Patricia Blair - Director, The School of Ballet Chicago and Associate Director, Ballet Chicago

Patricia Blair is highly committed to the training, artistic education, and personal well-being of young dancers. She began working with children when she was only 15 years old, and to this day, her love and respect of classical ballet and passing that on to young artists is one of her greatest passions. She was born in New York City, began studying ballet at the age of 7, and began her performing career at 17. While a student at North Carolina School of the Arts, she was chosen to dance the role of “Myrtha” in Giselle alingside principal dancers Svea Ekloff and ABT’s Burton Taylor. 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 organization’s Ballet Mistresses, rehearsing the repertoire of George Balanchine, Michael Vernon and guest choreographers. Throughout her years at Eglevsky Ballet she was also an active teacher in NY, teaching classes for Eglevsky Ballet, Harkness House for Ballet Arts, Steps NY, and volunteering to teach at risk youth in church basements and community centers. During off seasons, she performed as a guest artist developing new works with 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 September 1987 upon the recommendation of Balanchine repetiteur Victoria Simon. She staged several ballets for Chicago City Ballet’s fall season, after which Duell invited her to move to Chicago and join his artistic team. She was the Ballet Mistress for Ballet Chicago from 1987 – 1997, and was appointed Director of the School of Ballet Chicago in 1995. She also serves as Associate Director for the company.

In addition to her work with the School of Ballet Chicago and the Ballet Chicago Studio Company, Ms. Blair gives master classes throughout the region and has been a guest teacher for Pacific Northwest Ballet School in Seattle, Washington, Gem City Ballet in Dayton, Ohio, and in May 2007 had the honor of teaching at the School of American Ballet. Ms. Blair has a lifelong love for the ballets of George Balanchine, and 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 has staged Mr. Balanchine’s Serenade and Allegro Brillante for the St. Louis Ballet.

Marcus Galante (Special Guest Faculty, Advanced Intensive) has worked extensively as a choreographer and teacher throughout the world. Trained at the American Ballet Theatre School and the School of American Ballet, he was also a trainee at the Harkness School of Dance. Some of his teachers include Patricia Wilde, Nancy Clement, Richard Rapp, Stanley Williams, George Balanchine and David Howard. He went on to dance with the Chicago Lyric Ballet, Cleveland Ballet, Cincinnati Ballet, and was a soloist with the National Ballet of South Africa C.A.P.A.B. performing the classical repertoire. On Broadway, he sang, danced and acted in A CHORUS LINE, PIPPIN, CAROUSEL and other shows. He has worked in television performing on the NBC special "Where do We Go From Here" staring Shirley MacLain.

Mr. Galante has created works for Ballet Chicago, Garden State Ballet, Eglevsky Ballet, Houston Grand Opera, the 2004 Dancers Transition Gala in NYC, Ballet Trockadero, Ballet Grandiva, the Buffalo Opera Company (Carousel), Chautauqua Dance Institute, Helsinki Ballet Competition and many other companies and schools. He has done television and film choreography including the HBO special DRAGTIME in 1998. In 1995 he nominated for a DANCE IN FILM AWARD by the International Dance Film Association for the short film PRIVATE PERFORMANCE by Morgan Spurlock. He has been awarded fellowships from the NATIONAL ENDOWMENT FOR THE ARTS (Choreography) and the HARKNESS FOUNDATION FOR DANCE that honored him with five grants for choreography.

As a teacher, Mr. Galante has been on the faculty of some of the most prestigious schools in the country. Included are the Alvin Ailey American Dance Center where he was invited to be the company teacher of Ailey II, Pennsylvania Ballet School and Company, the Pacific Northwest Ballet, Lines Contemporary Ballet Company in San Francisco, Eglevsky Ballet, Ballet Chicago, Steps in New York, Broadway Dance Center, The Virginia School of the Arts and many others. He was invited by NYCB principal dancer Jock Soto to teach the company class of the New York City Ballet and has also taught at the American Ballet Theatre School

Mr. Galante was a faculty member at the Midwestern Regional Ballet Festival in Columbus Ohio, The Chicago National Association of Dance Masters and has judged for Dance Masters and Dance Educator of America. In St. Petersburg Russia, he taught ballet and Fosse style Broadway dance before returning to Germany for a second teaching tour. He recently returned from Bulgaria where he taught at the National Ballet School and has taught and choreographed in Japan, Finland, Russia, Germany and other international locations.

Mr. Galante is a pianist trained at the Manhattan School of Music. He has played for every major ballet school in New York.

