Philip Beamish – Beamish BodyMind Balancing and Classical Ballet Technique – Personal Coach to Allesandra Ferri & Evelyn Hart

Philip Beamish was a former soloist with Atterballeto, Italy’s foremost ballet company. He has danced all over Europe with many major ballet companies, and toured extensively internationally with La Scala Opera House.

For the last 13 years of her career, until her retirement in 2007,  Philip was Alessandra Ferri’s personal trainer and coach. He travelled with her all over the world, working constantly with her and all her partners in class and rehearsals for all her major roles.

Other major stars who have solicited Beamish’s training include Evelyn Hart, Maximilian Guerra, Tamara Rojo, Manuel José Carreño, Robert Tewsley, Roberto Bolle, and as of late, new Russian rising star in Berlin, Polina Semionova. His protégés have won medals at the major competitions: Varna, Helsinki, Jackson, and Lausanne.

Among the companies with which Beamish has been associated are: La Scala Ballet, English National Ballet, Netherlands Dance Theatre, Ballet de Nancy, Finnish National Ballet, The Royal Winnipeg Ballet, The National Ballet of Canada and Companía Nacional de Mexico.

The Beamish Bodymind Balancing® technique was created to train all levels of dancers. It is the product of many years of investigation into the relation between the mind, the body, and energy flow. The end result is that dancers are able to align the body and focus the mind to obtain maximum results while eliminating unnecessary tensions.

The exercises Philip had developed enable dancers to reshape their bodies, calm and focus their minds, with spectacular results on and off stage. The technique is a tool to maintain a healthy, youthful body, a focused mind, a balanced emotional state, and avoid chronic injuries. It also promotes self-esteem, and prolongs the ability not only to dance longer, but to live a richer and more satisfying life.

Stephanie Saland – Ballet, Pointe, Variations

Stephanie Saland was born in Brooklyn, New York and entered The School of American Ballet at age 15. Three years later she was invited by George Balanchine to join the New York City Ballet in time to participate in the historic Stravinsky Festival in 1972. She sustained a 21-year career with the company, dancing a major portion of the Balanchine repertoire as well as principle roles in the works of Jerome Robbins.

Stephanie has appeared on television in the PBS program “Choreography by Balanchine” (part of the Dance in America series), followed by “Apollo” with Baryshnikov and ABT, as well as a telecast of Peter Martin’s colaboration with “Ray Charles in Concert with the New York City Ballet”. Her last televised performance was in the “Vienna Waltzes” section of the “Balanchine Celebration” on PBS in 1993. Stephanie’s frequent association with Jerome Robbins led to a showcase of her work in “Fancy Free” and “Antique Epigraphs” in another “Live From Lincoln Center” production.

As a guest performer, Ms. Saland danced with Rudolph Nureyev at the Gershwin Theater in New York and performed “Giselle” with Alexander Gudonov in Miami. At Playwright’s Horizons in New York she taught movement for student actors. In addition she co-taught and helped develop a body-awareness class for actors with theater teacher Caymichael Patten, before moving to Seattle in the fall of 1993.

Since finishing her performing career, Stephanie moved on to teaching ballet for varying levels of students and professionals. The programs and companies she has taught for include The New York State Program in Saratoga, The Kansas City Ballet, The San Diego Ballet and Ballet Argentino in Buenos Aires (the company of Julio Bocca). She also guest teaches at “STEPS” in New York City and for the American Academy of Ballet, and the Princeton Dance Theater … the School of American Ballet Theater’s Susan Jaffe. In Denmark, Stephanie has taught numerous times for the Bartholin International Summer Program and at Dansens Hus. In the fall of 1999 Ms. Saland guest taught for her former company, The New York City Ballet. In 2003 she had the pleasure to teach at Alonzo King’s San Francisco Dance Center. Stephanie taught for three weeks in Madrid for La Compania Nacional de Danza of Nacho Duato and for two other Conservatories and traveled to various schools in Mexico to offer classes. She has joined a wonderful roster of teachers each summer for the American Academy of Ballet, run by Mignon Furman.

In 1998 Ms. Saland initiated a movement class for opera singers for the season of the “Young Artists” program at the Seattle Opera. She also taught for the Pacific Northwest School, in the open program and variations classes in the upper levels. Peter Boal, in his new role as director at PNB has brought Stephanie in to coach dancers for some of the repertoire. Currently Ms. Saland offers ongoing ballet classes at “Velocity” on Capitol Hill in Seattle, as well as continuing to teach for Spectrum Dance Theater.

