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, winner of the MD Distinguished Scholar Award, and have received full scholarships to the  School of American Ballet and other schools.  He has been interviewed on WBFF - Fox News, WMAR-TV, WJZ-TV, WBAL-TV and Comcast Local Edition. He has given Master Classes in the US, Canada, and Europe.  He also has several articles on dance which were published at www.bourgeononline.com and he maintains an art/philosophy blog called "Barre None"  http://cemcatbas.wordpress.com/about/

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  

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.

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.

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.

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.

April Giangeruso (guest faculty)

April Giangeruso was born in Washington D.C. and began her early training in her hometown of Ellicott City, Maryland. At age nine, she received a full scholarship to the Kirov Academy of Ballet where she studied from 2001-2005 under the direction of Ludmila Morkovina. She also studied with Valentina Kozlova and at 15 years old was the youngest female finalist at the 2006 USA International Ballet Competition in Jackson, Mississippi. She has performed the Bluebird pas de deux from The Sleeping Beauty, the grand pas de deux from The Nutcracker and Raymonda, and the Medora and the Slave pas de deux from Le Corsaire. She has attended the ABT Summer Intensives as a National Training Scholar, and in September 2007 she joined the Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis School at ABT. Giangeruso joined ABT II in December 2007 and joined American Ballet Theatre as an apprentice in January 2010 and became a member of the corps de ballet in June 2010. April was recently featured in The New York Times, click here to read.
 

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.

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. 

Leigh Alexander has been dancing since the age of three. She has exploered many styles of dance including modern, tap, jazz, hip hop, country line, ballroom, African, & Native American, but her main focus has always been ballet. As a youth, she studied under Towson's Children's Dance Division with Patty Enoch Bond where she was able to gain a strong foundation in R.A.D. In high school, Leigh was accepted into the dance program at Carver Center for the Arts. After graduation, Leigh went on to receive her Associate of the Arts degree from CCBC in Dance. During her attendance, Leigh was awarded "Outstanding Dancer of the Year" for two consecutive years. In addition, she also received the only scholarships offered in the dance department, both years in attendance. She graduated from Goucher College in 2008, where she earned her BA in Dance Therapy.

Leigh began her teaching career at age 11 as an assistant at Kingsville Recreation Center. After three years she was awarded her own classes. Leigh went on to teach creative movement, ballet, tap, modern, & lyrical to varying age groups around Maryland. She is happy to be a member of the teaching staff at Baltimore Ballet.

Leigh's passion in the field of dance has led her in many directions, including costume design. In 2006 she started designing and crafting dance costumes for herself and recieved several awards for outstanding craftsmenship at local and national conventions. In 2008 she began designing and constructing costumes for several dance companies. She was recently recognized for her talent as a seamstress at Costumecon 2011 where she was asked to run several panels on her knowledge in costuming. She was honered to create and design the costumes for Baltimore Ballet's production of the Firebird and looks forward to future projects.