Sheila RozannSheila Rozann’s early ballet training was with Bronislava Nijinska, a well-known choreographer from the Diaghileff /Ballet Russe era, and sister of the great dancer, Vaslav Nijinsky.               

Miss Rozann is the founder of the Rozann-Zimmerman Ballet Center (RZBC), which she directed for 32 years in Los Angeles, California.  During that time many 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 (NYCB), Ariana Lallone, currently principal dancer with the Pacific Northwest Ballet (PNB), Zippora Karz, former soloist with NYCB, Beverly Tucker and Romy Karz, former corps members of NYCB, Edward Farley and Francine Kessler former soloists with Ballet West, and Lisa Cuizon, former corps member with Cleveland 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 (SAB).  This started a long-standing association between Miss Rozann and SAB and resulted in dozens of her students being selected for SAB’s summer course and year-round program.
Sheila Rozann is a highly inspiring teacher with a superb eye for alignment, clarity of movement and expressiveness without affectation.  She has the unusual ability to pull from her students a degree of energy they had never realized was possible.  
Miss Rozann will begin her twelfth year on the faculty of the School of Aspen Santa Fe Ballet in Santa Fe, New Mexico in September, 2008.  She has been on the teaching staff of the School of Ballet Chicago’s Summer Course and Advanced Intensive program since the year 2000.  She also teaches master classes in Los Angeles, California and Los Alamos, New Mexico.

William Miglino began taking ballet at age 10 in a small town outside of Seattle, Washington. At the age of 15, he attended the School of Ballet Chicago Summer Program and was subsequently invited to attend year-round on full scholarship. As a Ballet Chicago Studio Company member, he performed numerous solo and principal roles, including Balanchine's Tchaikovsky Pas de Deux, Concierto Barrocco, and Nutcracker Plum Pas de Deux, Daniel Duell's Snow King, Russian and Soldier Doll, Duell's Angel Scene from Act II of Hansel and Gretel, and Ted Seymour's Continuation. At age 18 he was noticed by renowned guest faculty member and Balanchine repetiteur Victoria Simon, who helped arrange an audition for Carolina Ballet, under the direction of former New York City Ballet principal dancer, Robert Weiss. Mr. Miglino was hired immediately. William spent the year dancing in over 40 performances. Sidelined after a year by the need for surgery in both ankles, Miglino reassessed his life direction and in 2008 chose to return to ballet as a professional teacher. He spent the majority of 2007/2008 teaching in Seattle and was invited by Daniel Duell and Patricia Blair to join Ballet Chicago's faculty for the 2008/2009 season. While teaching full time at Ballet Chicago he has had the opportunity to perform with the school as well as various companies in the greater Chicago area. William is thankful for the experience of seeing ballet on both sides, as teacher and student.

Ted Seymour was born in Dallas, Texas where he trained at the Dallas Metropolitan Ballet. He then moved to Chicago to study with Dan Duell and Patricia Blair as a member of the Ballet Chicago Studio Company. He later attended the School of American Ballet, where he performed as Waltz Boy in Serenade, and Prince Siegfried in Swan Lake. Ted is also a choreographer. He has made four works for Ballet Chicago and he choreographed two ballets at SAB after which he was invited by Peter Martins to set a new work for the New York Choreographic Institute. After leaving the school he began his professional career with Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet. Currently Mr. Seymour is dancing with Judith Fugate's Ballet NY, Joe Cippola's Configurations Dance, and is a member of the Suzanne Farrell Ballet.

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. Ballet Chicago is very happy to have Gary Abbott on our faculty.

Natalie Rothgeb (Pilates) started studying ballet at age 3 in Cincinnati, Ohio under Janet Carleton.  She continued her studies at the College Conservatory of Music, ballet tech ohio and Indiana University.  The majority of her advanced training took place under Anna Reznik and Alexei Kremnev, and during summer intensives she studied under coaches such as Bolshoi Master Teacher Alexander Bondarenko, Gyula Pandi and Kennet Oberly.  Natalie was introduced to Pilates nearly ten years ago while rehabilitating a career-ending spinal injury; as she had been teaching various forms of dance since the age of 15, she decided to remain in the dance community with a transition into Pilates instruction with an emphasis on injury prevention.  She received her Pilates certification through Body Arts and Sciences International at flow studio here in Chicago.  Natalie brings her years of ballet training, knowledge of human anatomy and biomechanics into the classroom and is delighted to have the opportunity to work with the wonderful dancers, faculty and staff of Ballet Chicago.