Faculty

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Faculty

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Elizabeth F. Barisser
Artistic Director
Elizabeth F. Barisser, founder and Artistic Director of the Brass City Ballet, studied at the Rambert School of Ballet in London, England, the School of the Hartford Ballet, Connecticut, and with Melissa Hayden and Wilhelm Burmann (formerly with the New York City Ballet) in New York City. She has danced professionally with the Hartford Ballet in Connecticut, Syracuse Ballet Theatre, the Saeko Ichinohe Dance Company in NYC, and has made guest appearances in Europe and the US. She pursued her studies in modern dance under the tutelage of Ms. Ernestine Stodelle, the world-renowned authority on modern dance pioneer, Doris Humphrey.

Her professional teaching career includes Syracuse Ballet Theatre and the Istanbul State Conservatory in Istanbul, Turkey. In 1985, she founded the Waterbury School of Ballet in Waterbury, Ct, which became a non-profit organization in 1989, now known as Brass City Ballet.

She has choreographed several original, full-length ballets such as The Night of the Magic Ornaments, The Party and the Fantastic Toyshop, as well as modern dance works for Brass City Ballet. Her work with St. Mary's Children's Theatre in Waterbury has included such works as Grease, Fiddler on the Roof, and Peter Pan. In 1993, she received the Arts Recognition Award from the City of Waterbury. She has served on Waterbury's Community Visions Task Force and the School and Community Fine Arts Committee of Waterbury. In 1993, her work was selected for the New Dance, New Haven Choreography Competition. In 1999, she conceived and co-founded the first Connecticut Choreographer's Forum. Ms. Barisser serves on the Advisory Board of the CT Dance Alliance. In 2006, she became a founding member of the Governing Council of the Arts and Culture Collaborative of the Waterbury Region.

Ms. Barisser taught at the Taft School as Director of Dance from 2001-2008.

Christine Harris
Associate Artistic Director

Christine Harris is from Bay Shore, New York. She began her training with Leda and Marina Eglevsky at the Eglevsky Ballet School and also studied at the School of the Joffrey Ballet, S.U.N.Y Purchase and with Svetlana Caton-Noble.

Ms. Harris has danced professionally on both the East and West Coasts with the New York Dance Theatre, the Lumiere Ballet and the Noveau Chamber Ballet in California. She has performed soloist roles in several ballets, including The Nutcracker, Kismet, The Snow Maiden, Giselle, Serenade, Hansel and Gretel, La Bayadere, and The Trials of Tamara (nationally televised). Favorite roles include Sugarplum Fairy, Snow Queen and Marie Taglioni in Pas de Quatre.

Ms. Harris also holds a Bachelors Degree in Psychology. She spent a year studying dancer’s body image and completed a thesis entitled “The Relationship between Body Image, Self Esteem and Self Consciousness in Dancers and Non-Dancers.” She is a member of the KIVA Dance Collective, a Waterbury based modern dance company. She has attended teaching seminars with David Howard, the Richmond Ballet, Marcia Dale Weary of the Pennsylvania Youth Ballet and the Nutmeg Ballet.

Choreographic credits include Patty Cake, the Fantastic Toy Shop and the full length ballets, Snow White and the Seven Dwarves and Alice in Wonderland. Ms. Harris has taught for the Inland Pacific Ballet, Alvin Ailey, Long Island Academy of Dance, the Conservatory of Dance and at “Kids on Campus” at Naugatuck Community College and as an Adjunct Faculty Member at Westover School. She has served as Brass City Ballet’s Associate Director for ten years.

Gina Ferrara-Bates

Dance Discovery, Modern for Kids

Gina Ferrara-Bates studied dance at The George Washington University and received a Master of Arts degree from UCLA in Dance/Movement Therapy. She has used dance therapeutically with adults and children of special needs in a variety of psychiatric and educational settings.
Her current practice in Dance Therapy involves men and women challenged with chronic mental illness at Connecticut Valley Hospital in Middletown, CT. With Brass City Ballet, Gina facilitates creative movement and modern dance classes for children.
Though ballet was her predominant early training, Gina’s passions are with modern dance techniques. Past dance training and performance include work with Patti Buchanan, Terre Lefferts, Liz Lerman, Susan McLain, Lonna Wilkinson and Ernestine Stodelle. Gina is a member of the modern company Kiva Dance Collective.

Amy Gagnon

Ballet, Dance Discovery, Tap Kids

Amy began her ballet training in up-state New York with Ruth Frawley and Joan Kunsch, and later studied with Gilbert Reed and Tina Price. She also studied at the New York State Summer School of the Arts, Saratoga, NY, The American Dance Festival, Durham, NC, and was a full scholarship student at The David Howard Dance Center, NYC.

She received a BFA in ballet concentration from Purchase College, Purchase, NY, under the direction of Bettijane Sills, Rosanna Seravalli, and Gayle Young. She performed leading roles in The Nutcracker, Serenade, Who Cares? and The Four Temperaments. Amy danced professionally with the Albany Berkshire Ballet.

She has taught in the following New York Sate schools: Roberson School of Ballet, Ballet Arts Theater, Ballet Academy East and Easter Seals. Classes included creative movement, pre-ballet, ballet, tap, children’s yoga and adult ballet.

Amy also currently teaching for Caleco Ballet Studio in North Salem, NY.