For the past few years she has taken part teaching for the Dutch Dance Festival in Sittard, in the south of Holland. Since 1997 Ms. Saland has maintained an ongoing connection between Seattle and Los Angeles teaching for the “City of Angels Ballet”, an academy located in L.A. targeting an immigrant community in one of the most densely populated areas of the city. In the fall of 2007 Stephanie taught Master Classes at the Marlborough School for Girls in Los Angeles, and for an intensive in Long Beach, CA.

Ms. Saland has also been active as a judge and teacher with the Youth America Grand Prix and as a presenter for two International Dance Medicine Conferences.

Recently, she was interviewed for an upcoming documentary for Dance in America on the life of Jerome Robbins and was on a panel in San Francisco for “Words on Dance” along with Edward Villella, Helgi Tomassen, and Robert LaFosee. A new affiliation began in November of 2007, when Ms. Saland began giving company class and assisting in rehearsals in Vancouver with Ballet BC.

Stephanie’s classes are a distillation of a long performing career and the integration of information derived from having worked one-on-one with Balanchine, Robbins, and her collegues. Some of her strongest influences were from teachers such as Stanley Williams, Maggie Black and Tina Bernal. She was equally inspired and informed through other non-ballet sources: White Cloud Yoga (Gyrotonics), Pilates, Zeena Romett floor barre and years of a variety of modalities including cranial-sacral, physical therapy, network chiropractic, soma and Aston Patterning. www.salandance.highpowersites.com

Elena Malashevskya – Ballet, Pointe, Variations, Character

Elena Malashevskya, a native of St. Petersburg Russia, obtained her training at the prestigious St. Petersburg Academy of Dance (ie. the Vaganova Academy). After graduation, she began her performing career with the State Academic Opera and Ballet Theatre in Kharkiv, Ukraine. Only one year later, Elena returned to her native city and was promoted to the rank of soloist with Oleg Ignatiev’s Authorial Theatre. Her performing career continued in the St. Petersburg State Academic Theatre “Choreographic Miniatures” and then with Valentina Ganibalova’s Enterprise Theatre where she became a first soloist. It was with this company that Elena feels she truly learned the level of artistry that Russia is so known for. After six years as a soloist, often performing leading roles, Elena moved to her current company the St. Petersburg State Theatre of Classical Ballet.

Her repertoire includes Swan Lake, Giselle, The Nutcracker, La Bayadere, Chopiniana, La Sylphide, Sheherazade, The Firebird, The Master and Margarita (as Margarita), Strauss’ Farewell (as Sweetheart), Bolero, and the miniature ballets “Lotus” and “Blind Woman”.

In 2004 Elena began teaching ballet. She worked with the Hanjou State Theatre and Ballet School in China during 2005, coaching the professionals and training the students for their yearly exams in classical dance. For the past five years Elena has been the lead teacher for the St. Petersburg based studio Art Center “Dance”.

Elena’s classes are pure Vaganova method but with a special emphasis on correct placement. As she is still performing, she is able to demonstrate her combination’s full-out allowing students to better see exactly what she is asking of them.

Dean Speer – Ballet, Graham, Choreography, Author of “On Technique”

With more than three decades of experience teaching and training dancers, Dean Speer brings in-depth knowledge to each of his classes. A ballet major and graduate of Cornish College of the Arts in Seattle from which he holds a B.F.A. degree, Mr. Speer pursued training in Cannes, Paris, New York, Chicago, Philadelphia, Los Angeles, Salt Lake City, and Canada, among others, in addition to studying in the Seattle area.

Mr. Speer, while still a student, had been a demonstrator for Intermediate and Advanced classes at the Martha Graham School for Contemporary Dance in New York, and performed professionally with two modern dance companies, including one repertory company whose works ranged from “classic” modern dance work as old as 1950 to the new and experimental, plus one company which performed only the works of its artistic director. Roles include ‘The Revivalist’ in “Appalachian Spring” to principal and solo work and an original cast member in many pieces. Mr. Speer taught Graham Technique for many years until “retiring” and is very happy to be back giving Graham Technique classes.”

He is the Founding Director of the Chehalis Ballet Center (doing business as Southwest Washington Dance Center) – and former Artistic Director of Chattanooga Ballet (Tennessee). He has been a guest master teacher throughout the Northwest including Dance Masters of America and in British Columbia.

