Featured Dancers
Mary-Quinn Aber (Valse Fantasie [67] 10/10), a native Floridian, is currently pursuing a Bachelor
of Science in Ballet Performance at Indiana University. Aber received training most recently at the San Francisco Ballet School, where she trained under the instruction of teachers such as Lola de Avila, Jean Yves Esquerre, Lynn Charles, Parrish Maynard, and Jorge Esquivel. She performed in San Francisco Ballet’s The Nutcracker (Helgi Tomasson) in Snow and Flowers. From 2000 to 2008, she trained with the Fort Lauderdale Ballet Classique under the instruction of Magda Aunon. At the Southeast Regional Ballet Association Festival in Highpoint, North Carolina 2008, she performed the Shades Variation from La Bayadare. At the Southeast Regional Ballet Association Festival in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 2007, she performed the Odalisque variation from Le Corsaire. She was awarded the five-hundred dollar scholarship from the SERBA scholarship committee in 2007 and 2008. She also participated in numerous summer programs on scholarship including those at Houston Ballet and School of American Ballet.
Carly Baum (Valse Fantasie [53] 10/10; Les Noces 10/10) was born in Memphis, Tenn. and began dancing at the age of three. She attended summer programs with the School of American Ballet, Houston Ballet, Boston Ballet, and the Washington Ballet on scholarship. After attending Houston Ballet’s summer program, she was asked to stay full time on scholarship as a member of Houston Ballet II. This is Baum’s third year in IUBT as a recipient of the Ken C. Whitener Jr. Scholarship for ballet excellence. Baum is working toward a Bachelor of Science in Ballet Performance with an Outside Field in Communications and Culture. She is also a member of Phi Theta Sigma national honor society. With IUBT, Baum has danced one of the featured couples in Violette Verdy’s Inoui Rossini, “Melancholic” demi-soloist in George Balanchine’s The Four Temperaments, Lead Mirliton in The Nutcracker, and in Matthew Neenan’s My Eyes Opened.
Brette Benedict (Les Noces 10/10) is a sophomore from Peoria, Ill., studying to receive a Bachelor of Science in Ballet Performance with a minor in French. At the age of 12, she began serious ballet training at the Geiger Classic Ballet Academy in Bloomfield Hills, Mich. While dancing at the academy, Benedict danced with Michigan Classic Ballet Company, performing soloist roles in The Nutcracker, Les Sylphides, and original works by Mary C. Geiger. In 2006, her dance training continued at the Rock School for Dance Education, as a junior in high school. The past two summers, she has attended the Chautauqua Dance Summer Program, on scholarship. She had the opportunity to perform with the North Carolina Dance Theatre in Balanchine’s production of Raymonda and Western Symphony.
Samantha Benoit (Valse Fantasie [67]; Jeux 10/9) from Fort Lauderdale, Fla., began her training at Fort Lauderdale Ballet Classique at age 11, under the direction of Magda Auñon. Benoit has attended summer programs including American Ballet Theatre in New York, as well as Houston Ballet and Washington Ballet on full scholarship. She is currently a senior at Indiana University, pursuing a Bachelor of Science in Ballet performance with an Outside Field in Journalism. Benoit has recently been featured in IUBT roles that include Blue Girl in Les Patineurs, Third Theme from Balanchine’s Four Temperaments, and The Sugar Plum Fairy in Michael Vernon’s production of The Nutcracker. She was also featured as Odette in the fourth act of Cynthia Gregory’s staging of Swan Lake last spring.
Marielle Bingham (Valse Fantasie 10/9) is a junior pursuing a ballet major with a psychology outside field. She was born in San Francisco and was later raised in Portland, Ore. She trained at Oregon Ballet Theater under the direction of Damara Bennett and Christopher Stowell. Bingham has attended summer programs at San Francisco Ballet, Pacific Northwest Ballet, and School of American Ballet for two summers. She is a member of Kappa Delta sorority as well as the National Society of Collegiate Scholars.
Vincent Brewer (Valse Fantasie [67] 10/10) trained with the Albany Berkshire Ballet in Pittsfield, Mass. He attended the Boston Ballet and Miami City Ballet summer programs on full scholarship. With IU Ballet Theater, he danced the Snow Prince in Michael Vernon’s Nutcracker, Melancholic in George Balanchine’s The Four Temperments, Brown Boy in Frederic Ashton’s Les Patineurs, and as a soloist in Violette Verdy’s Rossinni Inoui. Brewer has also danced with the Albany Berkshire Ballet and as an apprentice at the Chautauqua Institute. He is pursuing a Bachelor of Science in Ballet Performance with an Outside field in Religious Studies.
