Guest Artists

Sonia Dvořák 

Sonia 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

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.

Azamat Asangul

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.

Lavinia Reid

Lavinia began ballet with her mother, Alice Reid, and continued with the co-founder of the Ithaca Ballet, Vergiu Cornea and various teachers at what became the Ballet Center of Ithaca. Further studies were at the University of New Mexico, Boston Conservatory of Music, Joffrey Ballet School, and the Boston Ballet. Simultaneously, all through her formative years she studied violin, piano, voice, and composition, ultimately deciding to become a ballet teacher, choreographer and composer.

She is a winner of a Carlisle Project Choreographic Fellowship sponsored by the Ford Foundation, has created or set close to 100 choreographies in 4 states and the District of Columbia, and has composed 9 musical scores for ballet and musical theatre. She founded and ran, for 23 years, the Chambersburg Ballet in Chambersburg, PA, and has been a guest teacher in dance programs in New York, Texas, and for 9 years, at the Central Pennsylvania Youth Ballet (CPYB) in Carlisle, PA. She is violinist/fiddler for Across The Pond, a professional Celtic band of national renown, as well as performing and recording with Celtic, Gypsy Jazz, Americana, and Country music bands.

Rebecca Lerch

Rebecca grew up in Radford, Virginia, where she graduated with a degree in Dance from Radford University. From 2008-2011, she performed various demi-character roles with Connecticut Ballet under the direction of Brett Raphael. Rebecca joined Ithaca Ballet as an Auxiliary company dancer for the 2011-12 season, has served on the Ithaca Ballet Board of Directors since 2013, and returned to the stage as a demi-character dancer in 2016.  Roles with Ithaca Ballet include Swan and Candidate Bride (Swan Lake), Stepmother (Cinderella), Actor/Reveler (A Midsummer Night’s Dream), and Clara's Mother (Nutcracker). Rebecca has a Masters of Education from the University of South Carolina.

Kevin Olmstead (Snow King, Ithaca)

Kevin Olmstead began his career as a dancer at Ithaca Ballet. He then trained at the Virginia School of the Arts with Petrus Bosman and
later Studio Maestro with Francois Peron.   His most cherished roles are Mayhem's Flight, Prince Charming in Cinderella and Cavalier in the Nutcracker.

Brian Hall

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.