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Cem Catbas,
Artistic Director
Cem
Catbas is the Artistic Director of Baltimore Ballet School
and co-founder and Director of Baltimore Ballet Company.
He danced principal roles with Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre,
the Istanbul State Opera and Ballet, the Istanbul
Contemporary Ballet, and the Koblenz Ballet in Germany in
addition to Baltimore Ballet. Roles he danced include the
title role of Dracula in Ben Stevenson's (Houston Ballet
Production) Dracula, the title role of Romeo in
Romeo and Juliette with the Istanbul State Opera and
Ballet, The Monk in Carmina Burana (Kent Stowell's
production from Pacific Northwest Ballet), the title
role of Peer Gynt with the Koblenz Ballet, and
numerous other principal roles.
Awards he
has won include the 2006 and 2002 Individual Artist Award
for excellence in solo dance performance from the Maryland
State Arts Council, 1st prize in the 1st International
Seleznyov Ballet Competition in 1991, and the Most Promising
Dancer Award from the city of Istanbul.
He has a
B.F.A. with honors from the Istanbul University State
Conservatory where he studied with Ramazan Bapov, Nikolai
Morozov, and Ludmilla Morkovina. He has worked with Ben
Stevenson (Houston Ballet), Patricia Wilde (NYC Ballet)Marianna Tcherkassky and Terrence Orr (ABT), Richard
Glasstone (Istanbul Ballet), and Kent Stowell (Pacific
Northwest Ballet), among others.
He has
choreographed The Nutcracker,
Pictures at an Exhibition, A Gershwin Rhapsody,
Carnival of the Animals, excerpts from
Petrouschka, and danced in and staged Scheherazade,
Les Sylphides, the 2nd act of Giselle,
Swan Lake and La Bayadere for Baltimore
Ballet. The esteemed dance critic George Jackson praised his
"passionately stretched line, bouyant leaps and plush
landings."
He has
been a judge for several competitions including the
Frederick Arts Council. His students have gone on to dance
professionally, have won numerous awards including 1st Prize
at the regional Youth America Grand Prix Competition, and
have been accepted into the most prestigious summer programs
with full scholarships (including NYC Ballet's School of
American Ballet). He has been interviewed on WMAR-TV, WJZ-TV,
WBAL-TV and Comcast Local Edition. He has given Master
Classes in the US, Canada, and Europe. He also has two
articles on dance which were published at
www.bourgeononline.com
Elysabeth Muscat,
Managing Director
Elysabeth Muscat has been overseeing the administration of the
school and producing Baltimore Ballet's performances since
its inception 11 years ago.
She is the co-founder of Baltimore Ballet Company which is
supported in part by the Baltimore Office of Promotion and
the Arts, The Maryland State Arts Council, Baltimore County
Commission on Arts and Sciences, State Auto Insurance
Companies, M&T Bank, T Rowe Price, Sinai Hospital/Lifebridge
Rubin Institute, and more. She has been
interviewed on CNN Headline News/Comcast Newsmakers, WJZ-TV,
WMAR-TV, and on WBJC Radio.
She is
also a soprano who sang leading roles with the Zurich Opera,
Prague State Opera, Vienna Kammeroper, Koblenz Opera,
L'Opera Francais, Mannes Camerata, and appeared as soloist
with the Sudwestdeutsche Symphonie, the Neue Musik Orchester
Basel, the Rheinische Philharmonie, and the Northshore
Symphony Orchestra. She has won an Individual Artist Award
in Solo Voice from the MD State Arts Council in 2006 and
2002 as well as awards in numerous international
competitions.
She is
adjunct Voice Faculty of Peabody Conservatory, Chair of the
Voice Department at the Peabody Preparatory, and
President of the National Association of Teachers of Singing
MD/DC Chapter. She has a B.S. in Psychology from Tulane
University and a Master of Music in Voice from the Mannes
College of Music. She has also taught at Towson University
Music Preparatory Division, Bryn Mawr School, Point Park
College and the Civic Light Opera Academy in Pittsburgh. Her
students have been accepted into the top music schools
including Juilliard, Manhattan School of Music, Peabody
Conservatory, New England Conservatory of Music, Oberlin
Conservatory, Mannes College of Music, and have won numerous
voice scholarships and vocal competitions including the MD
Distinguished Scholar Award and first place at the Regional
NATS Competition spanning 6 states in the mid-atlantic
region. She has been a judge at many vocal
competitions including the Baltimore County Music Festival,
NOVA Idol, and State and Regional NATS (National Association
of Teachers of Singing.) To see Ms. Catbas singing on
Youtube visit: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MlHDABK09u8
and
http://www.youtube.com/watchv=Cuqs3gjyxGQ&feature=channel
More Detailed Biography
with Audio Clips
Sarah Gelband, Ballet and Pointe
Sarah
Gelband trained with Long Beach Ballet Arts Center and
Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre. She was a member of the Tucson
Regional Ballet Co, performing across the Pacific region
with Regional Dance America. Sarah graduated from Goucher
College in May '07, with a BA in performance and
choreography. She was a member of A.H. Dance Company in NYC
for the 2007-08 season, and is now a member of Baltimore
Ballet Company, where she has danced the Arabian pas de deux
in Baltimore Ballet’s 2008 Nutcracker, roles in Les
Sylphides and Salome's Daughters (choreographed by
Nejla Yatkin) at the Baltimore Museum of Art,
Scheherazade at Kraushaar Auditorium, and A Gershwin
Rhapsody at the Lyric Opera House as part of Artscape
2009.