Kjersti Cubberley (Valse Fantasie [53] 10/10; Les Noces 10/9) is a senior from Spokane, Wash., pursuing a Bachelor of Science in Ballet with an Outside Field in History and a Spanish minor. Cubberley began her dance training under the Royal Academy of Dance, successfully completing her grade and major examinations with marks of distinction. She continued her training under the instruction of Dodie Askegard and Peggy Goodner-Tan while performing locally with Theatre Ballet of Spokane as well as in Alberta Ballet’s The Nutcracker. Cubberley has attended summer intensives at Boston Ballet, Ballet West, and Houston Ballet, and was a scholarship recipient at Pacific Northwest Ballet and, most recently, Oregon Ballet Theatre. She was last seen in IUBT’s spring production, performing in Matthew Neenan’s My Eyes Opened and Swan Lake and has also performed in Tywla Tharp’s Sweet Fields, Michael Vernon’s The Nutcracker and George Balanchine’s The Four Temperaments. Cubberley is a member of the Hutton Honors College and the National Society of Collegiate Scholars.
Paul Dandridge (Jeux 10/9; Les Noces 10/9) is a junior majoring in Ballet with an Outside Field in Philosophy. Dandridge received his training at the Richmond Ballet in Virginia, where he graduated and entered the trainee program at 16, under the instruction of Stoner Winslett, Malcolm Burn, and Arnott Mader. He is a recipient of the Music Dean’s Scholarship, the E. Sweeny Scholarship, and the Friends of Music Scholarship, as well as being a national award-scholar in the Jack Kent Cooke Foundation. At Indiana University, Dandridge has danced lead roles in Swan Lake, Les Patineurs, The Four Temperaments, Les Sylphides, and The Nutcracker. He has also danced roles choreographed by Michael Vernon, Violette Verdy, Guoping Wang, and guest choreographer Matthew Neenan.
Ben Delony, (Jeux 10/10; Les Noces) a native of Baton Rouge, La., received his training from Marianne Hebert and Madalyn Montegudo, and Baton Rouge Ballet Theater. He has attended summer intensive progrmas at Ballet Austin, the Harid Conservatory, and Hubbard Street Dance Chicago, with other acceptances including Houston Ballet, Nashville Ballet, and Joffrey. His original choreography has been performed at the Louisiana Alliance for Dance Festival as well as Jacobs School of Music's "Ballet on the Edge." A senior, Delony's roles at IU have included soloist roles in Jacques Cesbron's Screemin Meemies and Cinderella, Michael Vernon's Brandenburg IV, L'apres-midi d'une faune, Melancholic in Balanchine's The Four Temperaments, Twyla Tharp's Sweet Fields, as well as numerous roles in both Cesbron's and Vernon's The Nutcracker. A regular dance collaborator with IU musicians, he is a Friend of the School of Music Scholarship recipient and ballet master/instructor for the PreCollege Ballet Program.
Anne Duffey (Valse Fantasie [67] 10/10; Les Noces 10/9) was trained at the Boston Ballet School and graduated from its intensive division in 2007. While at Boston Ballet, Duffey had the opportunity to study with numerous teachers, including Kathleen Mitchell, Bonnie Mathis, Franco DeVita, and Deidre Miles Burger. She also developed her technique at various summer intensives, including the Miami City Ballet summer program, the North Carolina Ballet Theatre summer dance program, and the Summer Dance Program at Boston Ballet. Duffey had the opportunity to perform as one of the Four Little Swans in IUBT's production of Swan Lake last spring. She is a junior at Indiana University and also a member of the Hutton Honors College.
Danielle Dyson (Valse Fantasie [67] 10/9; Les Noces 10/9) is a senior at Indiana University. She is pursuing a major in ballet with an outside field in journalism and a minor in Spanish. Dyson began dancing at the age of 14 at the School of the Salt Creek Ballet in Westmont, Ill. From 2004 to 2006, she danced with the contemporary company RASA Dance Chicago as an apprentice. She also attended Boston Ballet’s Summer Program in 2007. Dyson has performed lead roles in The Nutcracker, The Sleeping Beauty, Paquita, Isadora Duncan's The Many Faces of Love, and Giselle. She is the recipient of the Hudson and Holland scholarship, the Presidential Arts Scholarship, and is a National Collegiate Scholar.
