Boos teaches a class which emphasizes accepting full responsibility and understanding of the body’s movement. Through this common sense approach, dancers develop a disciplined command of their bodies, secure in the ability to apply technique.
It is these tenets for simple honest teaching that Mr. Boos learned while working alongside Balanchine and Robbins which have allowed him to excel in his capacity as master teacher, role assignation, and stager of ballets to this day.
Timothy Fox
began his training in Tulsa, Oklahoma with Moscelyne Larkin and Roman Jasinski who founded Tulsa Ballet and went on to be a principal dancer with that company. He studied at both School of American Ballet and American Ballet Theatre School in NYC under a Ford Foundation Scholarship. Mr. Fox danced with the New York City Ballet under the direction of George Balanchine, Jerome Robbins and Peter Martins. He was also a principal with the San Francisco Ballet under Helgi Tomasson. He performed principal roles in Jiri Kylian’s Forgotten Land, Michael Smuin’s Romeo & Juliet, Paul Taylor’sSunset, James Kudelka’s Dreams of Harmony, Val Caniparoli’s Connotations, Jerome Robbins’ Interplay and Fancy Free, George Balanchine’s Symphony in C, Four Temperaments, Midsummer Night’s Dream and Serenade, as well as Les Sylphides,Coppelia, Prodigal Son, The Nutcracker and Swan Lake.
Ashlee Knapp
Miss Knapp started her ballet training in Omaha when she was eight years old under the tutelage of Robin Welsh. At age thirteen, she accepted a full scholarship to study at the School of American Ballet (SAB), where she won the Mae L. Wien Award for Outstanding Promise, as well as the prestigious Princess Grace Award in 2001. During her time at SAB, Miss Knapp toured with the New York City Ballet and performed an original featured role choreographed by its artistic director, Peter Martins. Miss Knapp joined the New York City Ballet as a member of the corps de ballet at age fifteen, and was later chosen by Teen People Magazine as one of “Twenty Teens Who Will Change the World.”
While at the New York City Ballet, Miss Knapp learned over forty ballets and performed full‐ time at Lincoln Center. She originated roles in Christopher Wheeldon’s Carnival of the Animals, Peter Martins’ Romeo and Juliet, and Robert La Fosse’s Land of Nod. She toured with the company to Saint Petersburg and Copenhagen, and appeared in the PBS documentary “Bringing Back Balanchine.” Due to an injury, Miss Knapp retired from performing in the spring of 2007.
Since her retirement, Miss Knapp has taught classes for Columbia University’s Columbia Ballet Collaborative program, which was acknowledged in a 2008 Time Out New York Magazine article as being “the best kept secret in New York.” She is currently the Head Ballet Mistress at The Ballet Class in Rye, NY, and she also teaches at The Ballet School of Stamford and the Pacific Ballet Academy in Mountain View, California. She has been commissioned five times by the Stamford Symphony to choreograph for its annual “American Experience” children’s show. In the fall of 2013, Miss Knapp was one of twenty-three ballet school directors and teachers invited by SAB to attend its National Teachers Weekend. Miss Knapp’s students have gone on to dance at the School of American Ballet, Pacific Northwest Ballet School, North Carolina School of the Arts, and the Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis Schools.
Brandon Porter
Brandon Porter originally from Howell, Michigan began dancing at the age of 14 under Ginger and Sandy Glenn. While training in Howell, Brandon reached grade 7 in the Cecchetti Ballet Certification. While training in dance he also succeeded in Tae Kwon Do reaching a black belt and was named to the Junior Olympic team. While in Michigan Brandon attended summer programs with the Cecchetti Council on full scholarship. After high school Brandon attended Point Park College under the direction of Susan Stowe. While at Point Park Brandon had the opportunity to perform choreography by Balanchine, Robert Battle, Douglas Bentz, Ron Tassnoe, David Parsons, Jim Vincent and others. While in his third year Brandon was asked to join the National Tour of Susan Stroman’s The Music Man playing the part of Darius Lyons and understudy for Winthrop.
Since touring Brandon has danced, choreographed and assisted for the likes of Nick and Arron Carter, Glen Packard, Brian Thomas, Twister Moves for Hasbro Games, The International Motorcycle Show, And The New York Musical Theater Festival.
Brandon has spent more then 10 years in New York City working to perfect his craft and expanding his love for the art of dance. While in New York he has had the opportunity to share his love and knowledge through the dance competition circuit working for the likes of Dance USA, Legacy Dance Championships, and as Tour Director for Kids Artistic Revue/Rainbow.
