Artistic Team, Choreographers & Guest Performers
Seanna Chmura
Artistic Director/
Choreographer
Susan Byrne
Artistic Director/
Choreographer
Katie Machado
Artistic Director/
Choreographer
Please visit www.APAASalem.com for Artistic Staff bios
Ruth Fentroy
Choreographer
2019-2021
Ruth Fentroy is a former professional regional and international ballet dancer, having danced with the Cairo Opera Ballet in Egypt as well as several local companies throughout the US. In the most recent year of her dancing career, she was invited to perform in the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in Scotland, 2017. She has been training young dancers in the art of classical ballet for over 20 years and has extensive experience in one-on-one coaching and restaging full-length ballets. Many of her students have continued on to dance professionally with companies such as Boston Ballet, San Francisco Ballet, Dance Theatre of Harlem and Aspen Santa Fe Ballet to name a few and younger students have continued on to train on scholarship in prestigious schools such as San Francisco Ballet School, Ballet West, Joffrey Ballet School, and American Ballet Theatre's summer intensive. In addition to her teaching experience, she has also spent several years acting as Ballet Mistress with Dance Peninsula Ballet and California Contemporary Ballet Theater and has served as Artistic Director of the Ballet Departments of California dance schools "Studio Fusion" and "The Studio, Art of Dance"
Lauren Ganther was born and raised in Appleton, WI. She received her training from Jeanette Makaroff at the Markaroff Youth Ballet. She also studied at Milwaukee Ballet, Jose Mateo Ballet Theatre's extension program, and Batsheva Dance Company in Israel. She continued her training at The Boston Conservatory where she received her BFA in dance. At the conservatory she performed a lead role in Gerald Arpino's ballet "Light Rain" along with works by Paul Taylor, Jose Limon, Larry Kegwin, and many others. Lauren joined José Mateo Ballet Theatre as an apprentice in 2013 and was promoted to the company in 2014. She is also currently a ballet, contemporary and dance team instructor at a Performing Arts Academy and we are happy to welcome her as a choreographer with The GSBC!
Lauren Ganther
Choreographer
2015-2017
Nina Matiashvili
Guest Performer
in 2023
Born in Tbilisi, Georgia, Nina Matiashvili completed her ballet training at the V. Chabukiani Tbilisi State Ballet School. She joined the State Ballet of Georgia in 2007 and was promoted to soloist in 2012. Matiashvili joined Hong Kong Ballet in 2014 as a coryphée.
Her repertoire with State Ballet of Georgia and Hong Kong Ballet includes Nina Ananiashvili’s Don Quixote (Kitri), George Balanchine’s Serenade and Tarantella, Alexei Fadeyechev’s The Nutcracker (The Ballerina), and La Fille mal gardée (Lise), Alexeyevich Gorsky and Cynthia Harvey’s The Sleeping Beauty (Princess Florine), Terence Kohler’s The Nutcracker (Sugar Plum Fairy), John Meehan’s Swan Lake, Natalie Weir’s Turandot, as well as roles in ballets by Sir Frederick Ashton, August Bournonville, JiÅ™í Kylián, Yuri Possokhov, and Alexei Ratmansky.
Her repertoire with Boston Ballet includes George Balanchine’s Agon and Chaconne, John Cranko’s Romeo and Juliet (Juliet), Alexander Ekman’s Cacti, Jorma Elo’s Bach Cello Suites and Creatures of Egmont, William Forsythe’s Artifact 2017 and Blake Works I, JiÅ™í Kylián’s Bella Figura, Mikko Nissinen’s The Nutcracker (Snow Queen), Ken Ossola’s Zoom In, Larissa Ponomarenko’s Giselle, Jerome Robbins’ Fancy Free (Purse Girl), and Leonid Yakobson’s Pas de Quatre.
In 2012, she performed in the Donetsk International Ballet Festival World Ballet Stars gala. She also participated in Bournonville in Biarritz in 2009 and 2011–2013.
Matiashvili joined Boston Ballet as an artist of the Company in 2016. She was promoted to second soloist in 2022.
