Staff--Alexandra Scool of Ballet, Chesterfield, Missouri

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	Alexandra Zaharias is the founder and director of the Alexandra School of Ballet and was the director of the Missouri Concert Ballet prior to founding the Alexandra Ballet Company in 1984. That year, Alexandra Ballet received the first Astral Foundation Choreographers Award from the National Association for Regional Ballet. In 1991, Alexandra received a Hellenic American Achievement Award for her work in the arts. “Ms. A” was honored in 1999 by the Arts & Education Council of Greater St. Louis as a recipient of one of their coveted Excellence in the Arts Awards, in recognition of 50 years of dedicated service to her students and her audiences. She has been the Artistic Director of full length productions of COPPELIA, LES SYLPHIDES, THE MIDSUMMER NIGHTS DREAM, SLEEPING BEAUTY, CINDERELLA, GISELLE, PAQUITA, THE NUTCRACKER, LA BAYADERE and SWAN LAKE ACT II. Alexandra is a member of the Advisory Board of the National Ballet Achievement Fund, Past President of the St. Louis Chapter of the National Society of Arts and Letters, has served as a dance panelist for the Missouri Arts Council and the Regional Arts Commission of St. Louis, is Past President of Regional Dance America/Mid-States and currently serves as Historian for its National Board.
	Norma Winslow Gabriel holds a BFA in Ballet from the University of Utah and a Master of Fine Arts in Dance Performance from Southern Methodist University. She has performed with Ballet West, the Dallas Ballet, Repertory Dance Company of the Southwest, Dancers Unlimited, Missouri Concert Ballet and Mid America Dance Company. Since 1984 she has taught at the Alexandra School of Ballet where her courses include ballet, modern dance, and character dance. As Ballet Mistress for the Alexandra Ballet Company since 1986 to the present, Ms Gabriel rehearses the Company in major productions as well as restaging works from repertoire and co-choreographing lecture-demonstrations. When Miss Alexandra reestablished a ballet program at the Center of Contemporary Arts in University City in 1989, Ms. Gabriel added classes at that location where she currently holds the position of Coordinator of Children’s Ballet.
	CiCi Houston, originally from Detroit, received her initial training from Theresa Lee Crawford, and continued her studies at the Central Pennsylvania Youth Ballet. At age 14, she left home to study on scholarship at the Virginia School of the Arts under the direction of Petrus Bosman and David Keener, and received further training at summer programs in Houston, Cleveland, and Italy. She has performed as a guest artist in Italy, New York, and Wisconsin, and has danced with Atrek, and with St. Louis Ballet. Ms. Houston's repertoire includes Dewdrop in The Nutcracker, and principal roles in Weber Piano Concerto, A Tribute to Astaire, Huapango, and George Balanchine's Valse Fantasie, among others. We are proud to have such a qualified addition to our faculty instructing classes in the Pre-Ballet through Intermediate levels.
	Octavio Nieto-Jacobo is from Guadalajara, Mexico. He has studied a variety of dance styles including Mexican folklore, Spanish/Flamenco, tap, jazz, ballroom, and modern. He trained at the Royal Academy of Dancing in London, as well as the American Ballet Center (Joffrey Ballet School), David Howard Studio, and the New York Conservatory of Dance. While at Mexico’s national dance company, C.N.D./Inba (under the supervision of Alicia Alonso), he was taught by teachers from France, Russia, England, the United States, and Argentina. Mr. Nieto-Jacobo has taught in a variety of cities throughout the U.S. and Mexico and has been an instructor in the Missouri Folk Arts Program. Mr. Nieto-Jacobo was also part of the jury in the Certamen Internacional Para Latinoamerica y El Caribe, an international dance competition. Mr. Nieto-Jacobo joined the faculty in 2010, teaching Men’s and Pas de Deux classes.
	Rebecca Malinski studied with Sandra Kunz, Alumna of Alexandra Ballet in Cape Girardeau, Missouri. Ms. Malinski performed as a soloist and toured nationally with her Company. Later she served as instructor teaching ballet, modern and jazz. She has attended master classes and workshops with Ballet Magnificat! and Sabrina Gidley, among others. Under the guidance of Alexandra Zaharias since 2006, she received extensive training in the school’s syllabus and teaches Pre-Ballet through Beginner II.
	Evelina Giannas holds a Master's Degree in piano and pedagogy from the Azerbaijan State Music College, located in Baku, former Soviet Union. She has extensive experience in teaching piano and accompanying for ballet, vocalists and various musical instruments, such as violin, cello and flute. In addition, through the course of her musical career, she has participated in a variety of concerts and television programs where she accompanied vocalists and performed classical piano music. Evelina has been working at Washington University Performing Arts Department as a pianist for classical ballet classes since 1996 and at Alexandra Ballet as company and school accompanist since 1999.