Leadership
Danielle Campbell Steans, Director
Making her dream a reality
Danielle’s dream began at the tender age of four, when she started dancing with June Neal Key in Kansas City, Kansas, then furthered her training at age nine with Lisa Stickelman Dillinger and Flo Klenklen at the State Ballet of Missouri (now the Kansas City Ballet School). Danielle continued her dance education at the Walnut Hill School for the Performing Arts in Natick, Massachusetts with Michael Owen, Sydelle Gomberg, the late Samuel Kirkjian, and Tamara King, and was a member of their National Youth Ballet for two seasons. During that time she also attended several summer programs including the Rock School of the Pennsylvania Ballet, Pacific Northwest Ballet, and Atlanta Ballet Centre for Dance Education.
As a professional dancer, Danielle joined the Georgia Ballet, where she danced in La Sylphide, The Nutcracker, and Swan Lake, and was featured in Ginger Thatcher’s Monet’s Garden. She then performed with Nashville Ballet and Nashville Ballet II, dancing in numerous classical and contemporary works, including Scheherazade, Balanchine’s Serenade, The Sleeping Beauty, Swan Lake, and Aida with The Nashville Opera, as the Tortoise in Paul Vasterling’s The Singing Tortoise, and in the late Robert Philander’s Snap.
In 2007, Danielle joined Ballet San Antonio and performed in Gabriel Zertuche’s Suzaki Dances and Svelto, in Spanish and Russian dances in The Nutcracker, as a villager and lead bride in Dracula, as lead Czardas in Coppélia, in Ben Stevenson’s Cinderella, and as the Nurse in Ben Stevenson’s Romeo & Juliet. In 2013, she joined the Ballet San Antonio staff where she helped expand the company’s community education program to reach over 10,000 families, and initiated a partnership between Ballet San Antonio and American Ballet Theatre’s prestigious Project Plié program.
In the summers of 2015 and 2016, her work with at-risk youth at Boys & Girls Clubs in San Antonio earned her a full-tuition scholarship to attend American Ballet Theatre’s National Curriculum Training. An American Ballet Theatre Certified Instructor, Danielle has served as Co-Interim Artistic Director, Company & Outreach Manager, Ballet Master for Ben Stevenson O.B.E.’s Swan Lake, and Children’s Rehearsal Director for Ballet San Antonio’s The Nutcracker. But most importantly, Danielle shares her true passion and love of dance with the many students of the San Antonio Ballet School and the San Antonio Youth Ballet, with the hope that they too will one day share their love and beauty of the art of ballet.
Giselle Fox, Instructor
Ballet
Giselle Fox was born in Havana, Cuba, where she trained as a dancer at the National Ballet School of Cuba, (ENBC) “Fernando Alonso” from 1995-2002, graduating as a dancer and teacher of classical ballet. The basic artistic training teachers she had were: Ramona de Saa (ENBC Director); Martha Iris Fernandez (Assistant Director ENBC); the recently deceased master Fernando Alonso, creator with the Prima Ballerina Absolute Alicia Alonso of Cuban Ballet School and Technique. As soon as Giselle graduated in 2002, she joined one of the most recognized and prestigious ballet companies in the world, the National Ballet of Cuba, under the direction of Alicia Alonso. As part of the company, she participated in many International Ballet Festival, in Cuba, Latin America and around the world.
Giselle danced most of the extensive classical and contemporary repertoire of the company as corps de ballet, soloist and principal roles, sharing the stage with many world-renowned dancers, among which are: Carlos Acosta, better known as Carlos Junior; Viengsay Valdes, Paloma Herrera, Alina Cojocaru, Julio Bocca, Angel Corella, Agnes Letestu, among others. Also participated in various workshops and master classes of stars like Azari Plisetski, Jewels of the Ballet of Cuba Josefina Mendez, Loipa Araujo, Aurora Bosch and Mikhail Baryshnikov among others. In 2007 she joined the Ballet de Monterrey, under the direction of Luis Serrano, where she played most of the classical and contemporary repertoire such as Giselle, Swan Lake, Nutcracker, Don Quixote and La Bayadere ballets, among others. Simultaneously the company of tango, Noctango, integrates main stage tango dancer and lounge. Throughout her career Giselle has also worked as a choreographer and teacher. Her choreographies include: Tinker Bell Ballet (classical piece in 2 acts), Nocturno (neoclassical style of tango), Just for Today (pas de deux of Argentine tango stage) etc. She begins her work as a teacher in her native Cuba, and extends to Mexico, mainly in Monterrey and the United States. Her students have participated in numerous editions of the International Meeting of Ballet Academy, the only event of its kind in the world that takes place every year in Habana, Cuba. In 2013 she moved with her husband and 3 year old daughter to San Antonio, to join as Ballet Mistress Ballet Latino San Antonio (BLSA), and Ballet San Antonio Academy, since then, she has also collaborated with International Dance Studios as Quenedit Dance School, Bravo Ballet School, San Antonio Ballet School, Trilogy Dance Center and also prepared her students for various international dance competitions like The Youth America Grand Prix where her students have been positioned in the top twelve.
