Masters Workshop

CARTER ALEXANDER began his ballet training with his mother Amanda Stone in Cheyenne, Wyoming. He continued at Arts Magnet and Dallas Ballet Academy before joining the Hartford Ballet, where he studied with his mentor, Truman Finney. He danced principal and soloist roles with the Kansas City Ballet, and also danced with Pennsylvania Ballet (where he taught on the faculty of the Rock School). Mr. Alexander received an offer to become the principal teacher at the Ballet Workshop New England in Boston, where he taught for five years. He also became the artistic associate of the Massachusetts Youth Ballet. He then joined Truman Finney at The School of Ballet Arizona as Assistant Director of the school. He is a principal teacher on the Miami City Ballet School faculty.

Born in Long Beach California and raised in Huntington Beach, Evelyn Cisneros-Legate began studying ballet at the age of 8 in an effort to overcome her profound shyness. Cisneros later received full summer scholarships to the San Francisco Ballet School and the School of American Ballet and upon completing her high school education, she began her apprenticeship with the San Francisco Ballet in 1976.

In 1977 she joined the Company under the directorship of Co-Artistic Directors, Lew Christensen and Michael Smuin. Cisneros soon began dancing principal roles, many choreographed for her by Smuin himself. She performed her original roles in national television broadcasts of A Song for Dead Warriors and The Tempest, as well as the title role of Cinderella and noteworthy "live broadcast" from the White House in 1982.

Her success continued under San Francisco Ballet Artistic Director, Helgi Tomasson, appointed in 1985. She has danced the leading roles in a diverse repertoire of classical ballets such as Swan Lake, Sleeping Beauty, Romeo and Juliet, La Sylphide, and La Fille Mal Gardeé. Numerous resident and visiting choreographers have created works for her including Tomasson, Val Caniparoli, James Kudelka and Mark Morris. Her contemporary repertoire included works by George Balanchine, Jerome Robbins, Stanton Welch and Jiri Kylian. She has toured the world performing with the Company and as a guest artist.

Cisneros has been featured on the covers of Dance Magazine, Ballet News, and Hispanic Magazine, and received numerous awards for her community activism and artistic achievements. She is held in high regards by the Hispanic community and serves as role model to many. Cisneros holds honorary doctorate degrees from Mills College and the University of California at Monterey Bay. In May of 1999, Cisneros retired from the San Francisco Ballet with a Gala performance in her honor, and in celebration KQED produced a ½ hour documentary of her life, entitled Evelyn Cisneros, Moving On.

Following retirement in 1999, Cisneros became the host of KQED's monthly current events program "Bay Windows". During this time, Cisneros also became an artistic consultant with San Francisco Ballet, where she hosted and provided content for Family Connection workshops, pre-performance talks, Community Matinees and the Ballet's popular Casual Friday Program. From November 2001 to May 2006, Cisneros was Ballet Education Coordinator for the San Francisco Ballet Center for Dance Education. In this capacity, she hosted, prepared and presented content for Community Matinees, movement workshops and discussions for the Dance Education on Tour program.

Ms. Cisneros was also part of a team of educators training ballet docents involved in the IMPACT program. She prepared study guide content to educate students and teachers about the key elements of ballet, including music and terminology. Since 2000 Cisneros has taught at summer intensive courses for the Kansas City Ballet in Crested Butte Colorado, The Boston Ballet School in Boston Ma. a week long intensive in Carmel Ca. as well as teaching the New York City Ballet Workout at the Bay Club in San Francisco twice weekly, and for Smuin Ballet SF on occasion. She has staged ballets for Val Caniparoli and Michael Smuin for the following ballet companies where she has taught company class as well: Pacific Northwest Ballet, State Theatre Ballet in South Africa, Northern Ballet Theatre in Leeds England, Ballet Florida, Kansas City Ballet, Louisville Ballet and San Francisco Ballet.

Cisneros is currently Academy Director for Ballet Pacifica in Irvine California and served as Artistic Director for BP's 40th anniversary presentation of The Nutcracker for the 21 performance run at the Barclay Theater on the UCI campus. She has also co-authored "Ballet for Dummies" with conductor Scott Speck, which is available at most bookstores and at Amazon.com.

In January of 2010, Cisneros became the Principal of Boston Ballet School's Marblehead Studio. Cisneros is married to recently retired principal dancer Stephen Legate, and they have a son Ethan and daughter Sophia, who are their ultimate accomplishments and joy.

