Instructor Bios
NANCY DAVIS, Artistic Director, began studying ballet at age six with Natalia Clare of the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo. At fourteen, she received a Ford Foundation scholarship to study at George Balanchine's School of American Ballet in New York City.
For the next three years, she trained with Mr. Balanchine, Alexandra Danilova, Antonina Tumkovsky, Felia Doubrovska, Andre Eglevsky, Stanley Williams, and Suzanne Farrell, among others and completed her academic schooling at The Professional Children's School of New York.
Joining the National Ballet of Washington, DC at age eighteen where she worked closely with co-directors Ben Stevenson and Fredric Franklin, and Dame Margot Fonteyn who frequently toured with the company. While there, she performed at the Kennedy Center and toured extensively, exploring classical ballet and garnering soloist roles in Sleeping Beauty, Cinderella, Swan Lake, Giselle, and other ballets.
In 1974, Ms. Davis returned to her Los Angeles roots to help form the Los Angeles Ballet, directed by New York City Ballet choreographer and principal dancer, John Clifford. For the next ten years, she performed principal roles with the company while developing her "Balanchine" style. She received critical acclaim from New York Times critic Anna Kisselgoff and others for her roles in Balanchine's Tchaikovsky Pas de Deux, Concerto Barocco, Serenade, Allegro Brillante, and The Four Temperaments, Clifford's Sitar Concerto, Firebird, Sonata, and Nutcracker, and Anton Dolin's Pas de Quatre.
During her career with the Los Angeles Ballet, she also toured the United States, Mexico, Saudi Arabia, the Philippines, Korea, Taiwan, and Japan.
Ms. Davis was on the faculty of many prestigious ballet schools in California, Oregon, and Hawaii before co-founding The Portland Ballet with husband and former dancer, Jim Lane.
JASON DAVIS, Academy Principal and Instructor, is a native of Tucson, Arizona and began his dance training with Mary-Beth Cabana at Ballet Arts in Tucson. He attended numerous summer dance programs including the Universal Ballet Academy, the School of American Ballet, the San Francisco Ballet School, Pacific Northwest Ballet School, and Ballet West.
At fifteen, he joined the Universal Ballet Academy (Kirov Academy) under the direction of Oleg Vinogradov.
In 1992, Jason joined the San Francisco Ballet School and after one year, joined the company. For eleven seasons, Jason danced with the San Francisco Ballet where he performed in many classic ballets as well as originated choreography by Mark Morris, Stanton Welch, Yuri Possokov, James Kudelka, William Forsythe, and Helgi Tomasson among others.
Jason has been teaching ballet for over 12 years and is a licensed teacher by the state of Oregon. He has taught at Ball Elementary, da Vinci Middle School, West Sylvan Middle School, Jefferson High School, and Stites Performing Arts Center.
Since 2006, Jason has enjoyed directing and choreographing the Vancouver Dance Theatre productions which includes the full length Sleeping Beauty, Cinderella, The Nutcracker, Swan Lake Act 3, and Young Persons Guide to the Orchestra.
Jason spends his summers teaching on various faculties including The Portland Ballet, Vancouver Dance Theatre, Columbia Dance Ensemble, the Northwest Professional Dance Project, and Repertory Ballet of New Mexico and directing the Young Musicians and Artists Summer Program. Currently Jason is the ballet teacher at Arts and Communication Magnet Academy in Beaverton and has recently been named the principal at The Portland Ballet.
Jason and his wife, Michelle, have three young children: Ariana, Andrew, and Isabel.
MICHELLE DAVIS, Registrar and Instructor, was born in Dallas, Texas and began her dance training at the Dallas Ballet Academy under the direction of Flemming and Vivi Flindt of the Royal Danish Ballet. Michelle was fortunate to train and perform as a student dancer with the Dallas Ballet in several productions including The Toreador, La Sylphide, Swan Lake Act 3, Les Sylphides, and The Nutcracker.
In 1989, she moved to San Francisco to join the San Francisco Ballet School to train with brilliant teachers among them included Jonathon Watts, Henry Berg, Irina Jacobsen, and Larisa Sklyanskaya. After two years in the SFB School, Michelle joined the San Francisco Ballet as an apprentice. For five years, Michelle danced under the direction of Helgi Tomasson in numerous contemporary and classical works some of which choreographed by George Balanchine, Jerome Robbins, Anthony Tudor, Mark Morris, Stanton Welch, David Bintley, James Kudelka, Agnes de Mille, Harold Lander, and Helgi Tomasson.
She danced in many classics including Romeo and Juliet, Giselle, La Sylphide, Sleeping Beauty, La Bayadere, La Fille Mal Gardee, The Nutcracker, and Swan Lake. She toured with SFB performing at the Garnier in Paris, London, Belfast, Copenhagen, Iceland, the Edinburgh Festival in Scotland, New York City, Minneapolis, St. Louis, and Washington DC.
In 1996, Michelle moved to Denmark to join the Royal Danish Ballet performing Bournonville's A Folk Tale, as well as Peter Martin's world premiere of Swan Lake. After dancing abroad, Michelle returned to the San Francisco Ballet in 1997 for three more seasons.
She has made guest appearances with Maximum Dance in Miami, Nevada Festival Ballet, Smuin Ballets/SF, Ballet Arts Ensemble in Kalamazoo, Michigan, Ballet Theatre of New Mexico, and Pacific Festival Ballet. She is currently attending Saint Mary's College of Moraga, CA through the Leap Program for Liberal Arts Studies.
