Ben Stevenson
Mr. Stevenson, a native of Portsmouth, England, received his dance training at the Arts Educational School in London. Upon his graduation he was awarded the prestigious Adeline Genee Gold Medal, the highest award given to a dancer by the Royal Academy of Dancing. At the age of eighteen he partnered Alicia Markova in Where the Rainbow Ends and soon after was invited to join the Sadler’s Wells Royal Ballet by Dame Ninette de Valois, where he worked closely with Sir Frederick Ashton, Sir Kenneth MacMillian, and John Cranko. A few years later Sir Anton Dolin invited him to dance with London Festival Ballet where, as a Principal Dancer, he performed leading roles in all of the classical ballets.
As a teacher, Mr.Stevenson has trained and influenced thousands of dancers from around the globe. His students have performed with the world’s most renowned companies, including The Royal Ballet, Paris Opéra Ballet, Les Grandes Ballets Canadien, The National Ballet of China, Birmingham Royal Ballet, American Ballet Theatre, New York City Ballet, San Francisco Ballet and more. For his contributions to the world of international dance, Mr. Stevenson was named an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (O.B.E.) by Queen Elizabeth II in the New Year’s Honors List in December 1999. He has received numerous awards for his choreography, including three Gold medals at the International Ballet Competitions of 1972, 1982 and 1986. In April 2000 he was presented with the Dance Magazine Award, one of the most prestigious honors on the American dance scene. In 2005 he was awarded the Texas Medal of Arts.
Todrick Hall
Todrick Hall is most known for being a finalist on season 9 of American Idol and from his viral YouTube videos such as “Beauty and the Beat,” “Target Flash Mob,” “Mean Gurlz,” “Wizard of Aaahs,” and “Cinderonce” to name a few. He has garnered upwards of 90 million views online. In addition, Hall has made appearances singing and dancing on Good Morning America, The Macy’s Thanksgiving Parade and most recently on season 2 of X-Factor USA. Todrick is also no stranger to the stage, having appeared on Broadway in Oprah Winfrey’s The Color Purple with Fantasia and the Tony Award-Winning Memphis: The Musical. This past year, Todrick had the amazing opportunity to choreograph for Beyonce, write the new safety video song for Virgin America and was named one of Forbes Magazine’s 30 under 30 Entertainment Entrepreneurs in America. Todrick is working relentlessly this year to break into new types of media and constantly push the boundaries of creativity.
Jenny Durbin Smith
Jenny Durbin Smith is one of the Dallas’s most sought after and award-winning choreographers and her resume reads like a “who’s who” list in the dance industry! She trained in jazz and hip hop during her college years at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill where she was also a member of the national award winning cheer and dance teams, while obtaining a double degree in journalism and communication studies. Jenny was a two-year member of the NBA Dallas Mavericks Dancers serving as Captain in her second year. She has also been a principle dancer and actor for many national industrials, commercials, and films.
Jenny’s dynamic choreography has been featured on many national television commercials, industrials, films, reality television shows, and international stages. Jenny is the proud Director and Choreographer for the Dallas Cowboys Rhythm & Blue, a choreographer for the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders, a master instructor for Professional NFL and NBA Cheerleading & Dance Conventions including All Pro and Choreography Pros, and travels the country choreographing for numerous high school teams, collegiate teams, professional teams, and studios.
Leslie Scott
Leslie has been a judge for the championship of MTV’s, America’s Best Dance Crew, and has appeared on VH-1’s Behind the Sceneswith P. Diddy. She can be seen on the Billboard Music Awards with Beyonce, on VH-1’s The Choreographer with Ciara, commercial for ICE Breakers and on television shows for Club Teen Scene, MTV, Fox, Disney and NBC. Leslie has choreographed for the film Hyde Park and for a number of new bands including Interscope Records Audio Club that opened for Rihanna, Maroon 5 and Fergie. With her busy schedule, she is always on the go and has just returned from an extensive teaching tour of Europe.
Lyn Cramer
Lyn Cramer (Dance) is a member of the Stage Directors and Choreographers Society and has created shows for Lyric Theatre of Oklahoma and Casa Mañana. A teacher and choreographer for three decades, Lyn is a Weitzenhoffer Endowed Professor specializing in tap, jazz and theatre dance styles. She was named the 2005 Irene and Julian J. Rothbaum Presidential Professor of Excellence in the Arts by the Weitzenhoffer Family College of Fine Arts. Lyn received her Master’s degree from the University of Texas in directing. She has released ten instructional videos in tap for Cathy Roe Productions and her brand new book, CREATING MUSICAL THEATRE includes great conversations with Broadway’s hottest Directors and Choreographers. In 2004, Lyn was honored with the Chicago National Association of Dance Masters Artistic Achievement Award.
Thom Clower
Known as one of the most energetic and inspiring teachers across the country, Thom Clower’s “evangelistic” approach to teaching has touched the lives and careers of dancers around the world for nearly 40 years. With extensive training in the Vaganova, Balanchine, Cecchetti, and Bournonville styles, Mr. Clower combines the qualities of each one to present a technique that is true and versatile.
Mr. Clower has staged and created ballets for companies all over the United States. He has also worked with many opera companies, including the Santa Fe Opera, the Dallas Opera, and the Lyric Opera of Dallas. All over the world, companies have performed his choreography. Since 2001 Thom Clower has worked around the world as a freelance master teacher and choreographer. His work has included regional companies and schools, and professional companies such as Pittsburgh Ballet Theater and Atlanta Ballet. He has been a guest teacher at Broadway Dance Center, Associate Ballet Master for Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo, and serves annually as Ballet Master for Young! Tanzsommer in Austria. He joined the faculty of Allegro Ballet of Houston in 2009.
Robert Anthony
Robert Anthony is Dallas, Texas native who is still relatively new to the dance scene with only 6.5 years of dance training. He is a graduate of Jesuit College Preparatory who holds a bachelor’s degree in psychology/sociology from Southern Methodist University, and is attending Texas Wesleyan University to pursue a master’s degree in professional counseling as well as marriage and family therapy. Ever since the age of 7 he has always been a fan of entertainment and has been inspired by such entertainers as Gene Kelly, Michael Jackson, Madonna to actors such as Jack Nicholson, Meryl Streep, & Denzel Washington; just to name a few. His background in dance training includes hip hop (popping, locking, and b-boying), jazz, and modern; while furthering his training to ballet, Latin/ballroom dance, and lyrical along with other forms of dance. He is a student of all forms of movement ranging from acrobatics to zumba. He has taken from many well-known choreographers local and abroad; however, he credits his dancing career to his teacher/mentor Keith Clark for giving him the opportunity to learn and grow as a dancer. He lives by many quotes but two of his favorites are, “the key to triumph is in the first syllable and you may be disappointed if you fail but you are doomed if you do not try” and “love, peace, and unity through dance/diversity”!
Elise Lavallee
Elise Lavallee is a native of Fort Worth Texas, where she trained with Fort Worth Dallas Ballet (now TBT), where she trained directly with Paul Mejia and Maria T. Balogh, Margo Dean’s School of Ballet, and Diane Clough West.
She started dancing professionally at the age of 17 in Musical Theater, and Ballet. She has been apart of several shows at Casa Manana including Broadway at the Bass series, where she danced featured roles such as Zaneta in “The Music Man” and Uncle Thomas in “The King and I”. One of her latest roles was as Helga in The Dallas Theater Centers production of “Cabaret”. Ms. Lavallee has also dance for many years with Ballet Concerto, and was a member of The Bruce Wood Dance Company.