Yaledancers Alumni
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related pages: YD Alumni Directory
Some more information about our fantastic YD grads :
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Mamie Air
Med School '09
Mary Elizabeth "Mamie" Air, MD began her dance training in a trailer in the jungles of Papua New Guinea at age 5, then went on to train with Ruth Page in Chicago, and professionally with Houston Ballet. She is an award-winning choreographer, and has been an avid tapper, modern dance, and jazz enthusiast since age 8. Mamie attended University of Chicago where she founded the University Ballet company, before transferring to Rice University in Houston, where she continued to dance with Rice Dance Theatre. She graduated Summa Cum Laude with a degree in biochemistry, and then matriculated to Yale University School of Medicine, where she joined Yale Dancers. While in medical school, she won a Fulbright scholarship to the Netherlands, where she studied dancers' injuries and performing arts medicine. She is currently a physician in Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation at the University of Washington, where she continues to research issues geared towards dance injury rehabilitation, improving health care access among dancers, and utilizing dance as a therapeutic modality. |
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Julianna Bentes
Silliman '04, Yale Law School '09
No info available... yet. |
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Charlotte Clune
Silliman '11
Charlotte began studying ballet in her hometown, West Hartford, Connecticut, at age 10. Since then she has performed Cinderella in Edinburgh, Scotland and attended summer intensives at the Washington Ballet and Boston Ballet. Charlotte is loving YD, which is helping her to branch out from being a total bunhead. |
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Wen-Chuan Dai
Grad School '08
Wen-Chuan Dai received her ballet training from the Boston Ballet Company School, and has also dabbled in modern dance, international latin dancesport and Chinese classical/folk dance while in Fusion Dance Company and the Repertory Dance Company at Brown University, on the Oxford University Dancesport Team and with the Beijing Modern Dance Company. She is in her first and last year as an M.A. student in the East Asian Studies program and is not actually serious about her photograph. |
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Nicole Fish
Pierson '09
Formerly PC '09, Nicole is currently a fellowship student at the Alvin Ailey School in NYC, training intensively in preparation for a professional career in dance. She has performed in a few pieces at the school, and has had the opportunity to work with such notable persons as Ana Marie Forsythe, Denise Jefferson, Christopher Huggins, Scott Rink, Pedro Ruiz, Dwight Rhoden, Desmond Richardson, Kevin Wynn, and Robert Battle. Nicole trained previously at Jose Mateo's Ballet Theatre, The Joffrey Ballet School, and American Ballet Theatre, and before attending Yale, was a member of Adrienne Hawkins' jazz company Day Job Dancers. She misses her YD family very much, and is thrilled to be welcomed back to both teach class and choreograph whenever possible. |
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Nate Freeman
Law '11
Nate received his dance training at Whitman College and in Perugia, Italy under the instruction of Idalee Hutson-Fish. His dedication to the art has been demonstrated by his willingness to appear in a variety of outlandish costumes, including a giant rabbit outfit (think "A Christmas Story"). After college, he choreographed several shows for high schools in the Seattle area, including the musical "Chicago." He is currently at the law school and hopes to one day choreograph a pas de deux for Scalia and Thomas. |
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Jay Frisby
Morse '09
Info coming soon! |
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Rachel Geronemus
Calhoun '08
A "bunhead" since age 12, Rachel performed in many ballets before coming to
Yale, and her signature role was the Sugar Plum Fairy in The Nutcracker. YD
has expanded her dance interests, and she now fondly remembers dancing as an
Oompa-Loompa and a bird of prey, among other novel pursuits. Besides YD Love,
Rachel's other interests include apples, diet sprite zero, high heels, and
lame science jokes. |
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Sam Gottstein
Berkeley '10
Being born and raised in the frozen wasteland of Alaska, Little Sammy Gottstein learned at the age of 5 very young age that the way to stay warm in the winter was to "dance like Fred Astaire." Sam received his training from Dance Spectrum Alaska, and wouldn't trade it for anything. Other interests include flying small planes, hiking, legal work, and singing praises about Alaska non-stop. |
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Sarah Graham
Stiles '07
Sarah began studying classical ballet at age four at the Dance Theater of Buffalo. At age ten she began studying modern dance with Buffalo's Pick of the Crop Dance and went on to perform in the company's annual story ballets, summer intensive programs, and as an apprentice in the company's annual fall shows. Sarah studied in the highest level ballet class at the North Carolina School of the Arts in the summer of 2001. At Yale, Sarah sings with The New Blue, Yale's oldest women's a cappella group, and was business manager for the group's 2005-2006 season. |
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Jill Habig
Yale Law School '09
Info coming soon! |
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Gabrielle Karol
Branford '11
Gabrielle began ballet at the age of three and hasn't stopped dancing since. At twelve she joined the Dany Holdstein's Two World Company based in Long Island, NY, with whom she began training in jazz and modern. In high school, Gabrielle joined the Martha Graham Student Company and began to study Graham technique, now her favorite type of dance. The summer before freshman year, Gabrielle attended the pre-professional training program at Ballet Hispanico, where she was able to dabble in flamenco, folklorico, salsa, and Dunham, as well as classical ballet. |
