Larry Brantley, Ithaca Ballet’s choreographer of many ages.
Lena Rose Magee
Lena Rose Webb-Magee was a student and company dancer with the Ithaca Ballet as a teenager. She attended Cornell University and graduated with double majors in Dance and English; she also holds an MFA in Dramatic Arts with a concentration in dance composition and pedagogy from the University of California Davis. She danced with the alban elved dance company in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, and Fisherdance in South Bend, Indiana. She has taught middle school, high school, and college age dancers in a variety of public education settings for the past twenty years, and is currently the director of the dance program at the Marysville Charter Academy for the Arts in Marysville, California. Happy Anniversary, Ithaca Ballet! Thank you for giving me the dance foundation I rely on every day to keep doing what I love!
Bonnie Valant-Weiss
Dr. Bonnie Valant-Weiss is a physicist who works in the aerospace industry. Bonnie danced with Ithaca Ballet from 1997 to 2000 while pursing a PhD at Cornell University. Bonnie studied ballet and modern dance with Kathy Chamberlain in Plano, Texas, and at Santa Clara University. After graduate school, Bonnie danced with Exclamation Dance Company and FrenetiCore in Houston, Texas. Bonnie lives in the Los Angeles area with her husband, daughter, and a very pampered chiweenie.
Lotsie Cash
Lotsie started her ballet training at the Ithaca Ballet. She continued her training with Ballet Academy East in NYC and went on to dance professionally with Albany Berkshire Ballet, Festival Ballet Providence and Jose Mateo Ballet Theatre. Lotsie later returned to Ithaca Ballet as a guest artist to perform as the Sugar Plum Fairy for a few Nutcracker seasons and choreographed a few different pieces for the Ithaca Ballet over the years. She then went on to become a yoga teacher, acrobat and aerialist. She now lives in Bend, OR where she owns her own movement based studio, Tula Movement Arts. She has a wonderful 7 year old daughter, a giant dog and a 15 year old cat.
Amanda Moretti
Amanda Moretti has been on the faculty of Ithaca Ballet School since 2004, teaching children and choreographing modern pieces for Winterdance , including Tundra ,Wavebreak , Andante S. She studied dance at York University and Naropa Institute , focusing on composition and modern dance . Now she is working on a new piece Dance Poems for the Vestals , collaborating w local dancers and composer musician Lydia Goedert .
Dhiya Shea
Dhiya Shea was born in Ithaca, New York. Dhiya danced with Ithaca Ballet for six years. Notable roles during this time include Harlequin, Lead Candy Cane, and Snow Queen in the Nutcracker. This is Dhiya’s third year coming back as a guest artist for WinterDance. On her time away from Ithaca Ballet, she performed in Running To Places’ Chicago in the summer of 2024. Dhiya is currently a senior at Ithaca High School and will graduate in 2026.