FACULTY                                                  

Guest Artist:  Sam Pergande
Samuel Pergande began his training at the Milwaukee Ballet School. He continued his training at distinguished schools such as San Francisco Ballet, Bolshoi in Vail, and the Bolshoi Academy in Moscow. In 1995, Mr. Pergande was accepted to the American Ballet Theater Studio Company and shortly acquired an apprentice contract with The American Ballet Theater. He toured extensively with the company nationally and internationally dancing in "Manon", "Don Quixote", "La Bayadere", and "Giselle". He later joined the Joffrey Ballet under the direction of Gerald Arpino. Mr. Pergande danced principal roles such as "Lucencio" in John Kranko's "Taming of the Schrew", "Romeo" in Kranko's "Romeo and Juliet", "Cavalier" in Robert Joffrey's "Nutcracker", "Faun" in Nikiski's "Afternoon of a Faun", Aston's "Monotones II" and "Blue Pas" in Jiri Kalian's "Return to a Strange Land". His repertoire also includes leading pas de deux's from Gerald Arpino's "Light Rain", "Suite Saint Saens", "Italian Suite", "Reflections" and "Round of Angels". Mr. Pergande also danced in international festivals in the Netherlands, United Kingdom, and New York. He was a cast member in the movie "The Company" directed by the late Robert Altman.

Guest Artist:  Mireille  Favarel, Associate Director MBII
Mireille Favarel was born in Toulon, France. After studying at the Centre de Danse International in Cannes, France, Ms. Favarel began her professional career at the age of 17 with the Ballet du Rhin in Strasbourg, France and subsequently joined the Royal Ballet of Flanders in Belgium as a soloist. She later joined the Ballet der Deutsch oper anm Rhein in Düsseldorf, Germany as a soloist and the Ballet du Nord in France as a principal dancer.
Besides appearing with the Ballet du Nord during many of its international tours, Ms. Favarel represented France in the first New York International Ballet Competition and was invited back to teach and perform in the competition’s gala performance for two years after that.
Ms. Favarel joined the Milwaukee Ballet in 1989 as a principal dancer where she performed all the major roles in the company repertoire. The most famous are her interpretation of Swan Lake, Romeo and Juliet, Coppelia, and Giselle. In 1990 Tom Strini from the Milwaukee Journal named her “Dancer of the Year” for her interpretation of Swan Lake, Serenade, and Coppelia. In May 2000, Ms. Favarel gave her farewell performance performing Jean Paul Comelin’s Mozart’s Requiem and the Dying Swan for the first time. She became Ballet Mistress for the Company in August that same year.
Ms. Favarel is currently Assistant Director of MBII and the principal teacher of the highest level of the Milwaukee Ballet School, Academy II.

Guest Artist:  Rolando Yanes received training at the Professional School of the Arts and the Vocational School of Ballet in Santa Clara, Cuba. While in Cuba, Mr. Yanes was a principal dancer with Joven GuardiaÕs ÒCentro ProDanzaÓ under the direction of Lauren Alonso and Ballet de Camaguey. He was awarded the Silver Medal at the prestigious International Ballet Competition in Brasilia, Brazil. He came to the United States as a principal dancer with the Milwaukee Ballet Company. He has also performed with the Rockford Ballet, Pamiro Opera (Green Bay), the Florentine Opera, and on international tours to Brazil, Venezuela, Mexico, Martinique, Guadeloupe and Jamaica. 2003 marks his second year as Director of Milwaukee Ballet II, the official pre-professional program of the Milwaukee Ballet.

Guest Artist:  Jean Paul Comelin was educated in Paris and began his professional training with the Paris National Conservatory of Music.  He has long been associated with the world's most prominent ballet companies, and some of the greatest names in the dance world of the twentieth century.  He has worked as a Performer, Artistic Director, Producer, Choreographer and Instructor.  He has contributed to the following companies:  Paris Opera Ballet, Australian Ballet, English Royal Ballet, Hamburg Ballet, Stuttgart Ballet, London Festival Ballet, Royal New Zealand Ballet, Opera de Liege, National Ballet of Washington D.C., Miami Ballet, Hong Kong Ballet, Pacific Northwest Ballet, Osaka Ballet, and many more.  Click here for a more complete biography.

Guest Artist:  Lee-Wei Chao A native of Taipei, Taiwan, Lee-Wei Chao joined the Milwaukee Ballet Co. in 1998.

Mr. Chao began his dance training as a teenager with the High School for the Performing Arts in Taipei. He completed his education at the National Institute for the Arts in Taipei, which hosts guest teachers from all over the world. He was hired by Singapore Dance Theatre, then in 1996 came to New York City where he was invited to join the Joffrey Ballet Concert Dancers.

