Jill Nunes Jensen is a member of the Colburn faculty where she teaches courses in artistic inquiry and leads conversations with invited guest artists. Dr. Nunes Jensen is also a member of the Dance faculty at Loyola Marymount University. She has a Ph.D. in Dance History and Theory from the University of California, Riverside and a masters in Dance from UCLA.
She has instructed courses in dance history, ballet technique, dance as social action, choreography, and serves as a senior thesis mentor. For years, her research has been the primary scholarship on Alonzo King LINES Ballet and she has presented on the company internationally. Her work has been published in the journals Dance Chronicle and Theatre Survey, in addition to the books When Men Dance, Perspectives on American Dance: The Twentieth Century, and Re-thinking Dance History (2nd ed.). Dr. Nunes Jensen has organized conferences in Los Angeles and New York City, and has served on the executive board of what is now the Dance Studies Association.
In 2016, she co-curated the first conference dedicated to contemporary ballet at the Center for Ballet and the Arts (NYU) and Barnard College (Columbia). She has been an invited speaker at the San Francisco Ballet’s Boundless Symposium (2018), Duke University (2019), and the University of Maryland (2021). As co-editor of The Oxford Handbook of Contemporary Ballet (2021), the first treatment of contemporary ballet as a discipline, Dr. Nunes Jensen’s work and pedagogical approach to dance history seeks to shift the discourse of ballet studies by centering the work of artists of color. At present, she is working on a monograph about Alonzo King LINES Ballet, a San Francisco-based company founded by King in 1982.
Silas Farley began his training when he was 7 years old in his hometown of Charlotte, North Carolina with Sal and Barbara Messina at King David Christian Conservatory. He continued his training at Charlotte Ballet Academy with Hamburg Ballet alumni Kathryn Moriarty and Mark Diamond and New York City Ballet (NYCB) alumni Patricia McBride and Jean-Pierre Bonnefoux. He completed his ballet training at The School of American Ballet (SAB). He joined NYCB in 2012 and danced with the Company until 2020. There he performed principal roles in the works of George Balanchine and Christopher Wheeldon and originated roles in ballets by Wheeldon, Lauren Lovette, and Justin Peck.
Farley has taught nationally and internationally, including at the School of American Ballet, New York City Ballet, Slovak National Ballet, Colburn School, Peabody Conservatory, Hartt School, Chautauqua School of Dance, and The Kennedy Center. He has choreographed for the School of American Ballet, the New York Choreographic Institute, Columbia Ballet Collaborative at Columbia University, and Works & Process at The Guggenheim, The Washington Ballet, and American Ballet Theatre.
In 2017, Farley collaborated with poet Ilya Kaminsky on the ballet adaptation of Kaminsky’s book, Deaf Republic, at Grace Farms Foundation. In the fall of 2017, Farley was commissioned by MetLiveArts to choreograph a site-specific work at The Metropolitan Museum of Art. That work, Songs From The Spirit, was made in collaboration with the Ear Hustle podcast and was set to music by currently and formerly incarcerated musicians from San Quentin State Prison. The ballet premiered at The Met Museum in 2019.
Farley was an inaugural Jerome Robbins Dance Division Research Fellow at The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts. He has written for Dance Magazine and lectured for the New York City Ballet, New York Philharmonic, Saratoga Performing Arts Center, Park Avenue Armory, and Museum of Modern Art. Farley is writer and host of the New York City Ballet podcast, Hear The Dance. Mr. Farley served as the Armstrong Visiting Artist in Residence in Ballet in The Meadows School of the Arts at Southern Methodist University (SMU) for the 2020–21 academic year.
In addition to his role as Dean of the Trudl Zipper Dance Institute, Mr. Farley is an Amplify Artist at the Colburn School. He is also an Alumnus Trustee of Professional Children’s School and serves on the Board of The George Balanchine Foundation.
