Our Faculty led by resident Artistic Director, Christopher Mohnani, with the assistance of internationally /nationally recognized teachers and guest master teachers offer superior training with relentless attention to detail. Emphasis is placed on offering both positive encouragement and real world experience.

Elaine Thomas | Ballet / Pointe / Variations

A graduate of the Royal Academy of Dance in London, England, Ms. Thomas received the Academy’s highest honor: The Adeline Genee Medal.
 
Upon graduation she joined the Royal Ballet Company, rising to senior soloist. Ms. Thomas also distinguished herself as a teacher at the Royal Ballet School and, while touring conducted master classes throughout England and America. She also served as Assistant Ballet Mistress for the Royal Ballet. Ms. Thomas has worked with ballet stars and luminaries including Sir Frederick Aston, Nijinska, Sir Kennethe McMillan, John Cranko, Dame Margot Fonteyn and Rudolf Nureyev.
 
She is in demand as a ballet mistress and re-stager. Ms. Thomas has shared her talents as ballet mistress, coach, choreographer and director for Pennsylvania Ballet, Ballet West, San Diego Ballet, Pittsburgh Ballet and Nashville Ballet.

Donna Carver | Ballet / Pre-Pointe

Ms. Carver danced with two civic ballet companies during her student years training under Alpheus Koon of American Ballet Theater and Gerald Pascual of the Chicago Lyric Opera.
 
She furthered her training under ballet luminaries Vladimir Dokoudovsky at the Ballet Arts School, Maria Nevelska and Vladimir Konstantinov at Carnegie Hall Studios, Anatole Vilzak at the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo, David Howard at the David Howard School of Dance, and in Toronto at the National Ballet School (now School of the National Ballet of Canada). While performing professionally with the Florida Ballet Company, she continued her training and passed examinations of the Imperial Society of Teachers of Dancing, London, England – Cecchetti Method. She proceeded to work as an instructor, ballet mistress, and principal coach at several distinguished companies.
 
Ms. Carver is the creator/author of “The Ballet Book”, a student workbook series. These workbooks are being used in performing arts high schools, colleges, universities, and ballet studios around the country.

Brian Williamson | Ballet / Tap / Junior Youth Ensemble

Mr. Williamson received his training from Tracy Leadill-Mulquin in Franklin, Illinois. As a professional performer for the past eight years in Nashville he has performed featured roles in Swan Lake, Giselle, The Sleeping Beauty, Nutcracker, Paul Vasterling’s Ballet: Tango, Seasons and Awaiting Redemption, and Salvatore Aiello’s The Rite of Spring as well as Sarah Slipper’s Postcards from the Boys.
 
He was Nashville’s representative to the 2008 and 2009 Spring to Dance Festival, an annual gathering for the best performers and companies across the country. For the past four years, Mr. Williamson has been a regular guest soloist and performer at Evansville Dance Theater, Nashville Ballet, Arkansas Festival Ballet, Indianapolis Ballet and at competitions and festivals in Nashville and neighboring states.

Amanda Whites | Ballet 1

Amanda is originally from Louisa, Kentucky and began her dance education at age four at June Conn School of Dance. She continued her dance training at the American Dance Conservatory, Bluegrass Youth Ballet, Kentucky Ballet Theatre and the graduate program at Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre School, where her teachers included Janet Popeleski and Pollyana Ribiero. She has attended numerous summer programs including Joffrey Ballet, American Ballet Theatre, Cincinnati Ballet, North Carolina School of the Arts, Ballet Austin, and School of American Ballet, where she trained under Melissa Hayden, Ethan Browne, Daniel Baudendistel, and Katrina Killian. Amanda has enjoyed performing contemporary choreography by Luis Fuentes in La Contratempo as well as more classical roles in The Nutcracker, Le Corsaire, and Etudes. She is very excited to begin her professional career with Dance Theatre of Tennessee and would like to thank her family, friends, and teachers for their encouragement and support.

Keith Fitzpatrick | Hip Hop

Keith Fitzpatrick is a native of Nashville, TN.  A self taught dancer, he has choreographed for both the Dove Awards, and CMT Awards. Keith has been featured in several TV appearances for Toyota, WSIX, and a pilot episode for a television show.  Having taught several workshops across the country, he currently teaches Hip-Hop for DTT, Vanderbilt University, and several other top dance studios in Middle TN.  Keith is also a talented music producer, working with hip-hop and R&B acts in a joint venture with Skyline Music Group in Nashville, TN.  With a dance style that has an urban edge with a lyrical twist, Keith is fast becoming a highly sought after and respected Choreographer

Jennifer Drake | Ballet / Pointe

Jennifer began her professional training at The Harid Conservatory in Boca Raton, FL under the direction of Victoria Schneider, Olivier Pardina, and Sveltlana Osiyeva. Upon graduating, she joined The Cincinnati Ballet for four and a half seasons performing lead roles such as Big Swan and Lead Mazurka Couple in Swan Lake, Arabian in The Nutcracker, Helena in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, ‘Jennifer’ in Val Caniporoli’s Lambarena, Stepmother and Winter Fairy in Cinderella, Serenade Lady in Romeo and Juliet, Demi Couple in George Balanchine’s Who Cares?, as well as Lost Boy and Pirate Lady in Val Caniporoli’s Peter Pan.