Ivy Newell
Ballet
Ivy Newell began her ballet training at the age of ten at Mayra Worthen Ballet School. Soon after, she began to study en pointe with Mayra Worthen, Julie Morton-Simpson, and Tiekka Schofield and performed five seasons of Ballet San Antonio’s (Texas Ballet Concerto) The Nutcracker in children’s’ roles. Later, Ivy completed multiple summer intensive workshops at Houston Ballet Academy, Virginia School of the Arts and American Ballet Theatre. As a professional, Ivy performed ten seasons of the Nutcracker with Ballet San Antonio in various roles to conclude as a soloist role of Snow Princess. Ivy continued her studies at Alamo Arts Ballet. Ivy performed various soloists’ roles including pas de deux from Sleeping Beauty, Le Corsaire, Flames of Paris, and soloist roles including Pas De Quarte, Alice from Alice a Ballet Wonderland. During this time, Ivy became a guest artist for Ballet New Braunfels and performed The Sugar Plum Fairy in The Nutcracker. Later, Ivy continued her love for ballet as a instructor for gymnast to improve gracefulness, technique, and foot strength. Currently, Ivy is the Level I ballet instructor for San Antonio Ballet and enjoys sharing her ballet passion with her students.
Heather Neff
Ballet
Heather Neff began her dance training at the age of four at Pas de Vie Ballet in Tallahassee, FL. She attended the Joffrey Academy of Dance in Chicago and went on to join Joffrey as a Trainee. Ms. Neff joined Ballet San Antonio in 2016 as a Corps de Ballet member and was promoted to Soloist in May of this year. Ms. Neff has appeared as both Giselle and Myrtha (Giselle), The Sugar Plum Fairy (The Nutcracker), Michaella (Carmen) and The Principle Girl in George Balanchine’s Rubies.
This is Heather’s first year teaching at San Antonio Ballet School.
Eryn Hanes
Ballet
Eryn Hanes received her early training at Pontecorvo Ballet Studios in Dayton, Ohio. Later, joined the Gem City Ballet Studio Company. She furthered her formal training through summer programs at Houston Ballet, Boston Ballet, and American Ballet Theatre. Hanes received formal training from the Ballet Chicago Studio Company and continued her professional career with Ballet Chicago for one year. Later, she joined Nashville Ballet, where she performed in George Balanchine’s, Serenade and the classic, Swan Lake. Hanes performed with the Ballet Theater of Ohio including the role of the ugly stepsister in Cinderella. In 2008, Hanes joined Ballet San Antonio. Some of her her repertoire includes Swanhilda’s Friend in Coppelia, Autumn Fairy in Ben Stevenson’s, Cinderella, Pas De Trois in Ben Stevenson’s, Swan Lake and Corps de Ballet in Balanchine’s, Rubies. After 10 years with Ballet San Antonio, Hanes has retired but still loves to teach young children the art of ballet.
Ryland Acree
Ballet
International guest artist and Ballet San Antonio dancer Ryland Acree began his dance training at age nine. He has trained with such teachers as Peter Boal, Oliver Munoz, Le Yin, Alexei Kremnev and Sandra Meythaler. He has attended summer intensives at Boston Ballet, Orlando Ballet, Milwaukee Ballet, Texas Ballet Theatre and Pacific Northwest Ballet all on full scholarship, graduating from the Professional Division of Pacific Northwest Ballet.
Ryland is a WBC contract recipient as well as YAGP regional medal winner and NYC finalist. He has performed works by Gerald Arpino, Robert Hill, Jean-Christophe Maillot, Bruce Wells, Brian Enos and George Balanchine. While with Ballet San antonio he has performed leading roles such as “White Rabbit” and “The King” in Brian Enos’s “Alice in Wonderland” in addition to featured roles such “Snow Prince” in Gerald Arpino’s snow scene from “The Nutcracker”, Demi-Soloist in Gerald Arpino’s “Round of Angels, Four Men in George Balanchine’s “Rubies” and the Pas de Quatre divertisment in Bruce Well’s “Beauty and the Beast”. Ryland has also recently performed as Mush in “Disney’s Newsies” with the Public Theatre of San Antonio. International highlights included being invited to perform in “Cinderella” at the Bravissimo International Festival in Guatemala City as well as performing as a guest artist with the Alberta Ballet in Bruce Well’s “A Midsummer Night’s Dream”. This is Ryland’s first year teaching for San Antonio Ballet School.
