FACULTY
MAURO VILLANUEVA
DIRECTOR / EDUCATOR
Mauro Villanueva (he/him) grew up in San Antonio, Texas. He began his dance training with Shawn Knife and later joined the University of Incarnate Word Ballet School. Mauro also studied for two years at the Nutmeg Conservatory in Connecticut.
During his thirteen years at the Joffrey Ballet he danced ballets by world renowned choreographers, was a union representative for the artists, and was one of two dancers chosen to participate in the search for the new artistic director. He appeared as a representative for the Joffrey Ballet and on television and radio in Chicago, San Antonio, Los Angeles and Manila, Philippines.
Mr. Villanueva retired from the Joffrey Ballet to pursue a career as an independent artist, teacher, coach, and choreographer. He has worked for Barak Ballet, Intermezzo Dance Company, Ballet San Antonio, The Jacksonville Symphony and others. He has taught at the Colburn School, Edge Performing Arts Center, Regional Dance America, The New Orleans Ballet Association, The New Jersey Ballet, Eglevsky Ballet, North Carolina School of the Arts, and The Ballet Alliance.
Mauro is a 2022-2023 School of American Ballet National Visiting Fellow and part of Cultivating Better Tomorrows.
KENNY BORCHARD
DIRECTOR / EDUCATOR
Kenny Borchard (he/him) is an alumni of Idyllwild Arts Academy and the University of Arizona. Since graduating Kenny has worked on television and commercial projects with credits including a featured role on TruTV’s Fake Off, What Not to Wear, Toyota Pruis, Mobbed, and Lifetime’s Petals on the Wind. Kenny has worked with Odyssey Dance Theatre, Solevita Dance Company, Pacific Festival Ballet, and Pasadena Dance Theatre among others. Kenny was also cast member of “Aladdin: A Musical Spectacular” at Disney’s California Adventure.
As an educator, Mr. Borchard has taught on the faculty of Broadway Dance Center's Children and Teen Program, and has taught as a guest educator/choreographer around the country. Since finishing his performing career, Kenny has committed to creating welcoming dance spaces where all students feel welcomed and honored for who they are and how they show up.
Kenny is also part of Cultivating Better Tomorrows, a company dedicated to educating the performing arts community in diversity, equity, and inclusion.
PAST FACULTY
Robert Joffrey
Robert Joffrey (24 December 1930 - 25 March 1988) was an American dancer, teacher, choreographer, founder and Artistic Director of the Joffrey Ballet, who dedicated his life to building a uniquely American ballet company with an unmatched repertory and exceptional dancers. His contributions to dance include meticulous reconstructions of Ballet Russes works and revivals of 20th-century masterpieces by choreographers such as Kurt Jooss and Frederick Ashton. He took risks with commissions from modern and postmodern choreographers such as
Alvin Ailey and Twyla Tharp that broke the rigid boundaries between ballet and modern dance, a model still central to the creative process of ballet companies around the world today. An accomplished choreographer in his own right, Joffrey created works that reflected his broad interests, including the Romantic era-inspired Pas des Déesses (1954), and the ground-breaking multimedia rock ballet Astarte (1967).
Joffrey was also a master teacher whose progressive approach attracted both young dancers and world-renown artists alike, including Rudolf Nureyev, Margot Fonteyn, Carmen de Lavallade, and Ann Reinking. He was co-president with Bolshoi Ballet director Yuri Grigorovich of the dance committee of the International Theater Institute, chair of the first panel of jurors for the International Ballet Competition, a member of the National Council of the Arts, and an honorary chairman of the American Choreographer Awards. His numerous awards and honors
included the Dance Magazine Award, the Capezio Award, New York City's Handel Medallion, Dance Notation Bureau's Distinguished Service Award, and an honorary Ph.D. from Pacific Lutheran University in Tacoma, Washington. In 2000, he was inducted into The National Dance Museum.
Gerald Arpino
Gerald Arpino (1923-2008) was the Artistic Director and Resident Choreographer of The Joffrey Ballet, the company he co-founded with Robert Joffrey in 1956. Born on Staten Island, New York, he met Robert Joffrey while stationed in Seattle with the Coast Guard. He studied with Mary Ann Wells, at the School of American Ballet, danced with Graham dancers May O’Donnell and Gertrude Schurr, and was a principal dancer with the original Joffrey company. As resident choreographer, Arpino created over one third of the commissioned repertory for the Joffrey Ballet, including Sea Shadow, Viva Vivaldi, Olympics, The Clowns, Trinity, Kettentanz, Suite Saint-Saens, and Light Rain. He also had wide experience in Broadway musicals, on television, in opera, and staged musicals for the country’s leading festivals. Arpino’s ballets have been performed at the White House on several occasions, as well as around the world, to critical acclaim as well as controversial appraisal. As one of the recipients of the 1974 Dance Magazine Award, his citation read: “To Gerald Arpino – more than any other choreographer, he has recognized the spirit of the times. His work speaks clearly of the anguish and the joy of being young in America today.”