Emily Norris, Ballet, Pointe, Modern, Jazz, Tap
Emily began
her dance training at the Peabody Preparatory under full
scholarship to the Arts for Talented Youth program where she
studied ballet, modern, flamenco and jazz under the
direction of Sylvia Druker and Roudolf Kharatian. She
attended summer intensive programs at Burklyn Ballet,
Virginia School of the Arts, American Ballet Theatre, and
The Joffrey Ballet where she was a trainee with the company
studying under Luis Fuente, John Magnus and Winthrop Corey.
Emily graduated from Carver Center a performing arts high
school, with a major in dance and went on to study Massage
Therapy and Physical Therapy. Emily also studied at
Baltimore Ballet, and later perfomed solo roles in The
Nutcracker, Giselle, and Pictures at an Exhibition with
Baltimore Ballet Company. Emily hopes to bring her
science and arts background to her classroom to develop
technically sound dancers.
Olivia Sabee, Ballet
Olivia
received her high school diploma from the North Carolina
School for the Arts. She studied at many summer
intensives including American Ballet Theater, Pacific
Northwest Ballet School, North Carolina School of the Arts,
Burklyn Ballet Theater and others. She has danced
professionally with Ballet Pacifica, the Civic Ballet of
Chicago, and ARC Dance Productions. She has
taught dance at the Joffrey Ballet, University Ballet at the
University of Chicago, and the ARC Dance School. Ms.
Sabee has her A.B. degree in French Language and Literature
from the University of Chicago, and is currently pursuing
her Doctorate specializing in early 20th Century French
Dance at Johns Hopkins University.
Evgenia Singur,
Ballet, Variations and Character
(guest faculty)
Evgenia Singur
was a
principal dancer for the Russian State Ballet in Moscow,
where she performed principal roles in The Nutcracker, Giselle, Coppelia, Swan Lake, Sleeping Beauty, Spartacus, and Don
Quixote. She toured with the company internationally to
Austria, England, Germany, Japan, Switzerland, Ireland,
Italy, China, Indonesia, Mexico, North & South Korea, United
Arab Emirates (Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Oman), and Spain. Ms. Singur
began training as a rhythmic gymnast, then a figure skater,
and finally as a ballet dancer from 1993-2001 at the Bolshoi
Ballet Academy and Moscow State Institute of Choreography
before joining the Russian State Ballet. She won the 2004
International Dance Festival in Korea, and the Silver Award
in the 2002 Dance Europe Magazine Competition. Ms.
Singur recently appeared in the lead female role in
Baltimore Ballet's productions of Scheherazade at Kraushaar
Auditorium and Les Sylphides at the BMA, as well as a lead
dancer at Artscape at the Lyric Opera House in July 2009.
Alaina Williams, Ballet, Pointe, Ballet/tap
Alaina
Williams graduated from the Baltimore School for the Arts
and received her B.F.A. from The Juilliard School where she
had the privilege of working with a world renowned faculty
and numerous guest artists from around the globe. In 2007,
Ms. Williams took part in creating the “Dogodogo Project”
where she traveled to Dar es Salaam, Tanzania to teach dance
and improvisation to underprivileged children at the
Dogodogo Centre.
Nella
Romanik Woodrum, Ballet
Nella
Romanik Woodrum, originally from the Ukraine, received her dance degree from the Kiev Ballet Conservatory. She
then danced solo roles with both the Donetsk Ballet and the
Lvov Ballet Companies in Swan Lake, The Nutcracker, Giselle,
Paquita, Esmeralda, etc., before joining the faculty.
Bat Udval,
Ballet (guest faculty)
Bat Udval Erdene
is
a former principal dancer with the Russian Ballet Theater
and was inducted into the Hall of Fame as one of the world’s
greatest male dancers.
Julia
Parker Harlan, Ballet, Jazz
Julie Parker
Harlan has an MFA in Dance from the University of
California, Irvine, a BFA in Dance cum laude from
Marymount Manhattan College, is Vice President of
Programming for the American Dance Training Camp, and is a
former Assistant Professor of Dance at Lamar University.
She has performed Off-Broadway and with several local dance
companies.
Mellisa Mauldin, Ballet
Mellisa graduated magna cum laude from Towson University
with a BFA in Dance Performance and Education in 2005. She
has performed professionally with the Anglo-American Ballet
(NY), Movement/Addiction (MD), Kimberly Mackin Dance Company
(MD), and Common Ground Dance Company (MD). Mellisa has been
teaching dance full time at Friends School of Baltimore
since 2007.
Amanda Fair, Ballet
Amanda
received her BFA in Ballet from the University of the Arts
in Philadelphia, and is a graduate of Baltimore School for
the Arts. She also studied on internship with the
Dance Theater of Harlem. She is the founder of Poetic
Expressions Dance Company and her works have been performed
throughout Baltimore and Washington. Amanda won the
2010 Baker Artist Award.
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