Mr. Speer has taught all levels of graded children’s ballet studies; Company Class; Creative Dance; Modern Dance Technique (Graham-based); Pointe; Variations; Character; and Fundamentals of Partnering. He has worked extensively with both children and adults and has created and written his own graded syllabus of classical ballet study and teaching guide, Notebook II Dance Teachers. Mr. Speer coordinated nine highly-regarded annual regional workshops for dance teachers. Mr. Speer was a pre-registered teacher with the Royal Academy of Dancing in London, England, qualifying him to teach the Pre-Primary through Grade VII Children’s Syllabus.

Students of his have studied with or are currently at Pacific Northwest Ballet, San Francisco Ballet, Royal Winnipeg Ballet, University of Utah, the Harid Conservatory, Walnut Hill, and Dance Lab (Walla Walla, Washington).

As a choreographer his work has been filmed for national television, and he has created many ballets for the concert stage using a diverse selection of composers as well as for the opera – plus dances for students, many recital programs, and lecture/demonstrations.

He performed with Repertory Dancers Northwest, American Theatrical Motion Art Dance Company, Bellevue Civic Ballet (a Regional Dance America company), and the Seattle Ballet Ensemble of which he was a founding member, plus numerous guest appearances.

He has served as an adjudicator for several arts and scholarship programs and contests and as a consultant for several organizations and has been on the board of directors of many dance-related organizations. He was appointed by the Governor to the State of Washington Combined Fund Drive Steering Committee, is a past president of the Cornish College of the Arts Alumni Association Board of Directors, and was the Chair of the University of Washington Combined Fund Drive for two years. In 2008, he was honored with a Lifetime Achievement Award for Teaching and Choreography by the Mrs. America Pageant (Washington).

Nandi Seboulisa – Hip Hop

Nandi was born in Waterloo, Iowa where she won the Miss Drill Team of Iowa competition at age 16. She began her professional dance career with the Dallas Cowboy Cheerleaders. Later she toured California teaching dance workshops in Oakland, Santa Cruz, Humbolt and many other cities.
Nandi has held regular classes with the YMCA and 24-hour fitness in Washington, California and Iowa.
She is the Founder of Hotep Dance company which was based at UC Santa Cruz and has been teaching dance for 22 years.  Nandi truly enjoys teaching and getting her students to feel good about themselves through dance.

Jehrin Alexandria – Director, Ballet, Self Care

Jehrin is a director/teacher/performer. She grew up in Detroit and danced  with the Severo Ballet Company as well as was a featured dancer with JL Hudson’s of Detroit.  After moving to New York City she studied under Maggie Black, Marjorie Mussman, John Prinz, Larry Rhodes, Flemming Halby, David Howard, Ferdinand Nault, Finis Jhung, Robert Denvers, Ernie Pagnamo, Christina Bernal, Patricia Wilde, Helen Douglas, partnering class with Ivan Nagy, jazz with Frank Hatchet and many others.

She has performed as soloist and principal with Annabella Gonzalez Dance Theater, Off Broadway’s Buffo, Syzgy, The Brattleboro School of Dance, Yashindah and Ballet Northwest.

Jehrin also trained and worked in Pilates(c) under Carola Trier, Fran Lehan and the Anderson-Kasacove Studio, . She trained intensively in Gyrotonics(c) at the White Cloud Studio in Seattle, with founder Julio Horvath and Magali Messac.

Jehrin is trained and certified in Sports Injury and Massage from The Muscular Therapy Institute in Cambridge, MA under the direction of Ben Benjamin. She owned and operated her own sports massage clinic for over 10 years, and ran the clinic at Stratton Mountain, VT.

In addition to teaching ballet for the past 28 years and performing, Jehrin has directed and performed in her own African drum and dance troupe,  worked with the Thurston County and Pierce County areas school systems,  helping to bring dance to all communities.

Jehrin trained with Developmental Movement Therapist Bette Lamont and has taught classes with her at the college level.  She also studied with Anne Green Gilbert of the Creative Dance Center in Seattle. expanding her age range of movement classes from babies to adults.

As a director and administrator Jehrin has directed 17 Annual Summer Dance Camps in Olympia and brought in professional dancers and teachers from all over the world. A big part of her program always offers scholarships to underprivileged students.  She also offers workshops throughout the country with guest teachers.

She has been teaching ballet for the last 16 years at the Evergreen State College, as well as Dance Central in Olympia, WA, Studio One in Lacey, WA, workshops throughout the country and private lessons in studio and on line.
Her mission as she sees it it to help facilitate students and teachers to have access to techniques that help maintain a healthy body and attitude in the field of dance.

*Guest instructors subject to change.