Juliann Hyde (Valse Fantasie [67] 10/9; Jeux 10/10) is a senior pursuing a Bachelor of Science degree in Ballet Performance with an Outside Field in Exercise Science. She began her training at Dance Design School in New York. Hyde has attended many summer intensives such as Boston Ballet, NYSSSA, and the Rock School of Pennsylvania Ballet. Hyde is one of few in the country that has received her Solo Seal Award through Royal Academy of Dance. In 2007, she received the Bachman Honorable Mention Award at IU while competing in the National Arts and Letters Competition. Some of her most recent roles include Odette in Swan Lake and Sugar Plum Fairy in The Nutcracker 2007 and 2008. She has also been seen in Les Patineurs as a Blue Girl, Twyla Tharp’s Sweet Fields, and Le Spectra de la Rose in Fall of 2007.
Caitlin Kirschenbaum (Valse Fantasie [67] 10/9; Jeux 10/10) began her training in her hometown of Sparta, N.J., with Nancy Volpe. She trained at the Walnut Hill School for a year and went on to study under partial scholarship for three years at American Ballet Theatre’s Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis School. Kirschenbaum is the recipient of merit scholarships from the Jacobs School of Music and the Hutton Honors College. She has been featured in ballets choreographed by Violette Verdy, Michael Vernon, and Matthew Neenan. Additional roles she has danced at IU include the “First Theme” in George Balanchine’s The Four Temperaments, Lead Flower and Arabian in Vernon’s production of The Nutcracker, and, most recently, the Black Swan in Swan Lake. She received awards in the 2008 and 2009 National Society of Arts and Letters ballet competitions.
Megan Liberty (Valse Fantasie [53] 10/10) received the majority of her ballet training from Valia Seiskaya at the Seiskaya Ballet Academy in St. James, NY. During high school she trained on full scholarship at the Washington School of Ballet under Rebecca Wright and later graduated from the North Carolina School of the Arts. Liberty’s summer study includes intensives at the School of American Ballet and American Ballet Theatre. A junior at Indiana University, she is pursuing a BSOF in Ballet and Biology with a minor in Chemistry. She is the recipient of a Dean’s Scholarship and the Kenneth C. Whitener Jr. Award for Ballet Excellence, and she is a member of the Hutton Honors College. Her recent IUBT roles include Choleric in Balanchine’s The Four Temperaments.
Jordan Martin (Valse Fantasie [67]), of Mount Laurel, N.J., began classical ballet training at the Academy of Ballet in Berlin, N.J., under David Gallagher. During her training, she performed with Ballet New Jersey in Swan Lake, Sleeping Beauty, The Nutcracker, and the full-length production of La Bayadère.
Daniel Morales (Les Noces 10/10), a native of N.J., studied various styles of dance at Center Stage Dance and Theater School. He has spent summers studying at Boston Ballet and American Ballet Theatre. In the winter of 2006, Morales studied and performed under the direction of Danny Catanach, director of the Urban Ballet Theater. While with IUBT, he has been featured in Apres de Midi d'un Faune, Endless Night, Sweet Fields, and The Nutcracker. Morales is a senior pursuing a Bachelor of Science in Ballet with an Outside Field in Business.
Grace Reeves (Valse Fantasie [53] 10/9; Les Noces 10/10) began her training under the direction of Terry Ellen Shields in Summerville, S.C., at age seven. She was accepted as a ballet major into the North Carolina School of the Arts as a high school sophomore, where she was featured in principal roles, studying with Melissa Hayden, Susan McCullough, Warren Conover, Fanchon Cordell, Nina Dinalova, and Kee Juan Han. She has attended summer intensives at Houston Ballet’s Ben Stevenson Academy, Alonzo King LINES Ballet, the Washington Ballet, and BalletMet Columbus. At IUBT, she has danced the Sanguinic Principle in Balanchine’s The Four Temperaments as well as the Black Swan in IUBT’s production of Swan Lake. Last February, Reeves was awarded first place in the National Scholars of Arts and Letters, a regional ballet competition held at IU. Reeves is a junior currently pursuing a Bachelor of Science in Ballet Performance with an Outside Field in History and is a member of the Hutton Honor’s College.
