Founder and artistic director of Ballet Chicago, Daniel Duell is passionate about the pursuit of classicism in its purest form. As a principal dancer with the New York City Ballet from 1979-1987, he performed a wide-ranging repertoire, dancing leading roles in the ballets of George Balanchine, Jerome Robbins, Peter Martins, and Jacques d’Amboise, among others. A Ford Foundation Scholarship recipient from the age of 13, he went on to train at the School of American Ballet at 16, and was invited to join NYCB at 19. In addition to his fifteen years at NYCB, he was a featured guest artist for numerous companies nationwide and performed for several PBS Dance in America public television programs. Duell has been choreographing since 1980 and has created works for Ballet Chicago, Ballet Hispanico of New York, Dayton Ballet, Harkness Dance Theatre, the Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival, and the School of American Ballet. He also collaborated with WTTW, Channel 11 in Chicago, to design two programs; the first, an Emmy Award winning special (outstanding cultural programming) on Ballet Chicago featuring two of Duell’s works, and the second entitled “Love in Four Acts”, a program showcasing four Chicago choreographers selected by Duell.
Duell conducts master classes and guest teaches in both the United States and Europe. He is a frequent lecturer on ballet, music, and the arts and serves on several not-for-profit boards and advisory boards. He was awarded the 2000 Ruth Page Award from the Chicago Dance Community for Artistic Direction of the Ballet Chicago Studio Company. In addition to staging Balanchine works for Ballet Chicago, Mr. Duell has staged Apollo for the Milwaukee Ballet, Concerto Barocco and Valse-Fantaisie for Gem City Ballet in Dayton, Ohio, and Apollo and Valse- Fantaisie for the Channel Islands Ballet in Ventura, California. Most recently, Mr. Duell completed a special guest teaching engagement at the School of American Ballet in January 2007.
Patricia Blair was born in New York City, began studying ballet at the age of 7 and began her performing career at 17. Having always had a great love for teaching, she initially started by working with young children when she was only 15 years old. In 1979 she joined the Eglevsky Ballet, under the direction of Edward Villella and then Michael Vernon. In 1984, while still dancing full time with the company, she became one of the company’s Ballet Mistresses, and began rehearsing repertoire and teaching company classes. Throughout her years at Eglevsky Ballet she remained an active teacher in NY, teaching at the Harkness House for Ballet Arts, and at Steps. She also sought to diversify her performing experiences. During company off seasons, she was a guest artist for many NY choreographers, danced in musical theatre productions across the US and on Broadway, and briefly entered the LA movie world with Pavanne for a Dying Princess, a solo dance film created especially for her. She came to Chicago in 1987 upon the recommendation of Balanchine repetiteur Victoria Simon. She staged several ballets for the company’s fall season, after which Artistic Director Daniel Duell invited her to move to Chicago and join his artistic team. She was the Ballet Mistress for Chicago City Ballet, then Ballet Chicago until 1995 when she was appointed Director of the School of Ballet Chicago.
Ms. Blair is highly committed to the training and artistic education of dancers. In addition to her work with the School of Ballet Chicago and the Ballet Chicago Studio Company, she gives master classes throughout the region and has been a guest teacher for Pacific Northwest Ballet School in Seattle, Washington and Gem City Ballet in Dayton, Ohio. Ms. Blair has a lifelong love for the ballets of George Balanchine. She deeply appreciates both the privilege of having performed his ballets and the joy of passing them on to younger dancers. She has been responsible for a large body of repertoire at Ballet Chicago, and in early Spring 2007 she staged Mr. Balanchine’s Serenade for the St. Louis Ballet. In May 2007 Ms. Blair had the honor of guest teaching at the School of American Ballet.
Sandra Jennings (Special Guest Faculty, Advanced Intensive) was born in Boston and began her dance training with June Paxman of the Washington Ballet and later with E. Virginia Williams at Boston Ballet. At the age of 13, she received a Ford Foundation scholarship to SAB in New York. During her three years there, Jennings studied with teachers that included Diana Adams, Alexandra Danilova, Felia Dubrovska, Suki Schorer, and Stanley Williams, performing lead roles in ballet such as Paquita, Sleeping Beauty, and Swan Lake. At the age of 15, Jennings performed Balanchine’s Tarantella at New York’s City Center. In 1974, Jennings was asked by Balanchine to join New York City Ballet where she worked with him for the next nine years. In addition to becoming a renowned repetiteur for the Balanchine Trust, Jennings has taught at schools and companies in the United States and abroad, and has taught at San Francisco Ballet School’s Summer Session since 2000. She also worked at Pennsylvania Ballet as a company teacher and ballet mistress for nine years, and has been a company teacher and ballet mistress for San Francisco Ballet since summer 2002.
Heather Hawk is a Ballet Chicago Faculty member. She was born in Munster, Indiana. At an early age, she began commuting to Chicago to study at various schools, including Stone-Camryn, Ruth Page, and Chicago City Ballet School. During the summers, she studied in New York at the School of American Ballet, where she was invited to stay full-time. After a featured performance in the ballet Stars and Stripes for SAB's annual workshop, Miss Hawk was selected by Peter Martins to study at the Royal Danish School in Copenhagen. Upon her return, she joined the ranks of New York City Ballet. Among the many highlights of her NYCB career was the 1993 George Balanchine Celebration. The repertoire included such great ballets as Union Jack and Vienna Waltzes. She also had the privilege of working with Jerome Robbins in his ballets The Cage, The Concert, and The Goldberg Variations. She has appeared in several televised productions, including The Waltz of the Flowers in The Nutcracker, the movie with Macaulay Culkin. As a member of Pennsylvania Ballet, she was featured in Ben Stevenson's Cinderella, the corps de ballet of Balanchine's Donizetti Variations, and as Bathilde in Giselle. She had the honor of performing at the Kennedy Center in Balanchine's Swan Lake and Serenade to celebrate their thirtieth anniversaries. She most recently was featured as "Dawn" in Ballet Chicago's production of Coppélia and in Gioconda and Mefistofele for the Lyric Opera of Chicago.
