Eddy Tovar trained at the National Ballet School in Havana. He began his professional career in Brazil at the Bale do Estado de Goias before joining the Orlando Ballet under the direction of Bruce Marks and the late Fernando Bujones. Eddy rose through the ranks of Orlando Ballet to that of principal dancer, while also serving as the resident guest artist of the Los Angeles Ballet. He retired from the stage after dancing for Texas Ballet Theater as a principal dancer, under the direction of Ben Stevenson.
Eddy has performed principal roles in virtually every full-length classic ballet, including roles in works by George Balanchine and Twyla Tharp. As well, he has won numerous medals in competitions all around the world and appeared as a guest on the TV show “So You Think You Can Dance”. Most recently, Eddy served on the faculty of the Hartt School of Dance Department at the University of Hartford. Throughout his career, he has staged ballets as well as instructed students of all levels. Eddy is currently the Artistic Director of PBII. He is married and has a daughter.
Samantha Dunster began her ballet training with Cristina Pora in Toronto, Ontario. Then, at age 17, she traveled to Havana to train with the National Ballet of Cuba. She continued dancing with the company of Centro Pro-Danza, under the direction Laura Alonso, where she also worked as regisseur and ballet mistress.
In 1996, Samantha accepted the position of artistic director and principal dancer of Bale da Ilha in Brazil, where she staged numerous full-length ballets. By 2000, she became ballet mistress of Orlando Ballet, where, under the direction of the late Fernando Bujones, she re-choreographed La Fille Mal Gardee for the company. In 2004, she was commissioned by Orlando Ballet to create a world-premiere production of Camelot, the success of which broke ticket sales records. In 2007, she accepted the role of assistant to the artistic director of Orlando Ballet, under the direction of Bruce Marks. The following year, the pair together staged the full-length Don Quixote.
In 2011, Samantha accepted the position of chair/artistic director of the Hartt School Community Division Dance Department at the University of Hartford. During that time, she created and choreographed two new full-length ballets: Snow White and Peter Pan with original score by Kermit Poling. She also founded the pre-professional company HarttWorks as well as created the summer ballet intensive program From Studio to Stage, which has attracted guest artistic directors such as Bruce Marks, Laura Alonso, and Angel Corella.
Samantha has danced and taught in countries all around the world, including Sweden, Argentina, and Brazil. In 2003 and 2009, she set her staging of La Fille Mal Gardee for the National Ballet of Korea and the NBA Ballet Company in Tokyo respectively. Additionally, she has staged several works of Bruce Marks, including Lark Ascending for Louisville Ballet, and, in 2010, served as the Canadian judge for the International Ballet Competition in Jackson, MS.
Samantha began her tenure as ballet mistress with Philadelphia Ballet in November 2014 and was appointed assistant director in November 2015. She is married and has a daughter.
Born in St. Petersburg, Russia, George Balanchine (1904-1983) is regarded as the foremost contemporary choreographer in the world of ballet. He came to the United States in late 1933, at the age of 29, accepting the invitation of the young American arts patron Lincoln Kirstein (1907-96), whose great passions included the dream of creating a ballet company in America. At Balanchine’s behest, Kirstein was also prepared to support the formation of an American academy of ballet that would eventually rival the long-established schools of Europe.
This was the School of American Ballet, founded in 1934, the first product of the Balanchine-Kirstein collaboration. Several ballet companies directed by the two were created and dissolved in the years that followed, while Balanchine found other outlets for his choreography. Eventually, with a performance on October 11, 1948, the New York City Ballet was born. Balanchine served as its ballet master and principal choreographer from 1948 until his death in 1983.
Balanchine’s more than 400 dance works include Serenade (1934), Concerto Barocco(1941), Le Palais de Cristal, later renamed Symphony in C (1947), Orpheus (1948), The Nutcracker (1954), Agon (1957), Symphony in Three Movements (1972), Stravinsky Violin Concerto (1972), Vienna Waltzes (1977), Ballo della Regina (1978), and Mozartiana (1981). His final ballet, a new version of Stravinsky’s Variations for Orchestra, was created in 1982.
He also choreographed for films, operas, revues, and musicals. Among his best-known dances for the stage is Slaughter on Tenth Avenue, originally created for Broadway’s On Your Toes (1936). The musical was later made into a movie.
