Guest Faculty

• Lee Provancha Day, Marisa Soltis DelGado, Michel Gervais, Steven Hyde, Lorin Johnson, Alexander Kalinin (Character dance), Colleen O'Callaghan, Lawrence Pech, Amy Rose, Shao Pen Wang

Lee Provancha Day

Lee Provancha Day was born in St. John's, Newfoundland, Canada. Ballet classes began at age five and continued at each location her "Air Force family" was assigned. At age 15 the family moved to North Carolina where Ms. Day was accepted into the North Carolina School of the Arts to finish her last three years of high school and study with Robert Lindgren, Sonya Tyven, Duncan Noble and others. Summers were spent touring Italy with North Carolina Dance Theatre and studying on full scholarship at School of American Ballet.

Upon graduation, Ms. Day moved to New York to continue her studies at School of American Ballet. She then joined American Ballet Theatre's junior company, Ballet Repertory Company, under the direction of Richard Englund and Gage Bush. One year later Lucia Chase offered Ms. Day a position with American Ballet Theatre. She danced with ABT for the next three years and was privileged to be in the original cast of Makarova's staging of La Bayadere as well as performing demi-soloist roles in Swan Lake, Rodeo and Lilac Garden. While in ABT Ms. Day had the opportunity to work with many world renowned choreographers and teachers as well as perform in two Live from Lincoln Center productions of Swan Lake and Giselle. She was also in the cast of Swan Lake as part of the movie Turning Point, and was invited to model in national print ads for Danskin®.

In 1976 Ms. Day joined Ballet West under the direction of Bruce Marks. Over the next ten years she danced many principal roles in full length ballets such as Swan Lake, Giselle, Sleeping Beauty, Coppelia and Nutcracker. She performed the 20th century world premiere at the Kennedy Center in Washington DC, of August Bournonville's Abdallah staged by Toni Lander and Bruce Marks. Bruce Marks also choreographed his full length Don Quixote for Ms. Day and her partner Bruce Caldwell. One-act choreography at Ballet West included several works of Ashton, Balanchine, Bournonville, Butler, Levans, Lichine, Loring and others. At Ballet West, Ms. Day continued her modeling for Danskin as well as being featured in TV commercials and the documentary, Backstage at Ballet West.

She has taught at University of California, Irvine, University of Utah and Brigham Young University. As well as being on the staff of the Utah Summer School of the Arts, Ms. Day has taught for Utah Regional Ballet, Ballet Aspen, School of Ballet West and Utah Ballet. Guest teaching, master classes and personal coaching have also given Ms. Day many opportunities to impart her knowledge and love of dance.

Marisa Soltis DelGado

Marisa Soltis DelGado is originally from Westchester, New York and began studyting ballet when she was 8 years old at Harkness Ballet in the landmark mansion on East 75th St. in New York City. Ms. DelGado received a full scholarship at the age of 12 from Rebekah Harkness herself and studied with David Howard, Nanci Clement, Nancy Beilski, Nikita Talin and Finis Jhung among many others. Harper's Bazaar Magazine featured Ms. DelGado with five other students as dancers to watch in the future. In 1981 Ms. DelGado was one of six students chosen to dance in Sir Kenneth MacMillan's Isadora with the Royal Ballet at Lincoln Center, where she performed for Prince Charles and First Lady Nancy Reagan.

While still at Harkness House Ms. DelGado was privately coached by Georgina Parkinson (Ballet Mistress at ABT) and in 1983 was asked by Ted Kivitt (formerly of ABT) to join the Milwaukee Ballet. Here at a young age Ms. DelGado worked with many dance legends including the late Ms. Agnes DeMille and Toni Landers. Ms. DelGado moved to Chicago in 1985 and accepted a soloist contract with Ruth Page while also training with Larry Long and Warren Conover (formerly of ABT).

Unfortunately, only a year later a hip injury forced Ms. DelGado to take time off and she attended Ithaca College in the BFA Theatre Program. During this time Ms. DelGado received a grant from the Harkness Foundation to fund her own troop, "Mimesis Dance Company" acting as the founder and Artistic Director. Later, Ms. DelGado returned to the stage dancing for José Mateo's Ballet Theatre of Boston where she also began her teaching career, and attended Harvard Extension working towards her interest in Psychology. In 1997 Ms. DelGado accepted a principal contract with Fort Wayne Ballet, where she met her husband.

Ms. DelGado has been teaching and coaching across the country for 14 years and was Assistant Academy Director at the former Ballet Pacifica Academy.

Ms. DelGado's repertoire includes Sleeping Beauty, Swan Lake, Giselle, Copelia, Cinderella, Rodeo, Fall River Legend, Serenade, Paquita, Raymonda, The Nutcracker, La Sylphide, Carmina Burana, Don Quixote, La Bayadere, Onegin, Isadora, A Fold Take, Carmen, and other contemporary works. She has also been a featured dancer in The Pointe Book (1998) and the second edition of The Pointe Book published in 2004.