She danced Second Regiment Lead in George Balanchine’s Stars and Stripes and major roles in Ozhedanye and I Nosotros. Other lead roles include Myrtha in Giselle, the Temperament Fairy, Aurora’s Friend, Countess, Puss and Boots, Carabosse in Kirk Peterson’s The Sleeping Beauty, and ‘The Gods’ in 7th Symphony. Jennifer has traveled extensively teaching / choreographing creative works for schools /companies, and dancing as a Principle guest artist in numerous company productions.

Gabrielle Gambina | Jazz

Gabrielle’s training began under the tutelage of Marjorie Hardwick and Gregory Schramel at The New Orleans Ballet Theatre in Louisiana. She also studied at NOCCA (New Orleans Center for Creative Arts) under Blake Coheley. She has attended summer intensives at the Joffrey New York, Atlanta Ballet, and Nashville Ballet. At the age of 18 she moved to Atlanta, GA to train and perform with The Atlanta Ballet. While in Atlanta, Gabriel performed in works such as The Big Boi Collaboration choreographed by Lauri Stallings, Serenade set by Bobby Barnett, and John McFall's The Nutcracker.

Rachel Ledford | Fairy Tale Ballet

Rachel began her formal training under Sharon Reeves and Patricia Cross at the age of seven. She continued her training in the Vagonova method with Rebekah Carlisle Lutz and Mary and Michael Cadle. In 2007, Rachel joined Vanderbilt Dance Theatre under the direction of Thomas Shoemaker where she studied with both Mr. Shoemaker and Jennifer McNamara. In her three years with VDT she danced in many contemporary and classical works including … Just Let Go, Les Sylphides, Nutcracker, Vs. and Souvenirs. In 2004, Rachel discovered a love for modern and contemporary dance under the tutelage of Sharon Perry, Rebecca Allen, and Aaron Chen.

EveMarie Bessenbach | Ballet 2 and 3

EveMarie Bessenbach began her pre-professional training on scholarship at the Jordan College Academy of Dance in Indianapolis, under the guidance of Laura Hedges-Byram, Jane Hachiya-Weiner, Nataly North-Lowder, and Roberta Wong. She was a member of the Jordan Dance Ensemble, dancing soloist and principal roles in Une Danse pour Six Filles, Appassionata, Graffiti Suite, and as Swanhilda in Coppélia. Last season, she danced with the Lexington Ballet Company in Kentucky, performing featured roles in The Nutcracker, Corelli Variations, and as “Miss Molly” in the Hard Rock Ballet; she was also a guest artist with the Frankfort Ballet performing as the Sugarplum Fairy. EveMarie has also frequently trained with BalletMet Columbus, where she performed in Hot Nights, Cool Dance, while working with Gerard Charles, Rebecca Rodriguez-Hodory, Hisham Omardien, William Soleau, and Darrell Grand Moultrie. Most recently, she was honored to work with Jimmy Orrante as he created a new work entitled Bloom. She was also fortunate to dance and train at the Rimsky-Korsakov Conservatory in St. Petersburg, Russia, as well as attending summer programs at Nashville Ballet, BalletMet Columbus on scholarship, and Lexington Ballet on full scholarship.
EveMarie graduated from Butler University, Summa Cum Laude, with a Bachelor of Arts in Dance Pedagogy receiving highest departmental honors in May 2009. She also received the first Eileen Poston Dance Scholarship and performed with Butler Ballet and Butler Chamber Dance, working with numerous choreographers and repetiteurs, such as Christian Vincent, Elaine Bauer, Susan McGuire, and Tong Wang. Her favorite roles include The Photographer, Kitri’s Friends, George Balanchine’s Serenade, and Paul Taylor’s Cloven Kingdom. She has been on faculty at the Frankfort School of Ballet, a guest artist instructor for the Lexington Ballet School, and most recently for the Dance Theatre of Tennessee’s Academy.

