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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 and is presently an Adjunct Member of the Westover School Dance Department.
Christine Harris Associate 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. Gina Ferrara-Bates Dance Discovery, Dance Basics, 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. Meghan Buchanan Ballet Meghan Buchanan started dancing at Brass City Ballet at the age
of five, under the tutelage of Mrs. Elizabeth Barisser. She started teaching for BCB at the age of 16 and graduated from BCB
the following year. While in high school, she had the unique experience of living in Berlin, Germany and danced at Danceworks
Berlin and Vogel Dance while living there. Meghan has continued to work for Brass City Ballet occasionally throughout the
years but joined their faculty full time this past September. She has trained mostly in ballet, although she has studied numerous
other forms of dance including modern and jazz. Some notable choreographers and instructors she has worked with, and danced
for, include Mary Barnett and Ernestine Stodell. Meghan became a member of the Kiva Dance Collective in March of 2008 and
continues to pursue her love of modern dance. Patricia M. Buchanan Modern Patti Buchanan trained with Ernestine Stodelle, a pioneer of modern dance and expert on the Doris Humphrey technique. She received her B.S. from University of Connecticut. Mrs. Buchanan is a Founding Member of the KIVA Dance Collective. She was chosen to choreograph for the 2003 Connecticut Choreographer’s Forum. She is presently the Dance Director for Westover School in Middlebury, CT. Jim Clark Jazz Jim was born and raised in Connecticut. He began studying dance and theater at age 14. During his 40+ years in musical theatre he has worked on Broadway, in Las Vegas and in TV and film. He has done such Broadway shows as West Side Story. Funny Girl, Pippin and Hello Dolly and has worked with Carol Lawerence, Mickey Rooney and Bernadette Peters. In Las Vegas he’s worked with Ann-Margaret, Shirley Bassey and Shirley MacLaine and on TV with Carol Channing, Dick Van Dyke and Carol Burnett. He then took a job which brought him to Japan where he spent the next 25 years. While in Japan he directed and choreographed many original musicals as well as, The Fantastics, Redhead and Lucky Stiff. During this time he opened his own musical theater school, helped create the musical theater course at Osaka College of Music where he taught for 10 years and was the only foreign teacher at the prestigeous Takarazuka Musical Theater Company. It was also during this time that he was asked to assist Tommy Tune with a Japanese production of Grand Hotel and to work with John Mineo putting together companies of Zorba and Fanny as well as touring the country with John doing "Fosse" workshops. Jim returned to the States in 2001 and has since done shows with Ray Ramano from "Everybody Loves Raymond", Amy Brennnegan of Judging Amy and William Petersen from CSI and an awards show with former president Bill Clinton. He has been doing "Fosse" workshops throughout the New England area and has choreographed a production of "Company" for NVCC. As well as teaching his 3rd summer credited course at NVCC in theatre dance.. He has worked with WAMS and Seven Angels Theater and Brass City Ballet in Waterbury and numerous theater dance workshops both in CT and New Jersey. Jim has also been active with high schools in the area doing such shows as Aladdin, Aida as well as re-staging All That Jazz for Taft School in Watertown. This year was his 4th year working for CT Free Shakespeare and until recently, National Theater for Arts and Education. Amy Gagnon Ballet, Dance Discovery, Tap Kids Amy began her ballet training in up-state New York with Ruth Frawley and Joan Kunsch. She later studied with Gilbert Reed and Tina Price, and spent three summers in Saratoga participating in the New York State Summer School for the Arts program. 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 and Ballet Academy East.
Classes included creative movement, pre-ballet, ballet, tap and adult ballet. Amy is currently teaching creative movement for the Easter Seals New York Chapter, and is excited to be teaching at Brass City Ballet. Joan Kunsch Ballet Joan Kunsch teaches classical ballet at Connecticut's Nutmeg Conservatory for the Arts, of which she is Associate Director. Guest teaching and choreography have taken her around North America and abroad, particularly to Oslo, Stockholm, London and The Hague. On the Nutmeg Ballet faculty for 20 years, and in previous positions, she has trained dancers toward careers in over 50 professional companies in the U.S.A., Canada and Europe. Her choreography includes works for concert stage, television, sacred space and outdoor sites. She has served on the dance faculties of two universities, has written for Pointe Magazine, and has had poetry, illustrations and articles published in the U.S.A., Norway, England and India. For the New York State Council on the Arts (under Kitty Carlisle Hart) she wrote reports on performances given around the state by dance groups applying for grants. Her first book, "Playing With Gravity," was published by Antrim House in 2007. She translates contemporary Norwegian poets, gives public poetry readings in Norwegian and English, and performs "Flute Meets Poem" in a duo with her sister, Kathi Byam. 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. Karin Terebessy Yoga Karin Terebessy is a Yoga Alliance Certified yoga Instructor who believes
that everyone deserves to have yoga in their lives. Karin leads gentle yoga practices for seniors at the Oxford Senior Center,
invigorating Hatha yoga for Brass City Ballet, nurturing Flow and Let Go to women at From Here to Serenity, as well as Baby
and me yoga, prenatal, and restorative yoga classes. Karin also works one on one with a few clients doing therapeutic yoga
for chronic conditions. Karin believes yoga is an embracing, uplifting practice, where everyone is welcome. Laughing and smiling
are big with Karin. " |
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