Brandon is excited to share his passion with the students of Allegheny Ballet Company and the rest of Central Pennsylvania!
Cristin Burwell
Cristin (Davis) Burwell was born in Altoona, Pennsylvania were she began dancing at the age of 8 with the Allegheny Ballet Company. She also attended programs at the Central Pennsylvania Youth Ballet and the School of American Ballet, and at Houston Ballet Academy and Pacific Northwest Ballet in Seattle, Washington, both as a full scholarship student. Cristin was offered contracts with Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre, Miami City Ballet and American Ballet Theatre Studio Company. Ms. Burwell performed with the Pacific Northwest Ballet Corps de Ballet from 1996-1999 in their vast repertoire including A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Four Temperments, Allegro Brilliante, Western Symphony, Serenade, Ballet Imperial, The Nutcracker, Carmina Burana, Swan Lake, and many others. She also went on tour with Pacific Northwest Ballet to Scotland to perform at the International Fringe Festive and to London where she participated in a B.B.C. filming of A Midsummer Night’s Dream. After an injury ended her career, she then returned to the Allegheny Ballet Company to become the full time Artistic Director. She has resigned as Artistic Director in 2010 but remains on the Board of Directors as the Artistic Advisor.
Paul Gibson
Mr. Gibson was named assistant ballet master immediately upon retirement from PNB in June 2004. He joined the Company in 1994 as a soloist and was promoted to the rank of principal in 1996. His choreographic work includes ballets for PNB and works for PNB School’s Professional Division, as well as works for San Francisco Ballet School, San Francisco Ballet Choreographic Workshop, and Allegheny Ballet Company. Mr. Gibson has also been a participant in the New York Choreographic Institute. Originally from Altoona, Pennsylvania, Mr. Gibson began ballet training at Allegheny Ballet Academy and later went to summer programs at the School of American Ballet. He won a scholarship at San Francisco Ballet School and joined that company in 1988, where he rose to the rank of soloist. Mr. Gibson assists the artistic director in teaching, rehearsing, and the scheduling the Company and rehearsing PNBS students in their roles for Company productions.
KT Huckabee
KT Huckabee received her Bachelor of Fine Arts in Dance from East Carolina University and her Master’s of Fine Arts from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. She has been on the faculty of West Virginia University, Glassboro State College (Rowan College of New Jersey), Weber State University in Utah, Penn State University at University Park and Penn State Altoona.
In 1998, KT founded the dance program and Dance Studies Minor at Penn State Altoona where she is currently Assistant Professor of Dance and Integrative Arts and coordinator for the Integrative Arts major. KT received her Certification in Movement Analysis from the Laban Institute of Movement Studies in New York where she trained in Laban Movement Analysis and Bartenieff Fundamentals. This work influences her work in the studio both in her teaching and choreography, and also with her work with private clients: those who are interested in addressing specific movement issues or to enhance certain training in sports and in dance.
For many years upon her return to Pennsylvania, KT was very active with the Pennsylvania Arts in Education program through the Pennsylvania Arts Council. She, along with her former dance company Allied Motion, visited many public schools in the state, working with students of all ages through dance, creating dance and exploring movement expression. She continues this approach to dance, creating through expression and improvisation, with her work through the Children’s Dance Theatre Workshop hosted by Penn State Altoona.
Joshua Barr
Joshua Barr was born in Altoona, Pennsylvania. He began his dance training at the age of 10 at the Allegheny Ballet Company, where he studied with Deborah Anthony, Cristin Davis-Burwell, Richard Cook and Cherie Noble, among others. Barr has attended summer programs at Pacific Northwest Ballet School, under the direction of Peter Boal, and Ballet Austin. He then went on to study with KT Huckabee at Pennsylvania State University, where he is currently pursuing a degree in Integrative Arts. He has performed featured roles in The Nutcracker, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Giselle, Swan Lake, Le Corsaire and Cinderella. Most recently, Joshua studied as a Professional Division Trainee at Ballet Austin with Stephen Mills and Michelle Martin, where he performed works by Stephen Mills and Nick Kepley. Josh has been a soloist with Ballet Pensacola.
Kristin Shoaf Roberts
Kristin Shoaf Roberts began her early training with Deborah Anthony at the Allegheny Ballet Academy. As a member of the Allegheny Ballet Company she performed in multiple Regional Dance America – Festivals. In 1991 Kristin was selected by Voilette Verdi to receive a RDA Festival Scholarship Award. Kristin continued her training with the Central Pennsylvania Youth Ballet, the Pacific Northwest Ballet School and on full scholarship with the San Francisco Ballet School.