Pointe Magazine Silas Farley’s Vision for Los Angeles’ Colburn School
New York Times Silas Farley to Lead Dance Academy in Los Angeles
Los Angeles Times New York City Ballet alum Silas Farley, 26, is named dean of Colburn dance institute
The Washington Post Washington Ballet concludes its virtual season with a breath of fresh air, captured on film
New York Times Retiring From Ballet at 26? Dancing Can Get You Only So Far
Songs from The Spirit, choreographed and performed by Silas Farley Metropolitan Museum of Art Digital Premiere
Anachorisi (Departure), choreographed and performed by Silas Farley Works & Process at the Guggenheim
Darleen Callaghan began her dance training with the Stone-Camryn School of Ballet in Chicago where she performed as a child with the New York City Ballet, Pennsylvania Ballet, and the Stone-Camryn Ballet. She was then awarded full scholarships for further study at the American Ballet Theatre School and the School of American Ballet in New York City. As a student at SAB, she had the privilege of performing with Jacques D’Amboise & Friends, Jean-Pierre Bonnefoux-Patricia McBride & Company, and at the White House for the President at a NATO Summit Dinner. Throughout her performing career, Callaghan danced in numerous ballets from the Balanchine repertory including Symphony in C, Divertimento #15, Square Dance, Four Temperaments, Scotch Symphony, Valse Fantaisie, and Allegro Brillante. She danced in a variety of principal, soloist, and corps de ballet roles with the North Carolina Dance Theatre performing in classical and contemporary works by Aiello, Ariaz, Balanchine, Bournonville, Nebrada, Petipa, Thomasson, and Vesak. She joined the company for two European tours, performances at the Spoleto Festivals in America and Italy, and extensive annual tours throughout the United States.
Upon retiring from the stage, Darleen honed her skills as a teacher, choreographer, and arts administrator. Darleen is nationally recognized for her work as Director of the North Carolina Dance Theatre School of Dance (the official school of the North Carolina Dance Theatre, now Charlotte Ballet), where she increased enrollment from 150 to 700 students in the first three years and achieved national recognition for the School as a major professional training academy. As Director of the Miami City Ballet School, she was instrumental in establishing a variety of new curriculum, performance, and outreach initiatives. Darleen oversaw the development of a new school syllabus and expanded the Pre-Professional Division curriculum to include composition classes, a Student Choreography Showcase and a comprehensive Supplemental Training Program that included Pilates, Gyrotonics, and weight-training classes. She established the Miami City Ballet School Ensemble, a pre-professional student performing company, which performed the Miami City Ballet’s signature outreach program, “Ballet for Young People” in major theaters throughout South Florida. Darleen also developed the widely acclaimed “Ballet Bus” program, providing transportation, counseling, and ballet training to underserved children in the local community.
As a former principal dancer with the Joffrey Ballet and Pennsylvania Ballet, and as an international guest artist, Leslie has danced extensively throughout the United States, Europe, and Asia. She was featured on television in Dance in America’s A Night At The Joffrey, televised on PBS, The Diana Ross Show, The Merv Griffen Show, and others. During her many years as a leading dancer with the Joffrey Ballet, she danced a wide range of principal roles, in works by Sir Frederick Ashton, Jiri Kylian, Mark Morris, Ben Stevenson, Glen Tetley, and Twyla Tharp, amongst others. During her career, leading roles were created for her by Robert Joffrey, William Forsythe, Gerald Arpino, Dwight Rhoden, John Clifford, and many others.
In the Pennsylvania Ballet, Leslie danced the title roles in The Nutcracker, Swan Lake, Coppelia, Giselle, The Sleeping Beauty, and John Cranko’s Romeo and Juliet, as well as an extensive repertoire of the ballets of George Balanchine.
Leslie served as ballet faculty and Dance Institute Director at the Colburn School of Performing Arts for almost a decade, and currently travels as guest teacher to schools across the United States and Europe, including The ABT William J. Gillespie School at Segerstrom Center for the Arts, The Pennsylvania Youth Ballet and The Finnish National Ballet School. She also teaches ballet, Pilates, and Zena Rommett Floor-Barre® classes in the Los Angeles area. Leslie is proud to serve as a Mentor at the annual Floor-Barre® Teacher Certification Courses around the world, and on the Managing Board of Directors for the Zena Rommett Floor-Barre® Foundation.
Yuka Fukuda, originally from Tokyo, Japan, trained at Tokyo Junior Ballet and Asami Maki Ballet Arts. Upon coming to the United States, she trained at George Mason University in Virginia and The Ailey School in New York City. On graduating in 1999, she was invited to join Ailey’s second company Ailey II, performing with them from 1999–2002.