Chloe Walker
Ballet
Chloe Walker is from San Marcos, Texas where she began dancing at the age of four with The Pointe Dance Studio under the direction of Kathrine Wolff Grote. Later she joined their studio company, River City Dance Theatre and performed starring roles in their Nutcracker. In her senior year she joined Ballet Chicago’s Pre-Professional program under the direction of Daniel Duell and Patricia Blair. She trained in the Balanchine technique for two years and performed in multiple Balanchine ballets including Who Cares?, Swan Lake, Serenade and Agon. In 2013 Miss Walker moved to Charlotte, North Carolina to join the trainee program at Charlotte Ballet under the direction of Jean-Pierre Bonnefoux, Patricia McBride and Mark Diamond where she had the pleasure of performing in company ballets and creating her own choreography for students. In 2014 Miss Walker returned to Texas to pursue a degree in art history. She now holds a bachelor’s in art history and museum studies from UTSA and has performed as an Apprentice with Ballet San Antonio. She currently appears as a guest artist with many studios in the San Antonio area. This is Chloe’s first year teaching for San Antonio Ballet School.
Sophia Myers
Ballet
Sophia Myers began her ballet training with the Cincinnati Ballet Academy. There she performed with the company in productions such as Nutcracker, Bolero, and Cinderella. For high school Sophia attended the School for Creative and Performing Arts where she was able to extend her performance experience and grow as an artist. She also attended summer intensives at BalletMet, Richmond Ballet, Cincinnati Ballet, and ABT. After high school,Sophia spent two years as a trainee with the Louisville Ballet under the direction of Bruce Simpson, Uwe Kern, and Mikelle Bruzina. There she enjoyed teaching for the Louisville Ballet School where she taught Creative Movement through Pre-Ballet for both the school year and summer program. Sophia then moved on as a professional dancer and teacher with Ballet Quad Cities for two seasons where she was able to expand her contemporary dance experience by working with choreographers such as Brain Enos and Dominic Walsh. Sophia continued on to the San Francisco Bay Area dancing professionally for Bay Pointe Ballet and teaching for many local studios. Sophia found her way back to Cincinnati with de la Dance Company for two seasons dancing and teaching before moving this year to San Antonio for her first season with Ballet San Antonio. Sophia is very excited to teach for San Antonio Ballet School this season.
Allison Dauphine
Ballet
Allison Dauphine is a native to San Antonio who began dancing at the age of 2 by sneaking into a ballet class. Since then she has pursued many different styles such as Modern, Jazz, and Contemporary. After graduating from the Northeast School of the Arts as a Dance Major, Allison furthered her education at St. Mary’s University and has returned to her first passion of dance. This is Allison’s first year teaching for San Antonio Ballet School.
Kristen Kaufman
Acro
Kristen Kaufman Raaberg grew up in a military family, traveling around the world. Her mother was in a ballet company and received a dance scholarship to TCU, but chose to put Kristen in gymnastics because she was jumping off the couch. She was a competitive gymnast for 15 years, including medalling at Junior Olympic Nationals. One of her fondest memories as a young gymnast was tumbling in Mayra Worthen’s Nutcracker under the choreographic direction of Summer Glau.
After receiving a full scholarship for NCAA Division I Gymnastics, Kristen completed her graduate education at the University of Texas at Austin in Mechanical Engineering. She has worked in consulting and business development, as well as the oil and gas industry. She has taught gymnastics, high school biology, and University Physics and Engineering. She is currently a Admissions Review Specialist for UT, and is assisting Danielle with building the Acro program at SABS. Her favorite hobbies are music, gardening and cooking. Kristen met her husband at UT Engineering; together they raise two wild boys, one precious girl, two rescue cats, and an adorable aussie. This is Kristen’s first year teaching for San Antonio Ballet School.
Rosie Torres
Jazz, Contemporary
Rosie Torres calls herself a dance enthusiast. Her titles include, dance educator, choreographer, dance adjudicator and dance consultant.
” Teaching dance has given me an insight into the world of physics, spirituality, philosophy, and the human experience. I am always enlightened to discover that everything dances. I am a better person because I dance. This inspires me to share my knowledge and experience of dance with my students. ”
This is Rosie’s 22nd year teaching dance independently and for MA Dance.
Her performance experiences are; Kilgore College Rangerette, Rangerette Swingster, San Antonio Spurs Silver Dancer, MA Dance, back up dancer at the Tejano Music Awards and is currently a danzante with Danza Azteca Kalpulli Ameyoltonal Tejaztlan in San Antonio, TX.
Her judging credits include: MA Dance Regionals and Nationals, Dance Educators Assessment of Learning for the Texas Dance Educators Association, the Iowa State Solo and Team Championship. Most recently, Rosie was a dance judge at the Amazing and Famous Nationals for cheer and dance in Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico and a dance judge at the All American Dance Championship in Orlando, Fl, under the Varsity brand. One of her favorite and most recent opportunities was to be staffed at the coaches corner for the World of Dance competition in Orlando, Fl.
