Company

CB corps

Board Members

Parents

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Company

Ballet Master	Frank Hay
Company Dancers	Amanda Walker Gray
	Christine Mashburn
	Cortney Mild
Company Apprentices	Kirsten Hawkins
	Shanelle Newton

After nine years in Utah, Frank accepted a position with the Atlanta Ballet where he performed principal roles in The Nutcracker and Tom Pazik’s Cinderella and Firebird. He then spent a year as a principal dancer with the Tampa Ballet before joining the Louisville Ballet under the direction of Alan Juones. His first engagement with Louiville Ballet included a tour of Texas with Mikhail Baryshnikov. Some of the other highlights of his eight years in Louisville include dancing principal and soloist roles in such major works as Jooss’s The Green Table, Loring’s Billy the Kid, Balanchine’s Allegro Brilliant, Bournonville’s La Sylphide (staged by Erik Burhn), and Ruthanna Goris’s Cakewalk.

Frank currently serves as Ballet Master for the Chattanooga Ballet. In addition to his duties as Ballet Master, Frank teaches at all grade levels of the Chattanooga Ballet School. He has also restaged many works from the classical repertory including the second acts of Giselle and Swan Lake. Frank’s choreographic credits include Juvenile Ambition (a work based on his training in Bournonville technique), Partita Prelude, and The Creation based on the Hayden Oratory. He recently served as choreographer for the Chattanooga Theatre Centre’s production of Oklahoma! and the Chattanooga Symphony and Opera’s productions of Orfeo and Euridice and Hansel and Gretel.

Frank grew up in the Bay Area of California where he studied dance and gymnastics with his father. His early training included exposure to some of the finest dance companies in the world as well as performing children’s roles with such notable companies as the San Francisco Ballet and the touring Bolshoi and Leningrad Kirov Ballet Companies.

He attended the University of Utah under a scholarship grant where he majored in ballet with an emphasis on performance technique. After two years, he joined Ballet West, touring Europe for six weeks in his first season. With Ballet West he danced principal roles in major ballet including Bournonville’s Napoli-Act 3, Bruce Mark’s Don Juan and Lark Ascending, and Balanchine’s Four Temperaments, Serenade, and Symphony in C. He also performed three soloist roles in the PBS filming of Christensen’s The Nutcracker that has been broadcast internationally. Frank marks his training with Christensen, Marks, Toni Lander, and Leon Danilaian during this time as the most significant in the early part of his career.

Frank Hay, Ballet Master

Reflections, Choreographed by Frank Hay

Amanda Walker Gray

A native of Tallahassee, Florida, Amanda has trained with Natalia Botha, Charles Hagan and Gynne Ashton at the Southern Academy of Ballet Arts and Pas de Vie Ballet, Inc. She holds a B.A. In Dance Performance from Mercyhurst College in Erie, PA under the direction of Tauna Hunter. She has also danced and trained with Atlanta Ballet, Boston Ballet, Nutmeg Conservatory for the Arts, and the International Flamenco Festival. She has danced Principal and Soloist roles in such ballets as Coppelia, Les Sylphides, Serenade, Dracula, Giselle, Raymonda, Carmen, Paquita, and The Nutcracker. Amanda was the 2006 recipient of the Tennessee Arts Commission Fellowship for artistic excellence in dance performance. This is her fifth season with the company.

Christine Mashburn

Originally from Atlanta, Christine grew up studying the Royal Academy of Dance syllabus under the training of Kelly Oakes-Dent at Callanwolde Fine Arts Center. By the time Christine graduated high school, she had completed RAD examination Grades 2 through 8 and the major syllabus examinations Pre-Elementary through Intermediate 2 (recently renamed Intermediate Foundations through Advanced 1). Christine went on to study dance at the University of Georgia, performing in the UGA Ballet Ensemble as well as the modern dance company, CORE. From 2002–2006 Christine taught, choreographed and directed for Freedom of Movement Dance Academy in Athens, Georgia and completed a 230-hour yoga teacher training program at Ashville Yoga Center. This is Christine’s second season with Chattanooga Ballet.

Cortney Mild

Hailing from Harlingen, Texas, cortney began her ballet studies with Lori Read and Deborah Case. She performed in Corpus Christi Ballet’s The Nutcracker and Dracula. She received additional training from San Francisco Conservatory of Dance, Boston Conservatory, North Carolina Dance Theatre, Virginia School of the Arts and Ballet Austin. She has had the pleasure of working with choreographers such as Sean Curran, Robert Moses, Eloy Barragan, Jeffrey Gunshol, Tyler Walters and Alex Ossadnik on new works. In addition, she has enjoyed working on the restagings of works by Salvatore Aiello and Jiri Kylian. Cortney holds an Honors Bachelor of Fine Arts in Ballet Performance, Pedagogy, and Character Dance from the University of Utah. While attending school she accepted her first contract to dance in the Utah Symphony and Opera production of La Rondine. As a member of the Character Dance Ensemble, she toured internationally to Vancouver, Beijing and St. Petersburg. This is Cortney’s second season with Chattanooga Ballet.

Kirsten Hawkins

Born and raised in Seattle, Washington, Kirsten began her ballet training with the Olympic Ballet Theatre under the direction of John and Helen Wilkins. In 1998 she became a member of the company, which allowed her to go on tour and perform throughout the states of Washington, Oregon, California and Arizona. Some of the pieces she has performed in include Don Quixote, Peter and the Wolf, La Bayadere, Swan Lake, and The Nutcracker as well as many original works. Kirsten also received traiing from the Boston Ballet, The Rock, Walla Walla Dance and Salt Lake City’s Ballet School. In 2003 Kirsten became a member of Impact–a hip-hop dance group based out of Seattle which inspired her to begin teaching hip-hop to children in the Dominican Republic over her summers. In 2006 Kirsten received her B.A. In Communication and minors in Dance and Women’s Studies from the University of Washington. While in school, Kirsten co-founded and soon became president of the University Ballet Company, a student run performing company. In 2006 she moved to Chattanooga to work for a college ministry at UTC. This is Kirsten’s third season with Chattanooga Ballet.

Shanelle Newton

Shanelle began her training at the School of the Hartford Ballet and at The Metropolitan Ballet Academy in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She began dancing with the Chattanooga Ballet in 1998 and has advanced through the Corps de Ballet into soloist roles. She has performed with the Company in Tom Pazik’s “Guitar Concerto,” Peter and the Wolf, Firebird, Les Sylphide, Swan Lake, and The Nutcracker among others. Shanelle is also a talented musical theater performer and has performed at the Chattanooga Theatre Centre in Oklahoma!, Beauty and the Beast, Children of Eden, Bye Bye Birdie, and The Wizard of Oz. She is currently a senior at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga majoring in Biochemistry with a minor in Music Performance.