Yuka went on to be a company member of Dallas Black Dance Theatre for two years. She performed in six productions of The King and I, including at the venue Papermill Playhouse, as well as several national tours. She played the role of Victoria in Cats at West Virginia Public Theater. She served as an assistant choreographer for the production of Gospel Gospel Gospel directed and choreographed by Otis Sallid. She has worked with renowned choreographers such as Robert Battle, Jessica Lang, Jacqulyn Buglisi, Donald Byrd, Ronald K. Brown, and many more.
As a teacher, she has taught at the Nang Young Academy of Fine Arts in Singapore, Dallas Black Dance Academy, and headed up the Modern department at Champs Charter High School for the Performing Arts. She is also a faculty member at Los Angeles County High School for the Arts (LACHSA), Lula Washington Dance Theater, and City Ballet of Los Angeles.
She has completed her Horton pedagogy training with Anna Marie Forsyth.
Johnnie Hobbs III is a filmmaker and tap dance teacher. His directorial efforts include Pan African Film Festival Best Film Nominee Nostalgia, short film drama starring Dule Hill (The West Wing, Psych), Chloe Arnold (Syncopated Ladies) and Jason Samuels Smith. Winner of Best Short Film at The Cleveland Urban Film Festival, NOSTALGIA has been shown on Aspire TV, and SHORTS HD Channel. Johnnie has since directed and produced five other short content works. In addition, he has directed motion capture pre-visuals mocap company, House of Moves.
A long time tap dancer and performer from Alaska to Guatemala, Johnnie teaches as an Adjunct Dance Professor at AMDA LA, Hussian School, as well as the Colburn School and Edge Performing Arts Center in Los Angeles. He recently provided choreography for Kelly Marie Tran’s 2021 MISCAST performance for MCC Theatre, from The Book of Mormon. He’s been an Artist in Residence at University of Colorado, guest speaker at Broadway Dance Center, Temple University, Santa Monica College, and Art Institute of Philadelphia to name a few.
Timothy Lynch is from Mineola, NY, and received his dance training from the School of American Ballet. In 1993, Tim joined Pacific Northwest Ballet, and performed featured roles in George Balanchine’s Agon, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, The Four Temperaments and works by Jerome Robbins, Kent Stowell, and Paul Taylor. He originated roles in works by Donald Byrd, Val Caniparoli, Kevin O’Day, Mark Dendy, Kent Stowell, and Lynne Taylor-Corbett. Tim’s rich performing experience includes character roles such as Carabosse in Ronald Hynd’s Sleeping Beauty, Herr Drosselmeier in Kent Stowell’s Nutcracker, and Gamache in Kevin Mackenzie’s Don Quixote.
Film works include the role of Nick Bottom in the BBC production of Balanchine’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Tim became co-director of PNB’s Outreach Youth Performing Group in 2001 and began teaching in PNB’s Dance Chance program. In 2003, he joined Pacific Northwest Ballet School as a full-time faculty member, where he choreographed and helped shape the men’s program for over 10 years. He received his Bachelor of Fine Arts in dance from Cornish College of the Arts in 2005, graduating summa cum laude. Tim has been guest faculty at Cornish College of the Arts, University of Washington, and Western Washington University.
He founded Seattle Dance Project in 2007, where he was both Artistic Director and a dancer. He has performed works by Donald Byrd, James Canfield, Pat Catterson, Molissa Fenley, Kiyon Gaines, Edwaard Liang, Wade Madsen, Eva Stone, Kent Stowell, Olivier Wevers, Ellie Sandstrom, and Hilde Koch. Tim has choreographed for Cornish College of the Arts, Dance Contemporary, and the Creative Dance Center. He earned the KOMO Kids First Award for mentoring local youth in 2011, and was awarded Educator of the Year 2012 from the Dance Educators Association of Washington. He holds a Master of Fine Arts in dance from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and continues to find ways to further his professional development.
Tim served as the Academy Director for BalletMet in Columbus, Ohio from 2014–16. He created a boy’s program, expanded the pre-professional trainee program and rebranded its adult dance fitness classes. His choreographic work in Columbus has been showcased at the Ohio Dance Festival and at the Capitol Theater.
