Auditions to be held August 10, 2010, 10:00-11:30am for the 2010-11 season.
Please email resumes prior to audition to Georgia Finnegan Amdahl, Executive Director at gamdahl@spcballet.org
Ross Edwards began dancing at Pioneer Valley Ballet in Northampton, Massachusetts, where he studied with Jana Fugate and Edward Verso among other teachers. While attending the University of Massachusetts - Amherst he worked extensively with Rose and Charles Flachs and Ken Lipitz, and performed principal roles in original ballets by Ken Lipitz and Megan Bonneau McCool. Mr. Edwards has performed lead and soloist roles in classical ballets such as August Bournonville's The Conservatoire, Flower Festival in Genzano, The Nutcracker, Coppelia, Petroushka, and Ha'Penny. As a guest artist, Mr. Edwards has performed such roles as the Bluebird Pas de Deux, the Pas de Trois from Act I of Swan Lake and the Grand Pas de Deux from The Sleeping Beauty, which he danced with his wife and colleague, Jennifer Rockwell. In addition to dancing with The Saint Paul City Ballet Company, Mr. Edwards is currently a doctoral candidate in the Political Science department at the University of Minnesota.
Jennifer Rockwell Edwards is an academic and dance aluma of the Walnut Hill School for the Fine Arts in Natick, MA. After completing high school, she moved to France to work with Rosella Hightower's Jeune Ballet International, where she danced "The Black Swan Pas de Deux" from Swan Lake as well as various new works. Upon returning to the United States, Ms. Rockwell worked as a principal dancer and guest artist with the Amherst Ballet and Pioneer Valley Ballet in Western Massachusetts, dancing such roles as "Swanhilda" in Coppelia, and "Aurora" in The Sleeping Beauty. Simultaneously, she attended The University of Massachusetts Amherst, where she graduated suma cum laude with a BA in psychology and a BFA in Dance Performance.
Since moving to Minneapolis in 2004, Ms Rockwell has danced soloist roles with The Minnesota Dance Theater as well as with other companies in the Twin Cities.
She has been a member of the Saint Paul City Ballet Company since its inception in 2007, dancing the principal roles in Nutcracker Magique, Raymonda, and La Boutique Fantasque. Ms Rockwell has also begun choreographing and setting choreography on the company as well as the school. She continues to study technique, pedagogy, and physiology with coach Dr. Andrew Carr, and she feels blessed to dance with such wonderful colleagues, particularly her husband Ross Edwards.
Andrew Lester graduated from the University of Minnesota with a BFA in Dance. He began his formal dance training with Carlos Stroia in Central Minnesota. Mr. Lester has performed professionally with the Eclectic Edge Ensemble, Ethnic Dance Theater, Continental and Metropolitan Ballet companies and Shapiro and Smith Dance. He is a
founding member of Saint Paul City Ballet Company. Highlights of Mr. Lester's career include performing for modern dance icon Merce Cunningham, and performing at the Kennedy Center's National Dance Festival in Carl Flink's This Bleeding Heart. He has performed in L' Apres-Midi D' Un Faune, the Grand Pas in The Nutcracker Magique,
Le Corsaire Pas de Deux, Ross Edwards' Gentle Breath Suspended, as well as supporting roles in Angela Barette's Middle Place and co-choreographed MD2 with Ross Edwards.
Kristina Vozni is pleased to be entering her third season with SPBC. Kristina trained at Mankato Ballet, Royal Winnepeg, Andahazy Ballet, and Ballet Minnesota. She has performed with Mankato Ballet, Ballet Chicago, Cleveland/San Jose Ballet, Continental Ballet Company, Minnesota Dance Theatre, and Hamline Dance Ensemble.
Her classical ballet performance experience includes roles in The Nutcracker, Beauty and the Beast, Coppelia, Les Sylphides, La Bayadere, Paquita, the "Lilac Fairy" from The Sleeping Beauty, and Raymonda. She has also performed several modern and neo-classical works such as Gentle Breath Suspended, Q, and her own choreography-Blue, based on images from Picasso's Blue Period. She is a Hamline University graduate, and works at Medtronic full-time in the Neuromodulation division as a Technical Consultant.
Allison Doughty on hiatus from SPCB Company while in Prague October 2009 through May 2010.
Ms. Doughty's diverse dancing background has blessed her with the opportunity to perform ballet, modern, jazz and tap concert works on stages across the US. After two years on scholarship at STEPS on Broadway in New York, and two years with Gus Giordano Jazz Dance Chicago, she returned to Minneapolis to complete her BFA in Dance from the U of MN. Locally, Allison has been seen recently in Saint Paul City Ballet's Enticed, Uri Sands Happy, as a soloist in Anna Sokolow's Rooms, and featured in Joe Chvala's Berserks. She has also been a soloist in the Minneapolis based jazz company Eclectic Edge Ensemble for the past four years. Allison enjoys teaching for several Twin Cities dance studios in addition to her work with the SPCB Company.