Pablo Sanchez (Valse Fantasie [67] 10/9; [53] 10/10) is a junior pursuing a Bachelor of Science in Ballet Performance with an Outside Field in Communications and Culture. He trained with Amy Rose at the Dance Academy of Libertyville, Ill., and furthered his training by attending Boston Ballet's Summer Program for multiple years on scholarship. In May of 2008, Sanchez toured to China with Rocky Mountain Ballet Theater as a guest artist, representing the United States in preparation for the Beijing Summer Olympics. Sanchez is a recipient of the Dean of Music Scholarship and Faculty Award and is also a Hudson Holland Scholar. While in IUBT, Sanchez has been featured in Michael Vernon’s The Nutcracker, Violette Verdy’s Inoui Rossini, Frederick Ashton’s Les Patineurs, George Balanchine’s The Four Temperaments, Twyla Tharp’s Sweet Fields, Cynthia Gregory’s Swan Lake, and in the world première of Matthew Neenan’s My Eyes Opened.
Heidi Satterthwaite (Les Noces 10/9) is now a senior at IUBT and just returned to the program after a year of dancing with Tulsa Ballet II under Marcelo Angelini. She was trained in classical ballet at the Real Conservatorio Profesional de Danza in Madrid, Spain, and attended many summer programs including Maria de Avila, Victor Ullate, and ABT New York. In 2006, she was a finalist in the Spanish National Ballet Competition in Torrelavega and has danced solos in classical, neoclassical, and modern styles throughout her career.
Demetria Schioldager (Valse Fantasie [67] 10/10; Jeux 10/9) grew up in Los Angeles, Calif., where she received Royal Academy of Dance training with Patricia Caballero and complete her graded examinations with distinctions. She has attended three RAD summer programs in Los Angeles, receiving awards each summer. Additionally, she has attended and received scholarships from American Ballet Theatre, Pacific Northwest Ballet, School of American Ballet, and San Francisco Ballet. She is pursuing a Bachelor of Science in Ballet Performance with an Outside Field in Communications and Culture.
Alex Shipley (Les Noces 10/10) is from Tulsa, Okla. At age four she began dancing with Moscelyne Larkin, co-founder of Tulsa Ballet, at Jasinski Academy. Her serious dance training began at Tulsa Ballet Center for Dance Education when it opened in 2003. There, she studied mainly under Sarkis Kaltakchian, Melanie Nasser and Liudmila Polonskaya. She has spent summers training at Tulsa Ballet’s Pointe to the Future, The Harid Conservatory (on partial scholarship), Boston Ballet, and Atlanta Ballet. 
Jacob Taylor (Les Noces) was raised in Colorado. He began his formal ballet training at age 10 with Boulder Ballet School. Taylor danced in numerous Boulder Ballet productions, including, An American in Paris, Cinderella, and their annual Nutcracker. Taylor is a freshman ballet major at Indiana University.
Alison Trumbull (Valse Fantasie [53] 10/9) was born in Newport Beach, Calif. and began her early training at Ballet Pacifica with Alaine Haubert and Molly Lynch. Trumbull graduated high school from the Harid Conservatory, where she trained for two years on a full tuition scholarship under Svetlana Osiyeva and Olivier Pardina. She has attended summer intensive programs at Boston Ballet, American Ballet Theatre, Houston Ballet, Kaatsbaan, the Harid Conservatory, and Pacific Northwest Ballet and was an apprentice at Chautauqua with North Carolina Dance Theater. She is currently a senior pursuing a Bachelor of Science in Ballet Performance and an outside field in Nonprofit Management with certificate in Fundraising. Coached by Violette Verdy, she placed in the National Arts and Letters Competition in 2009. Since joining IUBT, she has been featured in George Balanchine’s The Four Temperaments, Matthew Neenan’s My Eyes Opened, and Swan Lake staged by Cynthia Gregory.
Benjamin Warner (Valse Fantasie [53] 10/9) is in his third and final year with IUBT. He is currently working on his outside field of Religious Studies. Warner graduated from the Walnut Hill School in Natick, Mass. and attended the San Francisco Ballet’s summer program in 2007. His favorite role with IUBT was Phlegmatic in Balanchine’s The Four Temperaments.