Sheila Rozann is a founder of the Rozann-Zimmerman Ballet School, which she directed for 32 years in Los Angeles, California. During that time dozens of her students were accepted into ballet companies across the country and in Europe. Among them were Heather Watts, former principal dancer with the New York City Ballet, Zippora Karz, currently a soloist with New York City Ballet, and Roma Karz and Beverly Tucker, former corps members of New York City Ballet.
After visiting Miss Rozann's school in Los Angeles, George Balanchine was so impressed that he personally invited her to his Ford Foundation-sponsored teaching seminars held in New York City at his School of American Ballet. This started a long-standing association between Miss Rozann and the School of American Ballet. Miss Rozann is a highly inspiring teacher with a superb eye for alignment, clarity of movement, and expressiveness without affectation. She has an unusual ability to pull from dancers energy they had never realized was possible. Miss Rozann now lives in Taos, New Mexico, and gives master classes in Los Angeles and Santa Fe.
Graca Sales (Technique, Pointe, Variations) was born in Belo Horizonte, Brazil, and trained at the Scola doTeatro Palacio das Artes. Her performing career includes international companies such as Palacio das Artes Dance Company, Brazil, Gelsenkirchen Ballet, Ulm Ballet and the Stuttgart Ballet, Germany. As a ballet mistress she has worked with companies such as Grupo Corpo, 1st ACT, Municipal Sao Paulo, Municipal de Rio de Janeiro, Ulm Ballet, Wiesbaden Ballet, Karlshue Ballet, Mannheim Theater, Stuttgart Ballet and the Cleveland Ballet, Luna Negra Theater and Deeply Rooted Dance Theater. Ms. Salas received numerous repetiteur awards such as Capezio and the International Seminar of Brazil and Joinville. She has toured extensively in Germany, France, Argentina, Holland, Cuba, Russia, Venezuela, Mexico, Spain, England, Switzerland and the U.S.
Sarah Hess is a Chicago native and grew up in the School of Ballet Chicago. She performed with the Ballet Chicago Studio Company for five years in corps, soloist, and principal roles of Balanchine's Serenade, Concerto Barocco, and Who Cares? and in Daniel Duell's Salute to Vienna and The Nutcracker. Most recently, Sarah danced with Minnesota Dance Theatre under the direction of Lisa Houlton. She taught at the Northland School of Dance in Minneapolis and at the School of Minnesota Dance Theatre, where she also worked with the students learning Balanchine's Serenade. Sarah is honored to be teaching at Ballet Chicago for the second year and credits her loving parents for all of their support and encouragement.
Petre Iliev has studied at the National Choreography Academy of Bulgaria and at the Bulgarian National Institute of Choreography. He has danced with Trakia, the Bulgarian Ensemble for Folk Songs and Dance, the National Ensemble of the Bulgarian Army, and the Philip Kutef State Ensemble for Folk Songs and Dances, and was the assistant to the chief choreographer. Petre has also served as the Director of the Chervena Zvezda, a children's group, and Red Star, in Sofia, a troupe of 40 children, and he was an instructor at the Institute of Higher Theatrical Arts, Sofia. Petre has taught Bulgarian folk dance throughout the United States and Canada, and he has also worked extensively with Jacques D'Amboise and the National Dance Institute. In Spring 2005 Petre initiated Evanston Dance Ensemble's after school outreach program through a 21st Century grant. Petre will continue leading EDE's outreach into Evanston Schools with residencies in the fall at Lincoln and Dawes Elementary funded by the Evanston Community Foundation.
Gary Abbott has danced, taught and choreographed internationally for more than 30 years. In 1995, he became Associate Artistic Director for the Joseph Holmes Chicago Dance Theater. That same year he founded Deeply Rooted Productions with Kevin Iega Jeff, Linda Spriggs, Diane Shober and LaVerne Alaphaire. He danced with the Cleo Parker Robinson Dance Theatre, working with choreographers Katherine Dunham, Donald McKayle, Talley Beaty, Eleo Pomare, and Kevin Iega Jeff. Abbott’s choreographic tribute to Aretha Franklin (Sweet Ree), and other choreography remains a part of the Robinson Dance Theatre’s repertoire. Abbott danced with Lula Washington Dance Theatre, and Rudy Perez Dance Theatre in California. He has choreographed for David Taylor Dance Theatre, Denver Center for the Performing Arts, Cleveland Playhouse and the Penumbra Theatre. Abbott began his dance career with Barbara Sullivan's Atlanta Dance Theatre and attended the California Institute for the Arts on scholarship and studied with Crystine Lawson, Mia Slavenska and Nicholas Gunn. Abbott guest teaches and conducts Master Classes both nationally and internationally. This is his third summer with Ballet Chicago and we are very happy to have him on our faculty.
