Director of ARB's Princeton Ballet School
A native of Tulsa, Oklahoma, she received her early training with June Runyon and danced with Tulsa Ballet Theatre. After graduation from Stanford University, Ms. Robertson performed and taught in New York, where she studied with Merce Cunningham, Douglas Wassell, and David Howard. She has taught ballet at Princeton University, New York University, and Mason Gross School of the Arts.
Ms. Robertson was a founding director of Teamwork Dance, and has received a Choreographic Fellowship from the NJSCA. Robertson choreographed numerous operas for Opera Festival of New Jersey including The Merry Widow, The Magic Flute, La Traviata, The Marriage of Figaro, Postcard from Morocco, and Orfeo ed Euridice. For Opera New Jersey, she choreographed Roméo et Juliette in July of 2007, and will be working on La Traviata and The Merry Widow for July 2008.
She has also been a consultant for the New York State Council on the Arts and NJPAC’s Outreach Program. Ms. Robertson has been teaching at Princeton Ballet School since 1980, and became Director of the School in 1986. During these years she developed the syllabus with faculty input, inaugurated the Professional Training Program and PLUS programs, and oversaw the moves into the new Princeton and Cranbury studios. In March, 2007, the United States Congress cited Ms. Robertson for her twenty plus years of leadership of Princeton Ballet School, and for its evolution into “one of the most acclaimed (dance schools) in the country.”
MARY BARTON (Ballet) received her training at the Washington School of Ballet and participated in summer courses at SAB and Joffrey Ballet School. Her professional experience began at Washington Ballet, dancing soloist and principal roles with the company while still a student. At age 18, she joined the Oldenburg Staat Ballet as Principal Guest Artist. In 1981, she joined the Dayton Ballet where she performed many of the company’s leading roles. In 1986, Ms. Barton joined the Joffrey Ballet where she performed a variety of roles including the role of Clara in Robert Joffrey’s Nutcracker, a role he created on her. In 1993, Ms. Barton joined American Repertory Ballet. She has been a featured principal dancer performing leading roles in Balanchine’s Serenade and Rubies, and Emily in Philip Jerry’s Our Town. She has been featured in many works by Septime Webre, most notably Odette/Odile in Swan Lake and Juliet in his Romeo and Juliet. She has also helped stage Mr. Webre’s Romeo and Juliet on companies around the country. Ms. Barton continues to perform as a freelance guest artist.
She has been a member of the faculty for 12 years, and has also taught master classes and summer intensive courses around the country. She is listed in the “Who’s Who of American Teachers.” Ms. Barton is the Resident Choreographer for Rider Dances. Her recent choreography has been met with great praise, and has been presented by Rider, The Outlet, Teamwork Dance, as well as the annual school productions of ARB’s Princeton Ballet School.
Carol Bellis (Summer Programs Coordinator; Principal, Cranbury Studio
) began her ballet training in New Jersey with Roland and Margot Guérard, former soloists with the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo. She continue her training with Gloria Govrin, then moved to New York to study on full scholarship at the School of American Ballet (SAB). While training at SAB she had the privilege of studying with renowned teachers such as Stanley Williams, Alexandra Danilova, Felia Dubrovska, Suki Schorer, Muriel Stuart and many others. She danced professionally with Garden State Ballet as well as in many showcases in New York City.
Ms. Bellis has been an integral part of the teaching staff at ARB’s Princeton Ballet School since 1989. She has also taught ballet for Gloria Govrin’s New Hope Ballet Academy, for the Garden State Ballet School,the New Jersey Governor’s School of the Arts, and is currently on staff at the Somerset School of the Performing Arts. In 1997, she began her work as Coordinator of ARB’s Princeton Ballet School Summer Intensive (and other summer programs). In 2007, Ms. Bellis was appointed Principal of ARB’s Cranbury Studio.
