Guest Artists

Sonia Dvořák 

has been dancing professionally for the past fourteen years and was most recently engaged as a Soloist with the Vienna State Ballet. She received her training at the Ithaca Ballet and Canada’s National Ballet School before going on to hold Soloist positions with the Deutsche Oper am Rhein and Ballett Kiel, while touring extensively throughout Japan, Taiwan, Spain, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Germany, Austria, and Russia. Dvořák has created numerous original roles with choreographers such as Martin Schläpfer, Alexei Ratmansky, and Cathy Marston, and has performed principal roles in works by George Balanchine, William Forsythe, Ohad Naharin, Jiří Kylián, Marco Goecke, Hans van Manen, and August Bournonville, among others. Her repertoire includes leading roles in The Sleeping Beauty (Martin Schläpfer), La Fille mal gardée (Frederick Ashton), Onegin (John Cranko), and Don Quixote (Rudolf Nureyev).

Darwin Black, Guest Cavalier, Geneva, NY

November 30th at the Smith

Born: Newark, New Jersey started his dancing at the age of 16. In 2006, he graduated from Newark Arts High School under the direction of Ronnie D. Carney and Kim Richardson. Darwin furthered his training under Nancy Turano with the New Jersey Dance Theatre Ensemble. Darwin trained for a year at Alvin Ailey American Dance as a Fellowship Student under the Oprah Winfrey Scholarship.

 He began his professional career with the Miami City Ballet As an apprentice. Darwin later joined The Sacramento Ballet, performing ballets by George Balanchine, Twyla Tharp, Trey McIntyre and Matthew Neenan, to name a few.

 After three years with The Sacramento Ballet, he joined Pascal Rioult Dance Theater, dancing and touring throughout the United States. Mr. Black danced as a freelance artist for Dance Lab NYC, Alaska Dance Theatre, Lustig Dance Theatre, Montgomery Ballet and Nimbus Dance Works, and he toured throughout Europe with Momix. Darwin later joined TU Dance under the leadership of Toni-Pierce Sands & Uri Sands. For four seasons he danced World premiere works by Uri Sands, Francesca Harper, Kyle Abraham, Gioconda Barbuto, and Katrin Hall.

 Darwin is spreading his wings  into Choreography. His first Original work by the Saint Paul Ballet "OFF THE BASE" premiered at The Cowles Center March of 2017. In October of 2017, he premiered "N.L.I.F" (Never Live In Fear) for Minnesota Dance Theatre.

 Darwin performed  in the musical “Sentimental Journey” at mountain theatre playhouse.

Jacob Taylor, Guest Snow King

Jacob Taylor received his formative training at Boulder Ballet School and in the summer programs of American Ballet Theater, The School of American Ballet, and Kansas City Ballet. Mr. Taylor is a graduate of the Ballet Performance Program at Indiana University’s Jacobs School of Music where he was coached by Violette Verdy and Michael Vernon. At IU he performed in works by George Balanchine, Martha Graham, Paul Taylor, Twyla Tharp and Antony Tudor. His professional performance career includes dancing for such companies as Boulder Ballet, Indianapolis Ballet, and New Jersey Ballet. Mr. Taylor has taught ballet for Peridance Capezio Center, Brooklyn Ballet, Colorado Ballet Academy, and 92NY. He has been commissioned to choreograph new works for Boulder Ballet, Colorado Ballet Academy, New England Ballet Theatre, IU Opera Theatre, SoCal Choreography Festival, and Philadelphia Ballet.

Lavinia Reid, Guest Choreographer

Rainbow Dance Arts Co., Saga Ambegaokar and Dancers and others. Studied at the Boston School of Ballet with Tatiana Baboushkina, Boston Conservatory, American Ballet Center, Ballet Guild of Ithaca, and Village School. Choreographer and costumer designer for companies in Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, Texas, and the District of Columbia. Awarded scholarship to National Craft of Choreography Conference, and a residency at the Carlisle Project, funded by the Ford Foundation. Former faculty member, Ballet Center of Ithaca and the Seneca School of Ballet (Dundee, NY). Summer guest faculty, Central Pennsylvania Youth Ballet. Director of the Chambersburg Youth Ballet in Pennsylvania and teaches ballet at Wilson College in Shippensburg.

Brian Hall, Demi-character Dancer

Brian Hall is a novelist who occasionally teaches creative writing at Colgate University. He is a former Ithaca Ballet parent and has played several character roles for IB in the past, including the Nutcracker Grandfather.

Azamat Asangul, Guest Cavalier, Ithaca, NY

Azamat Asangul was born in Bishkek, Kyrgyz Republic, and began his ballet studies at the age of 10. In 2007, he was awarded the Presidential Scholarship “Personnel of the 21st Century” for creative achievement in performing arts. Later, he was invited by Altynai Asylmuratova to study at the Vaganova Ballet Academy in Saint Petersburg, Russia, where he graduated in 2010.

He went on to join the Moscow City Ballet under the direction of Victor Smirnov, and in 2012 was selected by Julia Moon to dance with Universal Ballet in South Korea. He also continued performing with the Kyrgyz National Academic Opera and Ballet Theatre. In 2013, Azamat was invited to join the Russian National Ballet under the artistic direction of Sergei Radchenko.

Azamat has toured extensively with Moscow City Ballet across the United Kingdom, Ireland, China, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Taiwan, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Cyprus, and Russia, and with the Russian National Ballet throughout the United States.

In 2014, he joined Newport Contemporary Ballet in Rhode Island to expand his work in contemporary dance. He has also appeared as a guest artist with Charleston City Ballet, Ballet Idaho, and the Flint Institute of Music.

In 2017, Azamat joined Ballet RI. This is his third season performing with the Asian American Ballet Project.