Born in Moscow, Russia, Ms. Zinovieva moved to the United States at a young age. She began her classical ballet training at the Boston Ballet School while also competing as a rhythmic gymnast. She graduated from the University of North Carolina School of the Arts’ high school program under the artistic direction of Ethan Stiefel. She spent a year coaching with SLK Ballet in New York City before coming to Festival Ballet Providence. Throughout her professional career, she has also appeared with Quixotic Cirque Nouveau, North Atlantic Dance Theater, the Kansas City Dance Festival, Tony Williams Ballet, and Staten Island Ballet. Her repertoire includes principal roles in The Firebird, Carmen, The Nutcracker, and Etudes, Balanchine’s Allegro Brillante, Agon, Apollo and Glinka Pas de Trois, and contemporary works by Viktor Plotnikov, Ilya Kozadaev, Dominic Walsh, Joseph Morrissey, and others. Most recently, Zinovieva has been a co-director of the Rhode Island Women's Choreography Project (RIWCP) since 2019. Her own choreography has been presented at RIWCP, New Bedford Ballet, SLK Ballet, and most recently, Festival Ballet Providence as the recipient of a New England Foundation for the Arts grant.
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Eugenia Zinovieva
Guest Performer
in 2017 -2022
Mamuka kikalishvili born in Poti,Georgia. He completed his ballet training at the V.Chabukiani Tbilisi state ballet school and joined State Ballet of Georgia in 2012 as a Coryphee.
Kikalishvili Joined Hong Kong Ballet in 2014 and 2016-2018 Boston Ballet as a Artist of the company. After dancing several years with Festival Ballet Providence, he is now a freelance performer.
His repertoire includes Prince Nutcracker in A. Fadeechevs Choreography.
Colen from LA fill Mal garde, Choreography by A.Fadeechev's. Jorma elos Creatures of Egmont. Cyntia Harvey's Sleeping beauty "Blue bird" as well as roles in ballets by Sir Frederick Aston, William Forsyte,Yuri Possokhov and Alexei Ratmansky.
Mamuka Kikalishvili
Guest Performer
in 2021 - 2023
Alan Alberto
Guest Performer
in 2016 - 2019
Born in Daly City, California, Alan Alberto began his formal ballet training at 15 with Marielena Mencia and Yanis Pikieris in Miami, Florida. A year later he was accepted to The Harid Conservatory, FL from which he graduated in 2005. Upon graduating he was accepted to the Vaganova Ballet Academy, formally known as the Kirov Ballet School in St. Petersburg, Russia. In the Academy, he studied under the direction of Yuri Ivanovich Umrijin. Once completing his studies and returning to the US, he began working as a company member with Nashville Ballet. To further develop his career, he moved to NYC and began working as a freelance artist with Rebecca Kelly Ballet, Ballet X, and New Chamber Ballet. In 2010 he was invited to join the Croatian National Theater in Split as a Soloist. Highlights from his career include Grande Pas from La Bayadere; Twyla Tharp's Octet; Oberon in Midsummer Night’s Dream; Albrecht & Peasant Pas de Deux in Giselle; Prince Desiree & Blue Bird in The Sleeping Beauty and other soloist roles in Concerto Barocco, The Nutcracker, Carmina Burana, and Zorba the Greek. This is his fifth season with Festival Ballet Providence.
Joao Sampaio
Guest Performer
in 2018
João Sampaio from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil started his dance studies under the care of Carlos Henrique Bonforte in Três Rios – RJ and his classical ballet training under the care of Ana Palmieri and Romulo Ramos in Rio de Janeiro, where he went to national and international competitions and received awards such as 1st Place at the World Ballet Competition (WBC) 2014 in Orlando – Fl in the Grand Pas de Deux Category, 1st Place at Youth America Grand Prix (YAGP) 2014 in NYC in the Ensamble Category with Balletarrj School of Dance and went to the Final Round for the Senior Classical Variations Category, also received awards such as Best Male Dancer around competitions in Brazil.
Joined Tulsa Ballet in 2014 where he performed featured roles in ballets such as Wayne McGregor’s Infra, Nacho Duato’s Remansos, Kurt Jooss’ The Green Table as Standard Bearer, Jiri Kylian’s Petite Mort, Yuri Possokhov’s Classical Symphony, Edwaard Liang’s Romeo and Juliet as Paris and Age of Innocence, and performed ballets from Choreographers such as John Cranko, Adam Hoagland, Jorma Elo, Marcello Angelini, Ma Cong, Dwight Rhoden, Nicolo Fonte and more. He is happy to join Festival Ballet. This is his first season with Festival Ballet Providence.