Currently, Rosie can be found teaching high school dance and drill teams, contemporary classes, after school pre-k dance classes, adjudicating dance at dance and drill team competitions and preserving native dances. Her favorite life moments are cooking and bicycling.
Tanesha Payne
Jazz, Tap
Tanesha Payne’s love for dance and theater began 20 years ago. In 2003, Mrs. Payne graduated from Douglas Anderson School of the Arts with her Art seal. From there she pursued a BFA in Dance at Florida State College of Jacksonville and New World School of the Arts in Miami, FL. After a year in Miami, Tanesha moved to New York to pursue her dream of dancing professionally. She was accepted into the certificate and fellowship programs at Alvin Ailey, however, she opted to join Arch Dance Company under Jennifer Archibald. In her three-year residency with the company, Tanesha had the opportunity to teach and perform across the US. Tanesha Payne currently lives in San Antonio and is a member of GRITdanceworks. Tanesha is passionate about sharing her love of dance through teaching and performing wherever she can.
Genevieve Garcia
Jazz, Modern
Genevieve Marie Garcia is a native of Harlingen, Texas. She attended Texas Woman’s University (TWU) where she received her Bachelor’s of Arts in Dance. While at TWU, she received the Excellence in Choreography award in 2008. Her work titled Fragments of Memory was featured at the American College Dance Conference. After, graduation she moved to San Antonio, Texas where she started teaching dance at Ballet San Antonio Academy under the direction of Mayra Worthen. In 2016, two of her choreographic works were featured at San Antonio College Dance Festival. Currently, she is working on a group piece to be featured at W-I-P in April 2019.
Kevin Brewster
Hip Hop
Kevin Brewster – (more to come) Dancing is my spiritual outlet. My dance style is Breakin'(breakdancing) I use it to get through the rough times in my life. I also use my talents teach others. Their joy for the art form enriches my life. In the future I hope to spread my knowledge of dance to underserved areas of the world.
Caroline Youngblood
Tap
Caroline Youngblood began dancing at three years old. She danced at Keely Jardell’s School of Dance, for eleven years, and Amber Blanchard’s School of Dance, for four years. She was a member of Mid-County Performing Arts Company for eight years. In 2018, she moved to San Antonio to attend UTSA, and she is studying to get a degree in marketing. This is Caroline’s first year teaching for San Antonio Ballet School.
Nina Padilla
Modern
Nina A. Padilla is an accomplished multidisciplinary artist. She is a dance choreographer, performer and published portrait photographer specializing in dance portraiture and dance on film. Nina is currently a modern and improvisation dance instructor in San Antonio, Texas. Her classes are a fusion of the Erick Hawkins technique and Bartenieff Fundamentals which helps her students understand how to move organically and within the limitations of their own anatomy. Currently, Nina is also teaches jazz, contemporary, and lyrical. With a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Dance Performance and Choreography, as well as a Bachelor of Science in Nutrition & Food, from Texas State University, Nina has almost two decades of dance training in a wide variety of dance styles including Modern, Contact Improvisation, Ballet and Jazz.
Over the years, Nina has received numerous accolades, including the Nelda-Drury Dance Scholarship for Dance at San Antonio College, as well as the Karen Earl Dance Scholarship for outstanding choreography at Texas State University. While studying Dance, Nina produced, performed in and choreographed numerous dance performances and gained valuable teaching experience by working as an assistant to several of her professors. Nina has worked with several choreographers to include Kim Olson (Boulder Colorado), Gina Gibney Dance Company (New York), Lux Boreal Dance Company (Tijuana, Mexico), and the Erick Hawkins Dance Company (New York). She continues to further her dance education by attending various workshops in Texas focused in modern, improvisation, and contemporary movement. This is Nina’s first year teaching for San Antonio Ballet School.
Karlene Bernal
Flamenco
Karlene Bernal has been dancing for 16 years and received her training in Flamenco under the direction of Sonya Casillas. She has taken multiple workshops with Miguel Vargas, Pilar Andujar and Illeana Gomez. Karlene is a former member of the City of San Antonio Pre-Professional dance troupe, Fandango and current member of the Professional dance troupe, Ballet Folklorico Festival. Karlene is honored and excited to be teaching in her first year with San Antonio Ballet School, and looks forward to sharing her love, appreciation and passion of Spanish Flamenco. She hopes to help many students achieve success in the fine arts, and learn a new profound respect for the Flamenco community.
Dennis Passmore
Principal Accompanist
Administrative Staff
Toni Rohelia
Operations Manager
Alexandra Garza
Administrative Assistant