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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. |
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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 Childrens Ballet. |
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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. |
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Mark
Sonnenberg , has performed professionally across the United
States, as well as internationally. He has danced with many notable
ballet companies, including Milwaukee Ballet while under the artistic
direction of Ted Kivett, Minnesota Dance Theatre under Loyce Holton,
and Dayton Ballet under the direction of Stuart Sebastion. His ballet
experience includes pas de deux in the classical repertoire as well
as original works. Mark recently performed as a soloist with a Russian
folk company under artistic director Vladimer Raisentzov, and was
a featured adagio act with his Russian partner, Zhenia Orazova. In
addition to his performance career, Mark has coached professional
pas de deux couples for over twenty years, and taught men's class
and pas de deux classes to young dancers. |
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Rebecca
Malinski studied with Sandra Kunz, alumna of Alexandra
Ballet, in Cape Girardeu, Missouri. Ms. Malinski performed as
a soloist and toured nationally with the Company. Later she served
as instructor taeching ballet, modern, and jazz. She has atteneded
master classes and woekshops wirh Ballet Magnificat! and
Sabrina Gidley, among others. Under the guidance of Alexandra Zaharias,
she received extensive training in the school's syllabus for Creative
Dance and Pre-Ballet. Joining the faculty in 2006, Ms. Malinski currently
serves as an instructor. |
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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. |
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