Born and raised in south Alabama, Cameron Morgan began dancing at Andalusia Ballet under the direction of Meryane Murphy. He attended the University of Oklahoma, where he graduated in December 2016 with dual degrees in Ballet Performance and Public Relations. While at OU, Cameron danced with Oklahoma Festival Ballet (OFB) and Contemporary Dance Oklahoma (CDO). Cameron has performed internationally with OFB at the Internationale Haydntage in Eisenstadt, Austria, and with CDO at Cita con la Danza XVIII in Benicássim, Spain. Cameron enjoys performing classical and contemporary works. His classical credits include The Nutcracker, Raymonda, Coppélia, Cinderella and Ilya Kozadayev’s Romeo and Juliet and his contemporary credits include pieces choreographed by Uwe Scholz, Raimondo Rebeck, Sonia Dawkins, Ilya Kozadayev, Austin Hartel, Viktor Plotnikov and Jock Soto. This is Cameron's second season with Festival Ballet Providence.
Cameron Morgan
Guest Performer
in 2017
Native of Russia, In 2003 Burov graduated from the Saratov Academy of Ballet and joined Moscow Classical Ballet under the artistic direction of Natalla Kasatkina and Vladimir Vasilev where he became a principal dancer. In 2005-2006, he was a dancer with Ballet Idaho and from 2006-2105 he was a principal dancer at Festival Ballet Providence as well as being a guest artist for many companies in the US and internatonally. Burov has performed lead roles in many ballets including, Cinderella, Swan Lake, Sleeping Beauty, The Nutcracker, Don Quixote and several other classical and modern works an pieces composed for the artist.
IlyaBurov
Guest Performer
in 2016
Emily Loscocco began her dance training in her hometown of Holliston Massachusetts. At the age of fifteen she left home to attend school at the Kirov Academy in Washington D.C. There she received training from Galina Kozlova in the Vagonava style. The next year Ms. Loscocco attended a summer program with The Orlando Ballet under the direction of Bruce Marks. She was asked to stay and received her first job with a professional ballet company. While dancing in Orlando Emily participated in the Youth America Grand Prix, dancing her way to the final round she placed top twelve and was offered multiple scholarships. She danced as a principal with the Festival Ballet Providence located in Rhode Island and has been guesting internationally. Most recently Emily was Dancing as a principal guest artist with Alaska Dance Theatre and teaching daily at their school
Emily Loscocco
Guest Performer
in 2016
Coree McKee
Guest Performer
in 2014 & 2015
Coree McKee began her formal dance training under the direction of Suzanne Pomerantzeff at the Academy of Ballet Arts in St. Petersburg, Florida at the age of 10. In 2008 she went on to study at the Orlando Ballet School, under the direction of Peter Stark. During her summers she studied with the American Ballet Theatre, Boston Ballet and the St. Petersburg Concert Ballet. In 2013 Coree received her Bachelor of Fine Arts Degree in Dance, from the Boston Conservatory. While at the Boston Conservatory ,Coree was awarded the Jan Veen Scholarship, as well as a Merit Scholarship. Upon Graduation in 2013, Coree joined The American Contemporary Ballet as a company dancer where she was featured in original works choreographed by director Lincoln Jones. Coree is currently a company dancer and teacher with Los Angeles Choreographers and Dancers and is Performing all across Los Angeles, CA and was a guest choreographer for The GSBC in 2014. The Nutcracker has always been one of her favorite shows and she is honored to be performing with The Greater Salem Ballet Company again this Holiday Season!
Roman Bykov is originally from Russia and comes from a family of dancers. Roman started learning dance from his father at the age of 3. He studied different styles of dance in art school since 8, after that he graduated a dance college in his hometown and then continued his dance education in Moscow State University of Culture and Arts. He has worked for numerous dance companies around the world as a dancer, choreographer and dance captain. Roman took part in a creative team of choreographers and dancers for the Opening Ceremony of Olympic Games in Sochi/Russia 2012. After that Roman went back to the US where he than joined Los Angeles Choreographers and Dancers in which he has found an inspiration for contemporary dancing as well as other styles. He is honored to be a part of The Greater Salem Ballet Company’s Nutcracker this season.
Roman Bykov
Guest Performer
in 2015
Cameron Allen was Born and raised in Buffalo, NY where he began his dance training at an early age. He is currently a Senior Dance Major at the Boston Conservatory where he will graduate this coming May with his BFA in contemporary dance. Upon graduation he hopes to continue his dance career in the realm of commercial dance and performance art. He is also interested in the fusion of cultures and sharing his love and passion for dance through involvement in community outreach programs.