A major artistic figure of the twentieth century, Balanchine revolutionized the look of classical ballet. Taking classicism as his base, he heightened, quickened, expanded, streamlined, and even inverted the fundamentals of the 400-year-old language of academic dance. This had an inestimable influence on the growth of dance in America. Although at first his style seemed particularly suited to the energy and speed of American dancers, especially those he trained, his ballets are now performed by all the major classical ballet companies throughout the world.
Maria A. Konrad graduated from the Dreyfoos High School of the Arts in West Palm Beach and then earned her BFA in Performing Arts at The University of the Arts in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. As a teacher in Philadelphia, Mrs. Konrad created the early-dance-education curriculum for the school of the Koresh Dance Company, which has been featured in Dance Magazine.
Ms. Konrad’s choreography has been presented nationally in such venues such as the Spoleto Festival in South Carolina, The School of Colorado Ballet, The Harid Conservatory, Florida Dance Festival, Miami Dade Cultural Center, Florida Atlantic University, The Kravis Center, Next Generation Ballet and has collaborated with artistic organizations such as Palm Beach Symphony and Palm Beach Pops. Her work has been picked up by choreographic workshops in NYC by the STEPS Beyond Foundation at STEPS on Broadway and Uptown Rising Series at The Bridge. Her piece “Portraits” performed in the 2018 Come Together Festival hosted by Koresh Dance Company in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and she choreographed the 2019 production of “Les pêcheurs de perles” (The Pearl Fishers) for Opera Tampa where she will return this season to choreograph “Aida”.
She has been recognized by organization’s such as Young Arts and Youth America Grand Prix for “Outstanding Choreography” (2015, 2017). She has been a guest teacher for institutions such as The Colorado Ballet School, University of the Arts, Florida’s Young Dancers Workshop, The Art of Classical Ballet (dir. Magaly Suarez), Next Generation Ballet, St. Paul’s School, Florida Dance Festival and Youth America Grand Prix. She has worked at both The Harid Conservatory and A.W. Dreyfoos School of the Arts. She served on the 2018 faculty at The International Ballet Competition in Jackson, Mississippi. She is excited to join the YAGP organization for a second season as a judge and Master Teacher. She is currently resident choreographer with The Next Generation Ballet (Dir. Philip Neal) and the director of the contemporary program at Florida School for Dance Education.
Ashley Walton a native of Dayton, Ohio and graduate of Point Park University. Ms. Walton has worked with many notable instructors and choreographers such as Darla Hoover, Margo Sappington, Robert Battle, Julie Nakagawa, Christian Holder, Alan Hineline, Ron de Jesus, Doug Varone, Lynne Taylor-Corbett. While at Point Park University, Ms. Walton was chosen to perform at Kennedy Center, where she was awarded Northeast Performer of the Year.
Ashley went on to dance with both Atlanta Ballet and Dayton Ballet, where she performed principal roles in George Balanchine’s
Serenade, Septime Webre’s Peter Pan, Stephen Mills’ There Once Was a Time, John McFall’s Nutcracker, Alan Hineline’s Thresholds, William Whitener’s Caprice, and Stuart Sebastian’s Dracula. In 2009, at Regional Dance America’s Northeast Festival, Ashley received the Monticello Award for Best Emerging Choreographer and the Barbara Weisberger Choreographic Award for her work Aloft. In 2010, she received both the Project Tier Award and The National Choreographic Recognition Award for Sudden Impulse. Since then, Ms. Walton was granted nine additional National Choreographic Recognition Awards for her work throughout the Northeast and Pacific regions. Ashley has been commissioned to stage several new works by professional companies such as Sacramento Ballet, Cincinnati Ballet, GreeneWorks Projects, Stivers
Ensemble, Southern New Hampshire Youth Ballet, Mid-Columbia Ballet, Ballet Yuma, Long Beach Ballet, Dayton Dance Conservatory, Delaware Dance Company, Central Indiana Dance Ensemble, Vineland Regional Dance Company, and Jazz Dance World Congress. In addition to her repertoire works, Ms Walton has also created original full-length ballets such as Princess and the Pea, The Ugly Duckling, Snow White, and Miscellany: A Jazz Nutcracker. Ashley’s professional teaching credits include International Ballet Competition in Jackson, MS, Regional Dance America Pacific and
Northeast Festivals, adjunct faculty at Wright State University, Cinicinnati Ballet, National Choreography Intensive, Dayton Contemporary Dance Company, Mid- Columbia Ballet, Dayton Dance Conservatory, and Southern New Hampshire Dance
Theater.