In 2016, Tim and his family moved back to the West Coast and in 2017, he co-founded the Lynch Dance Institute in San Diego with his wife Alexandra Dickson. He recently obtained his yoga certification and teaches at Core Power Yoga. Tim began working at the Colburn Dance Academy in 2017 and is grateful to Jenifer and James for including him in the fantastic work taking place at Colburn.
Romy is a native of Southern California. At the age of 15, she became a student on full scholarship at The School of American Ballet (the official school of The New York City Ballet). At 17, she was chosen by Peter Martins to participate as an exchange student with The Royal Danish Ballet, and at age 18 she joined The New York City Ballet, where she danced for nine years. She has performed principal and solo roles in ballets such as The Nutcracker, Sleeping Beauty, Swan Lake, The Four Temperaments, Who Cares, La Valse, Symphony in Three Movements, Agon, and Concerto Barocco.
Romy has appeared on national television on the Dance in America broadcast of An Evening with Balanchine and the movie The Nutcracker. Ms. Karz Rapoport has 30 years of teaching and choreographing experience for ballet students of all ages, and holds a certification as a yoga instructor as well. She is passionate about helping dancers of all ages maintain healthy technique as they pursue their passion.
Janie Taylor was born in Houston, TX where she began her ballet training at age two with Gilbert Rome. She trained at the Giacobbe Academy of Dance in New Orleans from 1993–1996. After attending two years of the summer program at the School of American Ballet, she became a full-time student in the fall of 1996. While a student at SAB she originated a featured role in Christopher Wheeldon’s Soirée Musicale for the spring workshop performance in June of 1998. She received the Mae L. Wien Award at the SAB Annual Workshop and was invited to become an apprentice with New York City Ballet. A month later, she became a member of NYCB’s corps de ballet. She was promoted to the rank of Soloist in February 2001 and to Principal in 2005. During her career with New York City Ballet she originated roles in ballets choreographed by Peter Martins, Benjamin Millepied, and Justin Peck. She also performed featured roles in numerous ballets by George Balanchine and Jerome Robbins, as well as pieces by Lynne Taylor-Corbett, Susan Stroman, Twyla Tharp, and Miriam Mahdaviani. Ms. Taylor appeared in the film Center Stage directed by Nicholas Hytner which was released in 2000.
She retired from the New York City Ballet on March 1, 2014 and began working as a répétiteur setting ballets on companies around the world. At that time, she also started a career in costume design. Her designs can be seen at the New York City Ballet, and L.A. Dance Project. Ms. Taylor has been teaching dance at Colburn since 2016. She is currently a dancer and rehearsal director for L.A. Dance Project.
Genevieve Labean Page is a former professional ballet dancer with the New York City Ballet, where she danced for nine years on stage and in televised performances in theaters around the world, including at the Acropolis in Athens, Greece and the Mariinsky Theatre in St. Petersburg, Russia. She danced in a variety of roles in ballets by George Balanchine and Jerome Robbins among others, and originated roles in Peter Martins’ Thou Swell, Bach V Concerto, Chichester Psalms, Reliquary, and Harmonielehre, and in Christopher Wheeldon’s Carnival of The Animals and Soirée Musicale. She also had a featured singing role as Rosalia in West Side Story Suite. As a child, Genevieve performed with Joffrey Ballet and New York City Ballet, sang in various commercial jingles and voiceovers, and had a starring role in the Radio City Christmas Spectacular.
After leaving the company, Genevieve appeared in the movie Black Swan alongside Natalie Portman, with choreography by Benjamin Millepied, and also recorded and released an album of original songs on iTunes, called “Unscripted”. A few of her songs have been placed on soundtracks for various TV shows and films. She performed as a singer-songwriter in NYC at various venues such as Rockwood Music Hall and The Bitter End, and was a featured singer with the Duke Ellington Orchestra at the famed Blue Note Jazz Club. She is proud to bring a wealth of musical knowledge to her work as a dance teacher.
In addition, Genevieve has worked as a dance critic at the esteemed New York Post, writing published reviews for dance companies such as Alvin Ailey.
Genevieve received her training and education from the Joffrey Ballet School, The School of American Ballet, Le Lycée Français, The Professional Children’s School, and Columbia University.