Heather Herod Cole, MS, PT, COMT | Resident Physical Therapist

Heather minored in Business Administration while earning her Master’s Degree in Physical Therapy from Ithaca College. She has extensive post-graduate experience in orthopedics, manual therapy and dance medicine, which include the completion of the Harkness Center for Dance Injuries “Principles of Dance Medicine” curriculum.  She is certified in orthopedic manual physical therapy via Maitland Australian Physiotherapy Seminars.  Heather is an active member of the American Physical Therapy Association, including the Orthopedics section & Performing Arts Special Interest Group, and is an advanced clinical instructor of the APTA. She is also a member of the International Association of Dance Medicine and Science and serves on the executive committee of the Dance/USA Taskforce for Dancer Health. Heather has created a template adopted by the Taskforce to compile data from a “health screen for professional dancers” utilized by dance companies across the nation. She serves as a physical therapist, health care committee and board member for a number of professional dance organizations throughout the Mid South.  Heather is employed at Susan Underwood Physical Therapy in Green Hills.

Monika Shrift | Tap, Jazz, Pilates, Kindermusik

Monika is licensed and certified in Elementary Education with a focus on Theatre Arts and Dance, earning her degree at the University of Pittsburgh. She taught music at an accredited preschool and has taught 5th grade math and science and middle school technology. She has also taught dance and movement classes for five years and has performed jazz, tap, ballet, pointe, and hip-hop for twenty-two years. She loves to act, sing, craft, and play music. Growing up in a musical family allowed performing arts to become her passion. Because of this early exposure to music and art, she feels greatly inspired to bring it to the lives of children. She loves to share her knowledge and experience through teaching, as well as listen to the ideas of parents and students around her.

Erin Rehberg | Modern

Erin Rehberg is Artistic Director of Core Project Chicago, a movement-based, interdisciplinary performing arts collective. The company, now in its 5th season, pushes the boundaries of storytelling through artistic collaboration with dramatic, sound, media and text artists. She holds a B.A. in Journalism from Western Illinois University and an M.F.A. in Interdisciplinary Arts and Media from Columbia College Chicago, where she expanded her creative horizons by pursuing dance for the camera surrounding creative process and live performance. She is a founding member of and Associate Director for Kim Nofsinger’s Shelter Dance Repertoire. Ms. Rehberg teaches and fuses multiple dance styles and has set work on dancers attending WIU, University of Minnesota-Duluth, Southern Illinois Dance Center and Prep Dance School and in schools all over the Chicago area including the Beverly Arts Center, where she directed the Summer Arts Experience-interdisciplinary arts camp. She helped found Suite 132 Dance Company as the company manager and choreographed three premiere works on its dancers. Recently she has performed the choreography of Stefanie Batten Bland and E.E. Balcos, and has danced with Jay-Son/Tisa Dance Company, Nicole Gifford Dance, Jennifer Sandoval and others. Her choreography has been seen in Beyond Boundaries (Grand Junction, CO), Dance Chicago, Breaking Bounds Dance Festival (Phoenix, AZ), Art Exposium (Chicago, IL), The American College Dance Festival Featured Concert (Murfreesboro, TN), Manifest Urban Arts Festival (Chicago, IL), Boulder International Fringe Festival (CO) among others, and she has produced site-specific work throughout the Chicago area. She has been on faculty at Tennessee Governor’s School for the Arts, Interlochen Center for the Arts, Minneapolis Public Schools Outreach Programs and is currently adjunct faculty at Middle Tennessee State University. Ms. Rehberg was a 2010 recipient of a Chicago Cultural Center DanceBridge Residency.

Kelvin Amburgey | Jazz, Modern

Kelvin Amburgey, originally from SE Kentucky, has worked as a performer, choreographer, director, and teacher throughout the United States. He has appeared on stage as a dancer, actor and singer in many stage productions as well as TV appearances on CMT and One Tree Hill. Kelvin spent several years dancing with Tennessee Dance Theatre, a modern dance company based in Nashville, Tennessee. He has choreographed for the Philadelphia Opera Theatre, Oak Ridge Playhouse, Unto These Hills, Chaffin’s Barn Dinner Theatre, Circle Players as well as other theaters, pageants, and organizations. Kelvin is currently the Director of Dance at Vanderbilt University and dance instructor, where he teaches classes in modern, jazz, improvisation and musical theatre. He has taught within several universities and colleges including The University of North Carolina at Greensboro, Murray State University, Columbia State Community College, and Cumberland University as well as various studios and Programs such as Wolftrap: Early learning through the Arts and The Nashville Institute of the Arts. He is Founder and Artistic Director of Shards Dance Project a modern dance company. Kelvin received his undergraduate degree in Theatre from Morehead State University and his Master of Fine Arts Degree in Dance and Choreography from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro.