Mrs. Era Jouravlev studied at the famed Perm State Choreography Academy in Russia under directorship of such notable mentors as L. Sakharova and L. Ulanova. While dancing as a Principal with the Perm State Opera and Ballet Theatre, she toured internationally with the Stars of the Kirov and Bolshoi Ballet: L. Semeniaka, A. Fadeechev, O. Chenchikova, L. Kunakova, M. Daukaev. She has toured with American Ballet Theatre Principal Nina Ananiashvili in Japan and South Korea. Also she has toured with Bolshoi Theatre Principals E. Maksimova and V.Vasiliev in Tokyo and with N. Pavlova and V. Gordeev in Moscow. During a summer tour in China, she danced with the “Stars of American Ballet”.

In 1995 Mrs. Jouravlev joined the New Jersey Ballet as a Principal Dancer, where she performed the works of George Balanchine, Agnes de Mille, Paul Taylor, Antony Tudor, Johan Renvall, Margo Sappington, Robert Weise, and Robert North, among others.

Mrs. Jouravlev has performed many Principal roles in both classical and contemporary repertoires and was given the unique opportunity to learn the classical pas de deux “Papillon” directly from International Kirov Star Irina Kolpakova and worked with American Legend Mr. Edward Villella on George Balanchine’s famous “Tchaikovsky Pas de Deux”.

Mrs. Jouravlev taught for the New Jersey Ballet for fourteen years, and started teaching at the Joffrey Ballet School in 1997. She worked as the Head of Classical Ballet Studies at JBS under the direction of Mr. Robert Ray for many years, assisting him in implementing a codified ballet technique syllabus for the entire Ballet Trainee Program. With an incredible career, over thirty years of teaching experience, and a fierce passion for shaping dancers into artists, Era Jouravlev is delighted to share her expertise as the Ballet Trainee Program Director.

Angelica Stiskin is internationally recognized for her versatility as a choreographer, director, performer, and dance educator. She proudly earned her BFA in Dance at Marymount Manhattan College under the direction of Katie Langan, performing works by Robert Battle, Shen Wei and Lar Lubovitch to name a few. Angelica is honored to have assisted the Emmy Award winning Mia Michaels across the U.S.A. and Canada. She has performed with Justin Bieber and The Disney Channel’s Shake It Up girls for the nationally televised Disney’s Christmas Day Parade. Angelica began assisting professional teachers and choreographers at the age of 14, performing as a guest artist in ASH Contemporary Dance Company per request of choreographer Billy Larson, and American Dance Artists, Adrienne Canterna’s former company, with performance artists such as Rasta Thomas and Travis Wall. Other privileges include working for Benoit-Swan Pouffer (Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet Gala), Marlena Wolfe (Peridance Contemporary Dance Company/Rehearsal Director), Tyler Gilstrap (Ballroom Marfa/UnFair Art Exhibition/TunaNut Productions), Eisenhower Dance Ensemble (Rite of Spring/Detroit Opera House). Angelica directed and choreographed a piece for NY Fashion Week in collaboration with Louis Vuitton and Parsons School of Design. She travels with VIP Dance as a National Director, and also positioned as Brand Design Director/Choreographer for luxury comforts brand, Move Society. Miss Stiskin is part of the adjunct faculty at Marymount Manhattan College and has been recently promoted to Artistic Director of the Jazz and Contemporary Program of the Joffrey Ballet School in New York City after being one of the first faculty members of the program almost 10 years ago. Angelica is honored to take on this new role in guiding the future generations of dance while continuing to design high-level concepts for fashion, editorial, and entertainment.

Ceyhun Ozsoy was born in Turkey.  He began his ballet education at the Ankara Government Conservatory where he studied with Molly Lake, Travis Kemp, Angela Bayley and Beatrice Appliard Fenmen.  After nine years of study, he graduated with an excellent degree in 1968.  In the summer of 1972 he earned his bachelor’s degree from the conservatory.  He danced with the Turkish National Ballet Company in Ankara for 18 years as a soloist and as principal dancer.  He also acted as ballet master for the company in the later years.  Ceyhun also danced with Bayarische Staatsoper Company in Munich, West Germany.  During his career, he performed major roles in many of the classics such as Swan Lake, The Nutcracker, Sleeping Beauty, Giselle, La Fille Mar Gardee, Romeo and Juliet, Paquita, Don Quixote and Coppelia, to name a few.  He has worked with great masters of the ballet world, including Dame Ninette de Valois, Anton Dolin, John Gilpin, Alfred Rodrigues, John Neumeier, Sandor Toth, Irina Hudova, Nina Tcholova, Sulamith Messerer, Nicolai Haritnov, Aleksander ProkovskyVladimir Tsoukanov, and many more.  He served as ballet master for Delta Festival Ballet in New Orleans for eight years. In 1990 Ceyhun moved to Dallas and founded Ozsoy School of Ballet.  Currently, in addition to being director of his school, he is a part-time faculty member at Booker T. Washington High School for the Performing Arts in Dallas, Joffrey Ballet School’s eight week summer program, and he is a guest master teacher for The Compañia Nacional de Danza in Mexico City.

Also directing: Complexions Contemporary Ballet, as well as instructing in the Joffrey Experience, and NYC Ballet Intensive.

Hailed by the New York Times as “one of the great modern dancers of his time”, Desmond Richardson is a multi talent artist who has mastered a wide range of dance forms including classical, modern, and contemporary. Richardson’s immense talent was first recognized as a student at New York High School for the Performing Arts during which time he received a merit scholarship from the Alvin Ailey American Dance Center (1983-1986) and the International Academie des Tanz in Koln, Germany (1984-1985). He is also a recipient of a Presidential Scholar Award for the Arts (1986).

In 1987, Richardson joined the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater where he was a principal dancer for seven years. After leaving the Ailey Company, he traveled to Germany where he performed with Ballet Frankfurt. Richardson has performed as a guest artist with several world-renowned companies including the Swedish Opera Ballet, the Washington Ballet, Teatro at La Scala, and the San Francisco Ballet.

In 1997, he joined the American Ballet Theater where he performed the lead role in the company’s world premiere of Othello. Following his performance, the New York Times described him as “one of the most majestic dancers ever to tread the MET Stage.”

In 1998, Richardson joined the premiere cast of the Broadway Musical Fosse for which he received a 1999 Tony Award Nomination. He has also appeared on Broadway in the musical, the Look of Love and the critically acclaimed Movin’ Out. He had a principal role in Debbie Allen’s theatrical presentation, Soul Possessed, which premiered at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in 1999.

Richardson has worked in television, film, and video in the United States and abroad. These experiences have allowed him to perform with musical artists such as Michael Jackson, Prince, Aretha Franklin, and Madonna. He is featured in Patrick Swayze and Lisa Niemi’s film, One Last Dance and the Oscar winning Chicago. He made his singing debut in Charles Randolph Wright’s 2005 film, Preaching to the Choir and performed the lead role of Beowulf in Julie Taymor’s Grendel at the LA Opera as well as in Taymor’s film, Across the Universe. He recently performed as a guest artist on So You Think You Can Dance in Australia and the United States.

Desmond Richardson is the Artistic Director and co-founder of the extraordinary Complexions Contemporary Ballet Company.

Catherine Livengood Lewellen has been teaching and coaching classical and contemporary ballet for the past 20 years in pre-professional training programs, homeschool training academies, competitive teams and coaching students and small groups towards YAGP and other ballet competitions. As a young dancer, she attended The Harid Conservatory in Florida on full scholarship in their year round program, as well as Booker T Washington High School, where she was in the repertory company and became a YoungArts scholarship recipient. During the summers she trained as a scholarship student at several prestigious schools including American Ballet Theatre, The School of American Ballet, Boston Ballet, Joffrey Ballet, Pennsylvania Ballet, Pacific Northwest Ballet, LINES Contemporary Ballet, and Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre where she joined the company as a trainee in 1997 after graduating two years early at age 16. While there Catherine met Dwight Rhoden and Desmond Richardson who invited her to work with Complexions Contemporary Ballet. She also had the pleasure of working with Alonzo King during this time and performing his work. She attended The Juilliard School in 2000 and continued working with Complexions while in NYC. Catherine graduated summa cum laude from The University of Texas at Dallas with a double major in Psychology and Early Childhood Development and holds a Masters Degree in Counseling from Southern Methodist University, where she specialized in working with children and adolescents.

In 2013, Catherine was awarded Outstanding Choreographer at Youth America Grand Prix where her classical and contemporary ensembles took first and second place and were invited to the New York City Finals along with some of her other soloists and duos. She has choreographed ensembles that have been performed at Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre’s pre-professional summer program, The Meyerson with Turtle Creek Chorale, Juilliard’s Choreography Composition program, Regional Dance America Emerging Choreographers Showcase, and choreographed and restaged several ballets including La Bayadere, Swan Lake, Coppelia and most recently staged an excerpt of Mercy on Complexions Contemporary Ballet Summer Intensive students. She has been a master teacher or on faculty at several prominent local schools including Dallas Ballet Center, Prodigy Dance Centre, Dance Industry, and is currently on faculty at Complexions Contemporary Ballet (Dallas Summer Intensive) and The Dallas Conservatory. Catherine has also coached soloists to the YAGP finals in NYC and the Elite Dance Tournament Finals in LA where she coached the winning soloist who was awarded an apprenticeship with Complexions Contemporary Ballet. She has trained, mentored, and coached students that have become Presidential Scholars of the Arts and others who are now in prominent schools and companies all over the world, including The Juilliard School, Los Angeles Ballet, Semperoper Dresden Ballet, School of American Ballet, Pacific Northwest Ballet School, Complexions Contemporary Ballet, USC, SYTYCD, Oklahoma City Ballet, Ballet Austin and Miami City Ballet. Catherine and her husband reside in Frisco, TX with their three children.