JOHN CLIFFORD is best known as founder and artistic director of the original Los Angeles Ballet, and a principal dancer and choreographer with New York City Ballet. He is widely considered to be Balanchine's choreographic protégé. Trained in Los Angeles, John Clifford's early work was for the Western Ballet Association, where he was a principal dancer and choreographer. After viewing rehearsals of Mr. Clifford's ballets, George Balanchine invited Clifford to move to New York and choreograph for his School of American Ballet. In 1966, at the age of 19, he joined the New York City Ballet where he quickly became a principal dancer and resident choreographer. During his tenure there he choreographed numerous ballets and danced leading roles in many ballets. Mr. Clifford was the first American male guest artist in history to dance with the Paris Opera Ballet. Most recently, Mr. Clifford premiered his new ballet, Casablanca The Dance, based on the Warner Bros. movie classic at The Great Hall of The People in Tiananmen Square. This project is Warner Bros. first venture into live theatre.

JORGE ESQUIVEL trained at La Escuela de Ballet Provincial and La Escuela National de Arte in Havana, Cuba. He joined the National Ballet of Cuba in 1968 and was promoted to principal dancer in 1972. In 1986, Mr. Esquivel left the National Ballet of Cuba, continuing his career as a guest artist. For more than 14 years, Mr. Esquivel partnered legendary Cuban ballerina Alicia Alonso, and has also partnered other acclaimed ballerinas, including Cynthia Gregory, Carla Fracci, and Ghislaine Thesmar. In 1993, Mr. Esquivel joined the faculty of San Francisco Ballet School. He also serves as a principal character dancer for San Francisco Ballet.

ALONZO KING has works in the repertories of companies throughout the world including the Swedish Royal Ballet, Frankfurt Ballet, Joffrey Ballet, Dance Theater of Harlem, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre, Hong Kong Ballet, North Carolina Dance Theatre, and Washington Ballet. He has worked extensively in opera, television, and film and has choreographed works for prima ballerina Natalia Makarova and film star Patrick Swayze. Mr. King has also collaborated with artists such as actor Danny Glover, legendary jazz saxophonist Pharoah Sanders, and tabla master Zakir Hussain. Renowned for his skill as a teacher, Mr. King has been the guest ballet master for National Ballet of Canada, Les Ballets de Monte Carlo, San Francisco Ballet, Ballet Rambert, Ballet West and others.

In 1982, Mr. King founded Alonzo King's LINES Ballet, which has developed into an international touring company. Seven years later, he inaugurated the San Francisco Dance Center, which has grown into one of the largest dance facilities on the West Coast. In 2001, Alonzo King started the LINES Ballet School and Pre-Professional Program to nurture and develop the talents of young dancers. Expanding the scope of his educational visions to the college level last year, Alonzo King and LINES Ballet embarked on a partnership with the Dominican University of California, creating the West Coast's first Joint BFA program in Dance. It is the only Joint BFA program in the country to be led by a living master choreographer.

In December 2006, Alonzo King was recognized as one of the fifty outstanding artists in America by the United States Artists organization. In the first year that these awards have been given, Alonzo King was one of only four Fellows in Dance, and the only Dance artist outside of New York to be honored by the USA Fellowship. The Fellowship is the second major national award Alonzo King has received in the past two years—in 2005, he won the Bessie Award for Choreographer/ Creator—and one of many such honors he has received over the course of his career. He is also the recipient of the NEA Choreographer's Fellowship, Irvine Fellowship in Dance, National Dance Project and the National Dance Residency Program, as well as five Isadora Duncan Awards. He has also received the Hero Award from Union Bank, the Lehman Award, and the Excellence Award from KGO in San Francisco.

Alonzo King has served on panels for the National Endowment of the Arts, California Arts Council, City of Columbus Arts Council and Lila Wallace-Reader's Digest Arts Partners Program. In 2005 he was named a Master of African-American Choreography by the Kennedy Center. He is a former commissioner for the city and county of San Francisco, and a writer and lecturer on the art of dance; his contributions appear in the books Masters of Movement: Portraits of American Choreographers and in Dance Masters: Interviews with Legends of Dance. In 2005 he was awarded an honorary Doctorate by Dominican University of California, and the following year was given the Green Honors Chair Professorship from Texas Christian University. Last spring, he received a second honorary Doctorate from his alma mater, CalArts (California Institute of the Arts) in Los Angeles. He was recently awarded the 2007 Community Leadership Award from the San Francisco Foundation.