Todd Hall
Ballet and Partnering
Todd Hall began dancing in Rhode Island, at the age of ten, with the Festival Ballet. One of his earliest roles was that of young Fritz, Clara's brother, in The Nutcracker. Todd trained at the School of American Ballet in New York City, as well as at the Joffrey Ballet School, and the School of the Boston Ballet. He has performed with the Boston Ballet and the Washington Ballet, among others, and has been a guest artist with a number of ballet companies in the United States, dancing such roles as Albrecht in Giselle, the Prince in Swan Lake, the Cavalier in Nutcracker, and Franz in Coppelia. Todd currently teaches and choreographs extensively throughout the Northeast and overseas.

Joan Kunsch
Ballet

Award-winning choreographer and poet Joan Kunsch is in her 24th year on the classical ballet faculty of Connecticut's Nutmeg Conservatory for the Arts, where she

is also Associate Director Emerita. Besides further projects in London (The Royal Ballet School, White Lodge and the R.A.D.), Stockholm (The Swedish Ballet School), Reykjavik (Iceland's National Ballet School), Oslo (Den NorskeBalletthoyskole & Kirkenaer Balletskolen), The Hague, Canadian cities, D.C. and 32 of the United States, she served as Ballet Mistress to MOMIX and Ballet Mississippi. She has given

teacher training, master classes and courses in university dance departments (Butler, SMU, Univ. of Utah, SUNY-Binghamton). Students she has trained or co-trained have joined over sixty professional dance companies. Her choreography includes works for concert stage, sacred space, television and outdoor sites. She has written for Pointe Magazine, and her poetry book "Playing With Gravity," published by Antrim House in 2007, has been followed by a poetry CD in 2011. With her sister Kathi Byam, she performs in the duo "Flute Meets Poem."

Currently Joan is Artistic Adviser to the Quinte Ballet School (Canada) and Vail Valley

Academy of Dance (Colorado) as well as a regular guest artist with Connecticut's

Brass City Ballet, Connecticut Dance Theatre and Woodbury Ballet. She is a member

of the Board of Directors of the Connecticut Dance Alliance.

Cristen Mortenson

Musical Theater and Voice

Cristen has enjoyed a successful career in the world of theatre, TV, and commercials. A native of Southern California, Ms. Mortenson started her career in many community theatre productions while studying voice with Dr. Darlene Romano, and studying dance 6 days a week. While attending the Los Angeles County High School for the Arts she was the first recipient of the prestigious Winterfest Spotlight Awards, held at the Music Center of Los Angeles. She then went on to graduate from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, and was fortunate to stay in the Bay Area where she performed the role of Christine in THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA for over 3 years. Ms. Mortenson then took a detour to New York where she made her Broadway debut in BY JEEVES, (original B’way cast member) by Lloyd Webber. Performing all over the country, some of her regional favorites include: Miss Dorothy in THOROUGHLY MODERN MILLIE, Hope Harcourt in ANYTHING GOES, Maria in THE SOUND OF MUSIC, Martha Jefferson in 1776, Cinderella in INTO THE WOODS, and Laurey in OKLAHOMA (opposite Rue McClanahan), to name a few. TV roles include BOSTON LEGAL, THE BOLD AND THE BEAUTIFUL, ALL MY CHILDREN, PASSIONS, The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson, and many commercials including Simmons Beauty Rest Mattresses for whom she is the National & International Spokeswoman. Though semi-retired from musical theatre, Ms. Mortenson recently returned to the Bay Area last summer to perform the role of Maria in THE SOUND OF MUSIC, (her fourth production of this role), at the Sacramento Music Theatre. Her main passion now is teaching Voice to children and adults and has a successful voice studio in Los Angeles and Thousand Oaks. Cristin is a proud member of Actors Equity Association, and the Screen Actors Guild.

Susan Nappi, MPH
Jazz Kids

Susan Nappi has been dancing since the age of 5. Since that time, she has been influenced by jazz, African and modern technique (Humphrey, Ailey) and has studied dance at SUNY Purchase in Purchase, NY. More recently, Susan has studied modern dance as a member of the Kiva Dance Collective (2002 to present). She has danced in original works by the Collective, performed in the 2002 Choreographer’s Forum (Pajama Pageant by Judith Ehrman-Shapiro), Brass City Ballet’s 2010 Gala (Mother’s Pearls by Mary Barnett). Recent performances include Salix Productions Dancing in Pink (2010, 2011), which benefits breast cancer awareness. Susan has also choreographed two pieces for the Collective, Crowded Solo and How the Light Gets In. She has also studied African with New Haven-based Aly Tatchol Camara.

When she is not dancing, Susan works as a Research Associate at Yale University’s School of Public Health where she received her Master’s in Public Health. She resides in Middlebury with her husband, Brandon and their two budding dancers, Sophia and Ellie.

Karin Terebessy

Yoga and Dance Discovery

Karin Terebessy is a Yoga Alliance certified Yoga instructor who has been leading yoga classes throughout Connecticut for years. From prenatal and baby and toddler classes, through intermediate and senior classes, Karin believes there is a yoga practice for everyone, during every and any phase of life. Karin takes a student centered approach to teaching, leading classes based on special requests of participants. Offering a variety of modifications, participants are encouraged to challenge themselves or nurture themselves based on their needs on any particular day. Yoga is not about progress -it's about presence. With a deep focus on breath and alignment, students are encouraged to take traditional yoga asanas to the next level of awareness.

Karin also holds a Masters Degree in Literature and Creative Writing and has been a college professor, social service worker, and is currently the proud mother of two beautiful daughters. She likes to think about philosophy, mathematics and physics. Laughing and smile are big with Karin.