Michel Gervais

Michel Gervais is a native of Sudbury, Ontario, Canada, started dancing at the age of 11. He studied with the Ida Sauvé Dance Studios, Les Ballets Jazz de Montréal and the National Ballet School of Canada. Mr. Gervais has worked extensively as a performer, assistant and ballet master for choreographers David Allan and Juan Antonio. Mr. Gervais has danced for such companies as: Feld Ballet/NY, Les Ballets Jazz de Montréal, Theatre Ballet of Canada, National Dance Theatre of Bermuda, Ontario Ballet Theatre, Sacramento Ballet, Ballet Pacifica and California Riverside Ballet. His teaching credentials include: American Ballet Theatre, London Rambert Dance Co., Hong Kong Ballet, Canadian Dance Teachers Association, Ballet Pacifica, University of California, Irvine and Riverside campuses, York University, and The National Dance Theatre of Bermuda. His choreography has been performed by: University of California, Irvine, ABT (summer intensive), Festival Ballet Theatre, California Riverside Ballet and Excalibur.

Steven Hyde

Steven Hyde began his dance training at Ballet Florida under the artistic direction of Marie Hale in 1980. Steven was invited by Artistic Director Arnold Spohr to join the Royal Winnipeg Ballet in 1983 as a member of the corps de ballet and quickly rose to the position of Principal dancer in 1987. In 1988 Steven was invited by Evelyn Hart to perform at the International Ballet Competition in Tokyo Japan. In 1990 he received the attention of the international ballet world as he partnered Laura Graham at the 14th International Competition in Varna, Bulgaria. Although not an official competitor, Steven nonetheless was awarded the certificate for "Excellence in Partnering." Mr. Hyde danced with the American Ballet Theatre from 1993-96, dancing many soloist and principal roles partnering Paloma Herrera, Amanda McKerrow, Julie Kent and Christina Fagundes.

In January 2000, Steven retired from dancing and joined New England Ballet Company as Ballet Master/Associate Director. Steven has also served on the faculty of the Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis School of American Ballet Theatre in 2003-04. He has taught and choreographed for American Ballet Theatre's Summer Intensive Program in Alabama from 2000-2003 and at Kaatsbaan's International Dance Centers Summer Intensive Program from 2004-2007 and American Ballet Intensives 2005-2007. Steven has guest taught at Cornell University, Ithaca College in Ithaca, NY and at Skidmore College in Saratoga Springs, NY. In October 2006 Steven was appointed the Assistant Director of the Classical Contemporary Dance Department at the Orange County High School of the Arts in Santa Ana, CA.

Lorin Johnson

Lorin Johnson danced with the San Francisco Ballet before joining the American Ballet Theatre in New York in 1987 under the directorship of Mikhail Baryshnikov. Johnson performed at ABT until 1995, creating original roles in ballets by Ulysses Dove, Clark Tippet and Agnes DeMille, among others, and working with some of the 20th century's most influential choreographers, including Glen Tetley, Kenneth Macmillan, Twyla Tharp, and Jerome Robbins.

His choreography has been commissioned in the U.S. and abroad, and in 2003 he choreographed and produced an evening of dance at the renowned dance festival at the Fabbrica Europa in Florence, Italy. His premiere for the festival, Moto-bio: Bodies in Motion was hailed by the dance critic of Danza & Danza as "a work of extraordinary interest."

Johnson has been on faculty of the American Ballet Theatre Summer Intensives program since 2004. In 2005 he directed the Ballet Pacifica Academy in Southern California. In 2006, Johnson became an Assistant Professor of Dance at California State University, Long Beach, where he teaches courses in ballet technique, dance appreciation and history. Johnson has published several articles as a result of his extensive research in Moscow, Russia, and has both B.A. and M.A. degrees from the University of Southern California.

Alexander Kalinin (Character Dance)

Alexander Kalinin was born in Moscow, Russia and began his dancing career at the age of four with his father. Mr. Kalinin graduated from the prestigious Bolshoi Ballet Academy of Moscow. He has performed and toured as a soloist in over 60 countries with the most prestigious dance companies in the former Soviet Union.

After immigrating to the United States in 1981, Mr. Kalinin has performed on stages from New York to Las Vegas, Reno, and Australia as well as throughout Southern California. He has taught dance for over 25 years in the U.S., as well as abroad. Mr. Kalinin is the Founder and Artistic Director of the Kalinin Dance Company.

Colleen O'Callaghan

Co-Director of the Orange County High School of the Arts Classical and Contemporary Dance Conservatory, Colleen has danced with the American Ballet Theatre (ABT) under the direction of Lucia Chase and Mikhail Baryshnikov and has trained on scholarship with the schools of the Louisville Ballet, Pennsylvania Ballet, The Joffrey Ballet of Chicago and ABT. Before joining ABT's main company, O’Callaghan danced with ABT's Ballet Repertory Company under the direction of Richard Englund and Gage Bush.