LAVEEN NAIDU was born in Durban, South Africa, and began studying South Indian classical dance at the age of 10 and classical ballet at age 14. He entered the University of Cape Town Ballet School on a full scholarship in 1986 and graduated with a diploma in ballet pedagogy in 1988. As a student, Naidu was selected to represent the university at the first National Ballet Competition, where he advanced to the finalist round and received special mention from the judges. He was also invited to perform with the Natal Arts Performing Board in one of the lead roles in Frank Staff's "Lady and the Fool." As a volunteer, Naidu became the first dance teacher in a project that was started by David Poole, then artistic director of the Cape Performing Arts Board (CAPAB) Ballet, designed to introduce young people in the nearby "black townships" to ballet.

Immediately following his graduation, Naidu was accepted into the CAPAB Ballet Company and was featured in many soloist roles before receiving a scholarship from the Dance Theatre of Harlem School. In 1991, he joined the Dance Theatre of Harlem Company, where he performed in works by Arthur Mitchell, Billy Wilson, Michael Smuin, Geoffrey Holder, Garth Fagan and other well-known choreographers.

Five years later, Naidu assumed the responsibility of Dance Theatre of Harlem School Ensemble Coordinator, which involved coaching and preparing a core group of pre-professional dancers for a professional career. Answering the need for the growing demand of educational activities, Dance Theatre of Harlem (DTH) formalized its educational and community outreach activities under the banner of Dancing Through Barriers®. Naidu served as the Director of Dancing Through Barriers from 1997 to 2004, where he was responsible for overseeing all the artistic and administrative functions of the program.

In 1998, in collaboration with Arthur Mitchell, co-founder and artistic director of DTH, and Augustus van Heerdan, ballet master, Naidu choreographed his first ballet for the DTH Company. The ballet, named "South African Suite," was commissioned by The Kennedy Center and received very favorable reviews at its premier in Washington D.C. "South African Suite" has since been performed throughout the United States and in several foreign countries and remains a featured work in the DTH repertory.

In 2000, Naidu took on the additional responsibility as Director of the Dance Theatre of Harlem School, where he oversaw all activities of both the DTH School and Dancing Through Barriers.

Naidu choreographed "Viraa" for the DTH Company, which premiered in New York City in September 2001. He also served as a visiting lecturer and choreographer at Barnard College in 2004.

In December 2004, Naidu was appointed to his current position of executive director for Dance Theatre of Harlem. That same year Naidu became a member of the Arts Management / Capacity Building Program at The Kennedy Center under the leadership of Michael Kaiser. Additionally, he completed the Executive Leadership Program at Harvard Business School in June 2008.

DEANNA SEAY danced for twenty one years with the Miami City Ballet after graduating as a student of Melissa Hayden from the North Carolina School of the Arts in 1989. Featured extensively throughout the repertoire, she performed a broad spectrum of Balanchine ballets, with roles ranging from the second pas de trois in Agon, and the principal female role in Square Dance, to principal roles in Theme and Variations and Jewels. During her career, in addition to working closely with Edward Villella on many principal roles, she also worked with coaches such as Patricia Neary, Violette Verdy, Allegra Kent, Suzanne Farrell, Maria Calegari, Susan Pilarre, Susie Hendl and Bart Cook. Ms. Seay has also taught in the Miami City Ballet School during the summer and winter programs. She retired from the stage in 2010.

MARIANNA TCHERKASSY was brought up in Kensington, Maryland and is of Russian and Japanese decent. She began her training with her mother, Lillian Oka Tcherkassky and continued her studies at Mary Day's Academy of the Washington School of Ballet and on full scholarship at the School of American Ballet in New York. She joined American Ballet Theatre in 1970 and was elevated to principal dancer in 1976. She as been recognized as one of the world's leading ballerinas and was reviewed as "one of the greatest Giselles that American ballet produced" by Anna Kisselgoff of the New York Times. Since Miss Tcherkassky's retirement from the stage in 1996, she has taught extensively, and in 1997 she received a Golden ring award honoring artistic excellence from the Asian-American Arts foundation in San Francisco. On June 11, 1999, she received an Honorary Doctorate of Performing Arts from the University of Cincinnati. She is married to PBT Artistic Director Terrence S. Orr.