In 2004, she and her husband, Jason Davis, moved to Portland to pursue their teaching careers. Michelle is on the faculty of The Portland Ballet and recently was named the academy's Registrar. She and her husband are parents to three young children: Ariana, Andrew, and Isabel.
ALEX BALLARD, Instructor, was born in Oakland, California but began his ballet studies while living in New Zealand.
He trained at the Manhattan School of Dance with master teacher Margaret Craske in New York City until her death at 97. He also studied with Loren Hightower, Sallie Wilson, and Christopher Lyall and during his summers attended the Joffrey Ballet School, Steps on Broadway, SAB and participated in several Paul Taylor workshops.
His performing career includes stints with New York Theater Ballet, Joyce Trisler Danscompany (Horton: Modern) Delta Festival Ballet, Richmond Ballet, Ballet Royale de Wallonie (Belgium), Cleveland/San Jose Ballet where he performed soloist and principal roles, and finally, Oregon Ballet Theater, where he was a leading dancer for 8 years.
He has performed in Ireland, England, Scotland, Japan, Spain, and Portugal and across the United States as a guest or featured performer.
Upon retiring from performing he trained in the F.M.Alexander Technique, graduating from the Oregon Center for Alexander Technique in 2003, attained a Nidan (second degree black belt) in Aikikai-style Aikido and became a founding instructor for the professional men’s program at The Portland Ballet.
In 2005 he founded his own critically acclaimed contemporary ballet company; the Bouand DanceCompany which features works by young European and American choreographers, as well as his own works.
As a teacher he has been named “a master teacher of that finely detailed art” (ballet) by Martha Ullman West (Dance magazine) and is known for his detailed understanding, clarity and humor.
Recently Mr. Ballard was invited to become Adjunct Faculty at University of Oregon in Eugene, teaching Ballet and is also guest Artistic Director for Vancouver Dance Theater, engaged in setting a full-length “Nutcracker” for over 80 young people.
HEATHER JACKSON, Instructor, trained on scholarship at Rock School of Pennsylvania Ballet and at age 14, became a ballet major at the University of Utah where she earned her BFA.
Heather has danced with Utah Ballet and Ballet West performing classic ballets as well as works by George Balanchine and Paul Taylor. Before leaving Salt Lake, Heather was an administrator and instructor at the School of Ballet West.
Since moving to Portland, Heather has guested with the Portland Opera and other local companies and choreographic projects and is a member of Skinner/Kirk Dance Ensemble and Bodyvox.
ELIZABETH GUERIN, Instructor, trained at the School of Princeton Ballet, School of American Ballet and the Joffrey Ballet School as well as with Maggie Black and David Howard. She became a principal dancer with Princeton Ballet (now American Repertory Ballet) and then went on to dance with the Washington Ballet in Washington, D.C., dancing soloist and principal roles.
Five years later, Elizabeth was invited to be a principal dancer with Oregon Ballet Theatre under the direction of James Canfield. At OBT she created the role of Juliet in Canfield's Romeo and Juliet, danced the principal roles in Balanchine's Concerto Barocco and Tchaikovsky Pas de Deux, among others, and also worked with contemporary choreographers Paul Taylor, Bebe Miller, Donald Byrd and Val Canaparoli.
After retiring from OBT, she continued dancing as a guest artist for several years with companies in Washington, California, and Colorado.
Elizabeth has taught at The Northwest Academy, the School of Oregon Ballet Theatre, Ballet Arte Dance Theatre in San Diego, California and as a freelance teacher in the Portland area.
A native of Tucson, AZ, ZACHARY CARROLL, Instructor, received his early training from George Zoritch, and The National Ballet School in Toronto, ONT Canada, where he attended as a full scholarship student.
Zachary has danced as a soloist and principal for Oregon Ballet Theatre, Minnesota Dance Theatre, and Ballet West, as well as numerous guest appearances both nationally and abroad.
In more recent years, Zach danced with Bodyvox, as well as Skinner/Kirk Dance Ensemble in Portland. He has performed a wide variety of dance styles and choreography such as Balanchine, Petipas, Anthony Tudor, Hans Van Manen, Lila York, John Butler, Paul Taylor, and many others.
Zachary lives in Portland with his wife Annie, and children Amelia and Lucas. He teaches ballet at many local schools as well as guest teaching around the country.
JOSEPH WYATT, Instructor, was born in Trinidad, West Indies.
He started dancing at Brockport State University under Jim and Susannah Payten.
In 1973, following a summer scholarship to Jacob's Pillow, he joined the Dance Theatre of Harlem (DTH) where he premiered Paquita, toured the USA and Europe.
He became a principal dancer with La Compania Nacional De Danza in Mexico City where he danced lead roles in Giselle, La Fille Mal Gardee, Swan Lake, Sleeping Beauty, and Coppelia.
In 1982, he joined Pacific Ballet Theatre. Mr. Wyatt was previously the director of the school of Pacific Ballet Theatre and of OBT.
Trained as a concert pianist, ROBERT HUFFMAN, Principal Pianist, holds a Bachelors Degree in Music and a Masters Degree in Performance, from the University of Oregon.
He studied in Paris for 3 years with Noel Lee and in 1969 was the Principal Pianist for The Congregation of the Arts in Dartmouth College, NH, under Masrio DeBonventura. Robert has worked as an accompanist in the Northwest since 1973 with Fine Arts organizations such as: Jefferson High School of the Performing Arts, Summer Dance Lab in Walla Walla, Washington and Oregon Ballet Theatre accompanying the Company and School.
In 2001, Robert joined the founding staff at The Portland Ballet, formerly known as Pacific Artists Ballet, as Principal Pianist.