Brian Stevens grew up in the Dallas Fort Worth area where he received his training from top instructors including Gayle Corkery, Justin Giles and Dana Bailey. He furthered his education on scholarship at the Broadway Dance Center in NYC and The Edge Performing Arts Center in LA. Throughout his training Brian assisted for Tremaine and Dupree Dance Conventions across the country. Assisting faculty members of these nationally recognized dance conventions allowed Brian to have a hands on experience in teaching other dancers movement and technique. The assistant opportunity also helped him to further create his unique choreography style in contemporary and jazz.

Brian is currently the Artistic Director of Wanderlust Dance Project, named as one of “Theater Jones Top Ten Dance Performances of 2016”. Wanderlust Dance Project is “the first and only Non-Profit 501(c)(3) of it’s kind, where pre-professionals learn and rehearse from some of the dance industry’s top choreographers, while dancing alongside working professional dancers”. Brian is also the Artistic Director of KJ Dance’s pre-professional dance company, Pulse. Under his direction the company has been nationally recognized as New York City Dance Alliance’s Outstanding Studio. His choreography for large and small groups, solos, duets, and trios have won multiple high scores in the country. Under his mentorship Brian has had individual nationally recognized dancers as well. Brian tours the country with the Dupree Dance Convention faculty as a choreographer and instructor. He is the founder and designer of the internationally recognized costume company, Artistic Dance Designs, which launched in 2013. Brian teaches at a number of dance intensives and workshops including the North Texas Summer Dance Intensive, Dallas Repertoire Ballet Intensive, Dancers Give Back Dallas and Dallas DanceFest. He travels teaching Master classes and setting choreography at studios, schools and professional companies across the country.

Taylor Greer is from Garland, Texas. She graduated from South Garland High School where she was a 3 year member of the Southern Belles drill team and was Captain of the group in her senior year.  During high school, Taylor had the opportunity to continue her dance training under Kim McSwain at the Centre for Dance and at Dallas Powerhouse of Dance. She received numerous awards as a soloist including being named a Jump Convention finalist and a Stage One Production National Champion.  After graduating from high school, Taylor attended Kilgore College where she was a member of the Kilgore Rangerettes.  During her time as a Rangerette, Taylor was a member of the Rangerette Swingsters and was a dance soloist at the annual spring show, Revels.  Taylor has also served as a choreographer for Revels. In 2010, Taylor was selected to dance on stage during the Super Bowl halftime show featuring the Black Eye Peas.  Upon completing her Associate of Arts degree at Kilgore, Taylor attended Chapman University in Orange, California where she auditioned and was accepted into the prestigious dance program. While at Chapman, Taylor was selected in both 2012 and 2013 as one of a few dancer to represent Chapman University in their Dance Tour performing throughout the state of California. After graduating from Chapman with a Bachelor of Arts in Dance Performance, Taylor moved to West Hollywood in Los Angeles and continued her training as a dancer where she has worked with and appeared in videos for talented choreographers for two years. In 2016, Taylor moved back to Dallas, TX to pursue her career as a dance instructor and choreographer. She is currently a Dallas Cowboy Rhythm & Blue Dancer (a high-energy co-ed hip-hop dance team).

Eldar Valiev graduated from the famous Vaganova Ballet Academy in St. Petersburg, Russia, and received additional training at the Kirov Ballet Company. He has more than twenty years of experience as a professional ballet dancer and fifteen years of experience as a ballet master. Eldar has appeared as a principal dancer in numerous ballet companies, including The State Theater of Opera and Ballet of Bashkortostan in Ufa, Eifman Ballet Theater in St. Petersburg, and the Icelandic National Ballet.  He has performed leading parts in the ballets Sleeping Beauty, Swan Lake, Giselle, Don Quixote, Coppelia, Les Silphides, The Nutcracker, and many others. Eldar had the privilege to work with famous American choreographers such as Robert La Fosse, William Soleau and Lambros Lambrow. He danced in Iceland, as Frans in Coppelia, in which he partnered with world-renowned Prima Ballerina Assoluta, Eva Evdokimova.  He has performed with the stars of Bolshoi and Kirov Ballets in England, Germany, France, Holland, Switzerland, and Iceland and shared the stage with Alexander Bogatyrev, Nadezhda Pavlova and Lyubov Kunakova. Eldar spent thirteen years at the Cumberland County Playhouse in Tennessee. He rehearsed for five years as the ballet master, and for eight years he performed the duties as Director of Dance Program. Eldar moved to Denton, Texas in August 2011 to assume the position of Artistic Director of Festival Ballet of North Central Texas, and Director of Denton Ballet Academy. He is very grateful and honored for the opportunity to being a part of the faculty at the Joffrey Ballet School in Frisco, TX.