O'Callaghan has served as an instructor for prestigious dance companies and institutions throughout the United States including University of Utah, Ballet West, California Institute of the Arts, Stanley Holden Dance Center, Westside School of Ballet, Louisville Ballet, ABT Studio Company, The Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis School at ABT, California State University, Long Beach and more. Additionally, O'Callaghan is co-founder and co-director of American Ballet Intensives, a company dedicated to providing pre-professional training to dance students in a positive and nurturing environment.

O'Callaghan currently holds teaching positions at South Bay Ballet and California Dance Theater. She is a certified Yoga instructor and has developed a Yoga program for children in pre-kindergarten through grade eight that has been highly successful throughout Southern California. O’Callaghan holds a bachelor’s degree in university studies from University of Utah.

Lawrence Pech

Lawrence Pech is from Denver, receiving his early classical music training in piano and voice. His first choreographic effort was in the fourth grade, to the Beatles' Something… He began studying ballet at age 14 with the Colorado Concert Ballet. At 16, he won First Prize in the Colorado Council for the Arts Choreography Competition with a piece set to Pink Floyd's Have a Cigar. The following year (Œ77), he received full scholarships to The Joffrey and American Ballet Theatre schools, the School of American Ballet, and Mudra (Maurice Bejart's Ballet of the 20th Century in Brussels).

Mr. Pech accepted a contract from ABT in 1980 directly from the artistic director, Mikhail Baryshnikov. For the next seven years, Lawrence worked with all of the great choreographic masters of our time. He danced opposite such greats as Mr. Baryshnikov, Ms. Makarova, Ivan Nagy, Cynthia Gregory, Fernando Bujones, Gelsey Kirkland, Cynthia Harvey, Martine Van Hamel, Kevin McKenzie, and others. He has appeared in numerous Live From Lincoln Center telecasts, and figured prominently with Baryshnikov in the movie Dancer and the Dance (BBC).

In 1986, Helgi Tomasson invited Lawrence to join the San Francisco Ballet. He worked with William Forsythe, Mark Morris, James Kudelka, David Bintley, Val Caniparoli, Mr. Tomasson and Lisa deRibere. He was promoted to Principal Dancer in 1990. In 1991, Mr. Pech was the subject of a KQED special entitled Blue Lair, a ballet about his victory over cancer. It was awarded a 1991 Emmy for Best Choreography.

In 1993, Lawrence became co-founder and Artistic Director of the Diablo Ballet. In 1996 The Lawrence Pech Dance Company was inaugurated to sold out houses and chosen as one of the resident companies of the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco.

Mr. Pech has choreographed over forty ballets and 30 musicals. He has won numerous awards for his magnificent work. He has produced, directed and performed in many programs of original choreography and composition for The Florence Gould Theater at the Palace of the Legion of Honor's Summer Arts Series, The Neptune Society at the Columbarium, and the CalArts Summer Program (Valencia).

Mr. Pech graduated from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music with honors in May '05 and received a degree in composition. He is serving his ninth season as Ballet Master and Resident Choreographer for the San Francisco Opera.

For the past six summers, Mr. Pech has taught and choreographed at the ABT Summer Intensives in New York City, Texas and Orange County. He is also a guest teacher at the San Francisco Conservatory of Dance, San Francisco Dance Center, Pacific Ballet Academy, Marin Ballet, Marin Dance Theatre, Petaluma City Ballet, Marshon Academy of Dance, and others.

Amy Rose

Amy Rose trained on scholarship at the American Ballet Theatre school, the Lyric Opera of Chicago and the Ruth Page Foundation School of Dance. She performed with the Chicago Ballet before joining ABT at the age of sixteen. She was a soloist with ABT, and from 1979-1992 was featured in Principal, Soloist and Character roles in both the classical and contemporary repertoire. She has also been a guest artist with the Universal Ballet in Korea, Japan, and China, and performed with Stars of the American Ballet in Manila.

In 1992, she joined the Pacific Northwest Ballet where she danced leading roles in many ballets. Most recently she was a guest artist with the Lyric Opera of Chicago, Dance West Ballet, the Civic Ballet of Chicago, as well as being on staff as a faculty teacher for Terpsichore Dance Chicago Ballet Arts and North Shore Dance schools.

Shao Pen Wang

Shao-Pen Wang studied at the Beijing Academy of Ballet under Gusev Petz and the Kirov Ballet. He was principal dancer and teacher of the National Ballet Company of China. In 1964, he partnered world famous ballerina Beryl Grey. He was artistic director of Virginia Ballet Theatre from 1979 to 1980. Mr. Wang has taught at Washington Ballet, Hartford Ballet, the University of Hartford and Ballet Florida and has been guest faculty at Shanghai Ballet and Ichiyanagi Ballet School in Osaka, Japan.