Jeté to:
Faculty and Staff
Karen Smith is the Director of the Chattanooga Ballet School and is the Founding Director of the Children’s Company. Growing up in Saudi Arabia and Europe, Karen began her studies in the tradition of the Royal Danish Ballet. Upon returning to the United States, she joined the ranks of the feeder school of the Tampa Ballet and at age fourteen began dancing with the Company. In Tampa, she danced under the tutelage of notables such as Edward Villela and modern dance pioneers Ted Shawn and Myra Kinch. She holds a B.A. Degree from Florida State University where she danced with Carol Lee and Maria de Baroncelli of La Scala. After completing her degree, Karen entered the University of Cincinnati Conservatory under the direction of Oleg Sabline and David MacClean. In 1974, she helped to establish the Chattanooga Center for the Dance (now Chattanooga Ballet). Karen has danced roles in Swan Lake, Coppelia, Les Sylphide, and Sleeping Beauty. She also serves the community as the instructor of dance at the Baylor School and as Vice President East of the Tennessee Association of Dance.
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.
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-
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.
(Biography coming soon)......
Originally from Atlanta, Christine grew up studying the Royal Academy of Dance syllabus
under the training of Kelly Oakes-
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. Cortney joined Chattanooga Ballet in 2007.
(Biography coming soon)....
Bob Willie, General Director
Bob is a native of New York and began his career as assistant director to Tony award winning director/producer Joe Layton. He received his B.S. From East Carolina University where he was the recipient of the Chancellor’s Scholarship for excellence in theatre performance. He continued his training in the M.F.A. Acting/Directing program at the University of Louisville and at H.B. Studios in New York under the tutelage of Uta Hagan and Charles Nelson Reilly. As an actor, director and fight choreographer, Bob has over sixty professional credits ranging from Shakespeare to musical comedy. Bob has directed several productions for the Chattanooga Theatre Centre, including On Golden Pond, Last Nigt of Ballyhoo, Moon Over Buffalo, and A Lovely Sunday for Creve Couer, which received the Miss Annie Award for Outstanding Production in 1999, 2000, 2001, and 2003, respectively.
Bob has served as Managing Director of the Professional Theatre Workshop working with such notable theatre dignitaries as Helen Hayes, Colleen Dewhurst, Linda Lavin, Maurice Hines and Geoffrey Holder. Bob has also served as associate operations manager at the Julliard School working with the New York Philharmonic, The School of American Ballet and the Julliard Dance Ensemble.
Since arriving in Chattanooga in 1987, Bob has helped to guide Chattanooga Ballet to new levels of artistic and professional development. Under his leadership the Company has grown to include thirty members. His dedication to the production of new works has resulted in the commissioning of over forty premiere works by American choreographers, three of which were presented at the Avignon Festival in France.
Bob was recently honored by the Tennessee Association of Dance with the prestigious Margaret Martin Award for distinguished service and outstanding contributions to the art of dance in Tennessee. He serves as President of Tennesseans for the Arts, Chairman of the Tennessee Arts Commission’s theatre panel, and Chairman of the dance panel for the Louisiana Division of the Arts. Bob has also served as President of the Tennessee Association of Dance and as a panelist for the Southern Arts Federation/National Endowment for the Arts.
Lauren Abney, Assistant to the Director
Lauren grew up dancing at Chattanooga Ballet, advancing through the ranks from Children’s Company member to Corps de Ballet dancer to Company Apprentice. She has danced featured roles in ballets such as Firebird, Giselle, Paquita, and The Nutcracker as well as the title role in Peter and the Wolf. She has worked on productions involving the Chattanooga Symphony and Opera Orchestra, the Chattanooga Theatre Centre, the Chattanooga Girl’s Choir, and the Dismembered Tennesseans. While in high school, she helped establish and run Charis, an extracurricular dance program at Chattanooga Christian School. Her choreography for Charis received the highest marks at The Baylor School’s student choreography adjudication.
Lauren has worked part-
|
School Director | |
|
Faculty | |
|
| |
|
| |
|
| |
|
| |
|
| |
|
| |
|
Staff | |
|
|
© 2008 Chattanooga Ballet. All rights reserved. Site Map