He has danced with Joffrey Ballet of Chicago, Festival Ballet of Rhode Island, Singapore Dance Theatre,Taipei City Ballet, and Henry Yu Dance Company. He was awarded the Outstanding Dancer Award by the Taiwanese Department of the Arts, and was also voted Best Male Dancer in Taiwan by Taiwan Dance Magazine.

Guest Artist: Victoria Vargas was born and raised in Venezuela and is formerly of Luna Negra Dance Theatre and National Ballet de Venezuela, among others. Ms. Vargas has toured Nationally and Internationally in Central and South America and Europe performing in ballets such as Sleeping Beauty, Carmen, Swan Lake, Giselle, Paquita, and Firebird. Additionally, she has choreographed “The Dreams of the Reason based on Francisco de Goya” and “Cantos de Sabana based in Simon Diaz” .

Instructor:  Noah Riemer, Tap fell in love with the art of tap dancing six years ago and has not stopped hoofing since. Having studied at Danceworks in Milwaukee and Sage Street Dance Co., he has developed an original musical concert that highlights his tap dancing and choreography. A professional musician for over eight years, Noah has toured the country extensively with his voice and guitar, releasing four full-length albums, three with his former band Ticklepenny Corner. He also finds a good deal of work as a drummer, the skills of which have helped immensely in adding the tap dance to his repertoire. Noah has taught tap privately as well as to orphaned children in Namibia, Africa.

Instructor:  Lyndsey Rhoads, Hip Hop, Jazz, Lyrical is one of Chicago's most captivating contemporary dancers. Chicago Tribune describes Ms. Rhoads as "viciously compelling." She is one of Chicago Dance Crash's prominent cast members. Originally from Oklahoma, she trained at Central Oklahoma Dance Center, East Central University and Gus Giordano, Chicago. She shared her passion for contemporary dance throughout the Chicagoland area, teaching at Dance West Ballet, Dance Center Worth, and PASG.

Instructor:  Pamela Platts, Ballet has trained with Beatrice Collenette and Eva Lorraine. She appeared with the New York City Ballet in Ballanchine's production of "The Nutcracker" at the Greek Theatre in Los Angeles at the age of ten. At age 14 she became the youngest member of the Los Angeles Festival Ballet Company, and within a year became a soloist, performing in many variations, including Swan Lake and Sleeping Beauty. She enjoys teaching variations from the great classical ballets, including choreography of Petipa, Fokine and Ivanov.

Instructor: Christine Garrett, Ballet is a PASG alumnus, having studied with us from our start in 1999. She has also attended Milwaukee Ballet School and Central Pennsylvania Youth Ballet. Christine has been featured in IYDT's productions in the principle roles of Sugar Plum Fairy in "The Nutcracker", The Sorceress in "The Little Mermaid", and Stepsister in "Cinderella", as well as performing in IYDT's productions of "Swan Lake" and "Joan of Arc". She danced professionally with Chicago Ballet and is currently a member of Chicago Civic Ballet and studies with Ruth Page Center for the Arts.

Instructor: Stephanie Hadad, Hip Hop is a PASG alumnus. She studied with PASG for 8 years and performed with Illinois Youth Dance Theatre for 5 years in the productions of "The Nutcracker", "The Little Mermaid", "Swan Lake" and "Cinderella". She is currently a student at Northern Illinois University minoring in Dance.

Instructor:  Sara Swenson, Irish Step, Rising Stars Ballet currently trains with Alyce Brinkmann and is preparing to graduate from PASG's Pre-Professional Program. Always striving to enhance her dance education, she has attended the Summer Intensive Programs of Moscow Ballet (DeKalb, Il.), Orlando Ballet (Orlando, Fl.), Joffrey Ballet (New York), and most recently BalletMet (Columbus, Oh.) Sara's performance credits range from being a member of the Joffrey Ballet children's cast to performing the lead roles of the Fairy Godmother and the Sugar Plum Fairy in PASG's productions of Cinderella and the Nutcracker.

Instructor:  Seneca Brian, Rising Stars Ballet & Tap trained with Judith Svalander School of Ballet for 14 years, and performed shows including The Nutcracker, Sleeping Beauty, Swan Lake, and Annie. She then pursued ballet, modern, hip hop, tap and jazz in Los Angeles. She has been instructing children for 10 years in dance, drama, and comedy, and performing is her passion!

Instructor:  Caitlin Sullivan, Pilates-based Core & Stretch has been training with Alyce Brinkmann since 2004. She attended summer programs with Dmitri Roudenov in 2006 and San Francisco Ballet in 2007. She has performed in Illinois Youth Dance Theatre's "The Nutcracker" as Snow Queen and in the title role of "Cinderella". She also trains at the Ruth Page Dance Center in Chicago.