After studies at the Paris Opera Ballet School and the Conversatoire National de Danse et Musique, Muriel Hallé won the Prix de Lausanne, and subsequently entered the corps de ballet of the Opéra de Paris, then under the direction of Rudolph Nureyev. Rising through the ranks of quadrille, coryphée and sujet, she had the opportunity to perform many of the classic soloist roles in Don Quixote, Raymonda, Sleeping Beauty, Romeo and Juliet, Cinderella, Swan Lake and Giselle. She also appeared in many works by the great 20th century choreographers, such as Balanchine, Ashton, Robbins, de Mille, Kylian, Tudor, Cunningham, Childs, and Prejlocaj. During the 1997-98 season, she took a leave of absence from the Opéra to dance leading roles with the English National Ballet. While continuing her dance career, Hallé also earned her baccalauréat, her C.A. (the Certificate d’Aptitude for classical dance pedagogy), and recently, the Diplôme de cycle de perfectionnement as a choreologist in Benesh notation. She retired from the stage in 2006, and has been teaching at the Paris Opéra Ballet School, coaching, and staging ballets from Benesh notation for the Ecole Nationale de Danse in Marseilles (Benjamin Millepied) and the Paris Opéra Ballet (Frederick Ashton).
Sean Mahoney (guest teacher) has been a member of the Paul Taylor Dance Company since 2004. He is currently on tour in China, and has been enjoying many roles with the company, including the male lead in a recent dance of Taylor's, Spring Rounds. He was also acclaimed by Dance Magazine as one of the "25 to Watch" for the year 2007. Mr. Mahoney began his early training at Knecht's Dance Academy in Pennsylvania, then came to ARB's Princeton Ballet School at age 11. While here, he studied with Dermot Burke, Septime Webre, Philip Jerry and others as a member of our Professional Training Program (then known as Career Track). While still in high school, he was an apprentice to American Repertory Ballet.
After graduating high school, he was chosen to be one of the first members of the Taylor 2 (the second company of the Paul Taylor Dance Company) and toured Africa with that group. Subsequently, he performed with the David Parsons company for a few seasons, and also appeared with Radio City Music Hall in the Christmas Spectacular, and danced with Geoffrey Doig-Marx. He returned to ARB, dancing Romeo in Romeo and Juliet, among other roles. While a member of ARB, he met and married fellow company dancer Peggy Petteway. In 2002, he re-joined Taylor 2, and then moved into the main company in 2004. Mr. Mahoney has been a guest teacher of Taylor technique for the Summer Intensive for the past several years.
DOUGLAS MARTIN (ARB Workshop Ballet Master, Music Director, Ballet) – started his ballet training with Dimitri Romanoff at the San Jose Ballet School and continued as a scholarship student at American Ballet Theatre School under Pat Wilde, Ivan Nagy, John Prinz and Mme. Pereyaslavic. He joined the Joffrey II Dancers in 1982 and was promoted to the Joffrey Ballet in 1984. As a principal dancer in the Joffrey, Mr. Martin performed many of the company's renowned works and was involved in the creation of many new works. He has performed a diverse array of roles in ballets by Ashton, Arpino, Cranko, Balanchine, Joffrey, Taylor, Pendleton, Kudelka and many other great 20th century choreographers. He joined the Cleveland Ballet for the 1991-92 season, performing the Minister in Agnes DeMille's Fall River Legend and other major roles. In 1993, Mr. Martin joined the American Repertory Ballet. As a leading dancer and Ballet Master for ARB, Mr. Martin helped create many new ballets and collaborated with Septime Webre on several major pas de deux and full length ballets. He was Oberon in Graham Lustig's A Midsummer Night's Dream. He continued to be a principal performer in the company until his retirement from performing in 2002. He has been an integral part of the teaching staff at ARB’s Princeton Ballet School since 1994. Mr. Martin also teaches ballet for Westminster Choir College.
GEOFFREY DOIG-MARX (Jazz/Theater Dance) is the Artistic Director and Founder of “The Mantis Project” Dance Company, and Creator/Artistic Director of “The Elan Awards” an annual showcase that presents the work of 14 choreographers and honors a choreographer who has paved the way. Past honorees of The Elan Awards include Graciella Daniele, Jerry Mitchell, Ann Reinking, Rob Marshall, Lar Lubovitch and Susan Stroman. Recently, he received a Certificate of Excellence in Cultural Achievement from C. Virginia Fields, Manhattan Borough President, office of the Mayor of New York City, for his work with The Elan Awards. He is currently a part of the dance faculty at Marymount Manhattan College, Dance Emotion, The Lawrenceville School and The Pulse. National and Regional credits include: Pippin, A Chorus Line, West Side Story, Jesus Christ Superstar, La Cage aux Folles and many others. Dance Spirit Magazine named him “one of ‘nine dancemakers making history” … 2001 cover story. www.themantisproject.org.