As a professional dancer, Kristin has performed with Ballet Austin, Chautauqua Dance Company, Kansas City Ballet, San Francisco Ballet and Allegheny Ballet Company as a guest artist. Some of the roles she has performed include: Puss in Boots and the Fairy God Mother in Sleeping Beauty, the Soloist Role in Balanchine’s Rubies, Meander in Alvin Ailey’s The River, Balanchine’s Serenade and Western Symphony, Todd Bolender’s Souvenirs and Voyager, as well as many of the classics including: Swan Lake, Les Sylphides, The Nutcracker, Copellia, Raymonda and Don Quixote.
In 1996 Kristin was a participant in the New York International Ballet Competition where she danced both solos and in pas de deux with her husband. Kristin was selected to perform as a Soloist in the award winners Gala Performance.
Kristin is proud to have had the opportunity to work with influential artists including: Lola De Avila, Todd Bolender, Richard Cook, Eleanor D’Antuano, Jorge Esquivel, Judith Fugate, Cynthia Gregory, Melinda Jones Howe, Irina Jacobson, Sandra Jennings, Chérie Noble, Francia Russell, Lynn Short, Larissa Sklanskaya, Patricia Sorell, Kent Stowell, Jocelyn Vollmar, Jonathan Watts, and Marcia Dale Weary.
Miranda Grove
Miranda is a former Allegheny Ballet Company dancer and also studied with San Francisco Ballet School. She has a degree from SUNY Purchase and has been a guest teacher with ABC for several years now.
Andrea Harvey
Andrea Harvey received her training at the Allegheny Ballet Company. She also attended summer programs with Houston Ballet, American Ballet Theatre, Miami City Ballet and Central Pennsylvania Youth Ballet. In 2004, she was awarded the Barbara Weisberger Award in Classical Dance. She then went on to join the Professional Division at Pacific Northwest Ballet in Seattle, Washington. Andrea became a member of Orlando Ballet II in 2008. She is currently an apprentice with Orlando Ballet.
Shannon Lowery
Shannon Lowery received her training at the Allegheny Ballet Company and has been a guest teacher for ABC’s Summer Intensive Workshops. She has attended summer programs with Ballet West in Salt Lake City, Utah and Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre School. She is currently a second-year student at Point Park University in Pittsburgh.
Marguerite Luksik
Molly Luksik received her training at the Allegheny Ballet Company. She has also danced with the Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre and Chicago Ballet. She is currently a member of Madison Ballet in Wisconsin where she is also teaches.
Janie Taylor
Janie Taylor was born in Houston, Texas, where she began her ballet training at age four. At age 12, she moved to New Orleans and trained at the Giacobbe Academy of Dance. She entered the School of American Ballet (SAB), the official school of the New York City Ballet, full time in the fall of 1995. In June 1998, Ms. Taylor received the Mae L. Wien Award at the SAB Annual Workshop and was invited to become an apprentice with New York City Ballet. A month later, Ms. Taylor became a member of NYCB’s corps de ballet. She was promoted to the rank of soloist in February 2001, and in January 2005, Ms. Taylor was promoted to principal dancer. In 2002, Ms. Taylor appeared in the nationally televised Live from Lincoln Center broadcast “New York City Ballet’s Diamond Project: Ten Years of New Choreography” on PBS, dancing in Ancient Airs and Dances and Jeu de Cartes. Ms. Taylor’s film work includes Columbia Pictures’ feature film Center Stage.
Sebastien Marcovici
Born and raised in Paris, France, Sébastien Marcovici began his ballet training at age eight with local teachers, and at age 12 he enrolled at the School of the Paris Opéra Ballet. During the summer of 1993, while studying with Jean-Pierre Bonnefoux and Patricia McBride at the Chautauqua School of Dance, Mr. Marcovici was invited by Ballet Master in Chief Peter Martins to take Company class with New York City Ballet at Saratoga Springs. In November of 1993, he was invited to join New York City Ballet’s corps de ballet. Mr. Marcovici was promoted to the rank of soloist in 1998 and to principal dancer in May 2002. In 2002, Mr. Marcovici appeared in the nationally televised Live From Lincoln Center broadcast of “New York City Ballet’s Diamond Project: Ten Years of New Choreography” on PBS, dancing in Ancient Airs and Dances.