Upon Robert Joffrey’s passing, Arpino directed the Joffrey Ballet from 1988 until 2008, continuing Joffrey’s vision for the company by restaging important dance historical works, such as Léonide Massine’s symphonic ballet Les Presages (1933), and Frederick Ashton’s Cinderella (1948), as well as taking risks with new commissions such as the rock ballet Billboards (1993) to music by Prince. In 1995, Arpino moved the Joffrey Ballet to Chicago, where he established the Joffrey as a world-class company in the heart of the American Midwest, which continues to thrive today.
Diane Orio (she/her)
EDUCATOR
Diane Orio began dancing at age 8 in her native New Jersey. She later studied at the School of American Ballet and then joined The Joffrey Ballet in 1968 where she danced for more than ten years.
Later she became ballet mistress for the company working under Robert Joffrey’s guidance. She has lead dancers through ballets for choreographers such as Tharp, Kylian, Ailey, Feld and Arpino. Mr. Joffrey invited Ms. Diane to be on faculty at his first Texas workshop in 1978.
We are grateful that Diane has shared her wealth of knowledge with the students of The Joffrey Workshop since it's inception.
Trinette Singleton (she/her)
EDUCATOR
Trinette Singleton was a principal dancer with The Joffrey Ballet for nearly twenty years. She was thrust into national prominence in 1967, appearing in the multi-media ballet, Astarte, created on her by her mentor, Robert Joffrey. She was the first American dancer to appear on the cover of the national news Time magazine.
Currently, Trinette is Co-Artistic Director of Repertory Dance Theatre in Allentown, PA. She was also on the faculty at DeSales University, Center Valley, PA. In 2010, Trinette was appointed to the Board of Directors for The Gerald Arpino Foundation. She is on the Advisory Board for Cecchetti USA and has recently been made an Honorary Member of Cecchetti International-Classical Ballet.
Trinette holds her Licentiate, Imperial Society of Teachers of Dance, London, England, and her Doctor of Fine Arts, Honoris Causa, DeSales University.
MUSIC DIRECTOR
Jared Oaks (he/him) is one of the leading young ballet conductors in the United States, and is Music Director of Ballet West. Since joining the company in 2008, Jared has conducted at the Capitol Theatre and Kingsbury Hall in Salt Lake City, the Kennedy Center, Chicago's Auditorium Theatre, the Wortham Theater in Houston, and the Northrop Auditorium in Minneapolis. He is also in demand as a collaborative pianist throughout the country.
Jared studied with renowned conductors Terence Kern, Ronald Staheli, and in masterclasses throughout Europe and North America. He is a fellow of the American-Scandinavian Foundation and co-founder of the Composer Discovery Initiative.
PIANIST
Shawn Ellison has worked as a musician in Austin, Texas since 1982. He is a pianist, but has also performed as a composer, arranger, bandleader, organist, vocalist, musical director, and dance class accompanist. He has been privileged to share the stage with Cat Anderson, Slide Hampton, Dizzy Gillespie, Frank Gorshin, and Phyllis Diller. He has worked extensively with dancers and choreographers, and was integral in the formation of two children’s dance/movement programs, Believe In Me and Something’s Afoot.
Mr. Ellison holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Psychology from the University of Texas at Austin and a Master’s Degree in Legal Studies from Texas State University.
Ginger Cox
Christopher Charles McDaniels
Deborah Wingert
Jovan Dansberry
Nathalie Marrable
Christina Johnson
Allison Walsh
Eliotte Nicole
Bailey Anglin
Lindsey Fletcher
Mindy Moeller
Tanisha Hubbard-Hood
Destini Rogers
Erica Lynette Edwards
Tye Love
James Alonzo
Katie Puder
Candace Washington
Kelsey Kramer
Yumelia Garcia
Nina Hudson
Lindsey Donnell
Josh Peugh
Claudia Schreier
Adam Sklute
Regan Hutsell
Derrick Agnoletti
Maurice Curry
Lisa Slagel
Jeffrey Hughes
Brenda Tally
Michael Bjerknes
Charthel Arthur
Buddy Trevino
Susan Trevino
Paul Sutherland
Brunhilda Ruiz
Eleanor D'Antuono
Richard Englund
Karen Gibbons-Brown
Alexander Filipov