Kathleen Moore (Guest Artist) born in Chicago, Illinois, was raised in Huntsville, Alabama. She began dance lessons at a local ballet school and then studied dance seriously with Dame Sonia Arova during high school at the Alabama School of Fine Arts (ASFA). Kathleen also attended summer sessions in New York, at the School of American Ballet and the American Ballet Theatre School, before graduating from ASFA as a Presidential Scholar in the Arts and moving to New York as a member of American Ballet Theatre’s junior company, ABT II. (1980).
Miss Moore joined American Ballet Theatre as a member of the corps de ballet in 1982, was appointed Soloist by Mikhail Baryshnikov in 1988, and Principal Dancer in 1991. Her roles with ABT were many, working in the classics as well as the dramatic and modern repertory. Her repertory includes Myrta in Giselle, Lescaut’s Mistress in Manon, Hagar in Pillar of Fire, The Cowgirl in Rodeo, a Stomper in In the Upper Room, and principle roles in works by Mark Morris, Paul Taylor, Jiri Kylian and Glen Tetley.
Miss Moore created the role of The Girl in The Informer by Agnes de Mille, leading roles in Mark Morris’ Drink to Me Only With Thine Eyes and in Twyla Tharp’s How Near Heaven and Jump Start.
She was a member of the premiere tour of the White Oak Dance Project under the direction of Mikhail Baryshnikov and Mark Morris in 1990 and has appeared in several dance documentaries and the Herbert Ross movie Dancers.
In 1988 Miss Moore married Peter Tovar, in 1997 she gave birth to a son, Becket, and retired from dancing professionally in the fall of 1998. She currently lives in Princeton, is on faculty at the Princeton School of Ballet and served as a member of the Executive Committee for the Princeton Symphony Orchestra Board for several years. Ms. Moore has been Ballet Mistress of American Repertory Ballet since fall of 2007.
Kyra Nichols (Guest Artist) began her early training in Berkeley, California, with her mother, Sally Streets, a former member of New York City Ballet. By age 13, Ms. Nichols started spending her summers in New York at the School of American Ballet. She performed with Alan Howard’s San Francisco based Pacific Ballet before moving to New York full-time when she was 15 years old.
She became an apprentice to NYCB in 1974 and quickly became a member of the corps de ballet. In 1979 she was promoted by George Balanchine to the rank of Principal Dancer. Her early years in the company were enlivened by the presence of George Balanchine and Jerome Robbins, both of whom were choreographing on the Company.
Kyra Nichols danced numerous leading roles in the company repertory, ranging from pyrotechnic displays of bravura skill in ballets such as Tschaikovsky Piano Concerto Number 2 and Stars and Stripes to more lyrical and dramatic roles such those in Liebeslieder Walzer and Robert Schumann’s Davidsbundlertanze.
In addition to her work with George Balanchine and Jerome Robbins, Ms. Nichols has worked with an extensive list of choreographers including, William Forsythe, Susan Stroman, Christopher Wheeldon, Peter Martins, Jacques D’Amboise, Robert La Fosse and Robert Garland.
During her career, Ms. Nichols has toured extensively. In 1981 she joined a small group led by Jerome Robbins that performed in mainland China as a part of a US Information Agency effort to bring American culture to the Chinese. Over the years Ms. Nichols has all over the world, including Great Britain, France, Denmark, Germany, Hungary, Israel and Italy. She has also appeared as a guest artist in various productions including Franco Zeffirelli’s La Traviata at the Metropolitan Opera in New York. By special invitation she performed in Cuba as a guest of Alicia Alonso. With New York City Ballet dancer Gen Horiuchi Ms. Nichols led a group of dancers for a three week series of performances in Tokyo. Of course, her touring included sites all over the United States, from High School gymnasium’s in Alabama to the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C.
Ms. Nichols has appeared on national television in Balanchine's Vienna Waltzes for the Lincoln Center Special "A New York City Ballet Tribute to George Balanchine," in Balanchine's Serenade for a "Dance in America" program, and also in Mr. Martins' Beethoven Romance for the "Dance in America" program, "Ballerinas, Dances by Peter Martins." Ms. Nichols also appeared in the 20th anniversary broadcast of the PBS series "Great Performances" in Mr. Martins' Not My Girl.
Ms. Nichols danced the featured role of Dewdrop in the film version of George Balanchine's The Nutcracker™, produced by Elektra Entertainment/New Regency Enterprises, and released in November 1993 by Warner Brothers.
In recent years Ms. Nichols has been teaching ballet, bringing her vast experience and knowledge to a new generation of dancers. She has taught at many schools including the School of American Ballet (New York), The Rock School (Philadelphia) Central Pennsylvania Youth Ballet (Carlisle, PA), The Jillana School (Summer program, Taos, NM), Mount Holyoke College (South Hadley, MA) and Boston Ballet (Boston). IN addition to her work with New York City Ballet, since 2000 Ms. Nichols has been teaching regularly at the Princeton Ballet School and conducting private lessons.
Ms. Nichols lives in Princeton, New Jersey with her husband, David Gray, and their two sons. On the odd occasion when she experiences free time, Ms. Nichols enjoys cooking and gardening.
PEGGY PETTEWAY MAHONEY (Ballet) was born in Orlando, Florida. She began her training at the School of Performing Arts and continued through the apprentice program of Southern Ballet Theatre under the direction of Barbara Riggins. She is a magna cum laude graduate of Florida State University. Ms. Petteway has danced with Bay Ballet Theatre, Southern Ballet Theatre, North Carolina Dance Theatre, Chautauqua Dance Company, and Pennsylvania Ballet. She has danced principal roles in a wide range of classical and contemporary ballets. At American Repertory Ballet Ms. Petteway has appeared in Graham Lustig’s The Nutcracker, Paramour, Silkscreens, VISTA, Uncertain Steps, Borderlines, as a Stepsister in Graham Lustig’s Cinderella, Bianca in Lustig’s The Shrew, and Beauty in Beauty and the Beast. She has also danced in Monopoly, The Eyes That Gently Touch, Opposites Distract, Fandango Furiouso, Lambarena, and - a part between parts -. In 2001, Ms. Petteway married fellow ARB dancer Sean Patrick Mahoney. This is Ms. Petteway’s tenth season with American Repertory Ballet and her ninth season teaching at ARB’s Princeton Ballet School.
Andrew Pirozzi is currently touring the United States with the premiere cast of Dirty Dancing. Other recent credits include the US tour of of Twyla Tharp’s Movin’ Out, West Side Story, and Duke Ellington’s Sophisticated Ladies. Andrew was a student at ARB’s Princeton Ballet School for eleven years, where he studied ballet with Maria Youskevitch, Douglas Martin and Mary Barton. He is also trained in jazz and hiphop, and studied tap at Kathleen Academy of Dance in Hillsborough, New Jersey. He has had the privilege of studying with some of the great masters, including Randy Skinner, Jeannie Hill, Gregory Hines and Twyla Tharp.
Maria Youskevitch (ballet, ARBW Ballet Mistress) the daughter of legendary
ballet star Igor Youskevitch, was a soloist with American Ballet Theatre and Maryland Ballet, and ballerina with Youskevitch’s concert group, Ballet Romantique. She was company teacher, rehearsal assistant and senior faculty member at Hartford Ballet under the Artistic Direction of Kirk Peterson. She has been ballet mistress for BalletMet, Nevada Dance Theatre, and coach for the New York International Ballet Competition. In addition, Ms. Youskevitch has taught at such prestigious schools as the David Howard Dance Center, Alvin Ailey American Dance Center, Virginia School of the Arts under the direction Petrus Bosman, The Houston Ballet's Ben Stevenson Academy, and The Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis School at American Ballet Theatre.
A celebrated teacher and coach for over 30 years, she was featured in the June 2002 issue of “Dance Teacher” magazine. Well versed in the classical ballet repertoire, she has mounted versions of Giselle, Coppélia, La Fille Mal Gardee, and her father’s one-act Romeo and Juliet. She has also staged Michel Fokine’s Spectre de la Rose and Les Sylphides, and the children’s roles in Kirk Peterson’s Nutcracker. Ms. Youskevitch is also on faculty for ABT’s Young Dancer Summer Workshop in Manhattan.