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Eliza Kelley-Swift
Morse '09
Born and raised in Cincinnati, Ohio, Eliza Kelley-Swift trained at Cincinnati Ballet and attended summer intensives at ABT, Boston Ballet, San Francisco Ballet, and Chautauqua. She chose to defer college for a year in order to dance as an apprentice with Cincinnati Ballet, including a tour to Anchorage, Alaska. A member of Morse College, Eliza is excited to begin her second year as a part of Yale Dancers. She is planning on majoring in psychology. |
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Dani Kolitz
Silliman '11
Though Dani is incredibly awesome, she only sent in a picture. Bio coming soon. |
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Amy Kurren
Yale Law School '09
Amy began her dancing career doing the hula barefoot on the beaches of Hawaii. She also danced ballet and jazz with Hawaii Ballet Theater and 24-VII Danceforce for twelve years, before leaving the islands for Stanford University. At Stanford, she was a member of the Stanford Dollies (the university's dance team) and the jazz dance group Urban Styles. Amy retired from dance after graduating in 2004, but has come out of retirement to join Yaledancers while attending the law school. |
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Cara Kiernan
Trumbull '07, Yale School of Public Healh '08
No info available... yet. |
(photo credit: Charlie Mayman) |
Jennifer Laaser
Davenport '08
Jenny began ballet classes at age 5 at Western Ballet in Mountain View, California. Since then, she has performed in numerous full-length ballets; her favorite roles include Spanish in The Nutcracker and "Work" in Coppelia. Since joining YD in 2004, she has enjoyed branching out into other types of dance, especially jazz... though she remains, incurably, a ballerina at heart. Outside of dance, her interests include chemistry, violin, and fixing other people's computers. |
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Allegra Long
Stiles '08
Like her namesake, Allegra Kent, Allegra took to dancing at a very young age, studying classical ballet and jazz throughout her childhood. In high school, Allegra was accepted to the Alvin Ailey school, where she trained for two summers, studying primarily Graham and Horton modern techniques. Outside of the Ailey school, she has been privileged to study with Ann Reinking, Desmond Richardson, and William Whitener, among others. Allegra can be seen dancing in a Honda commercial that sometimes appears in internet pop-ups and in Long family home videos performing really awesome early 90s hip-hop. |
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Keily Miller
Branford '11
Keily began dancing ballet at age nine. She trained at the Debbie Allen Dance Academy and the Edge Performing Arts Center in Los Angeles in the disciplines of ballet, lyrical, jazz, flamenco, and Horton technique. Keily has also trained at the Alvin Ailey School and at Broadway Dance Center in New York, and she has danced with Lines Ballet Company and Complexions Contemporary Ballet. |
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Leizl Moralina
MED PA '11
Info coming soon! |
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Steph Rosenthal
Stiles '10
It has been 16 years since Steph began running around in a pink tutu at a ballet tudio in Salt Lake City, Utah. Since then she has studied just about every type of dance the field has to offer from ballet to jazz, tap, modern, character, and hip hop. Though she has spent most of her time as a competitive figure skater, she now coaches skating and enjoys putting her performance energy into Yaledancers. Her other interests include snowboarding, good films, going out, chocolate and shoes. |
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Kalani Rosell
Davenport '11
Born and raised on the little island of Maui in Hawaii, Kalani was much more interested in his surfboard than a pair of ballet slippers. However, at age 10, he began taking classes at the Maui Academy of Performing Arts under the careful guidance of Virginia Holte. In 2006 and 2007, he was invited with full scholarship to attend the Joffrey Ballet Summer Intensive. Kalani has performed as lead male ballet dancer in public performances of Swan Lake, Copellia, Petit Moire, Sleeping Beauty, Gaite Parisienne, Carmina Burana, and Alice in Wonderland, as well as in excerpts of the Nutcracker. He also performed as the Snow King in New Haven Ballet's 2007 performance of Nutcracker. Outside of dance, Kalani is part of the Yale Varsity Fencing Team and a member of USA Triathlon. |
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Justin Ross
Trumbull '07
Justin comes from the sunny Vancouver Island in the Pacific Ocean off the West
coast of Canada. While growing up in Victoria Justin learned to dance ballet,
jazz and funk. These skills came in handy when he got to Yale and had to shake
his groove thing at auditions for Yaledancers. He hopes to continue dancing in
the future as some kind of traveling dancer/sailor/cowboy/doctor. He is writing
his senior essay for History of Medicine on dance and physical rehabilitation.
Justin has danced with Yaledancers since 2003. |
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Deniz Sancaktar
Stiles '11
Deniz began dancing at Ken and Jean's Dance Studio in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania at the age of 3. After 10 years of tap, ballet, cecchetti, and jazz, she decided to broaden her dancing skills. She moved on to the Maryen Lorrain Dance Studio, where she competed heavily and explored modern, contemporary, lyrical, and hip hop while continuing classes in ballet, tap, and jazz. Deniz then moved to North Potomac, Maryland, where she joined her high school's dance team. She is excited to return to her ballet and modern roots as a member of Yaledancers. Deniz plans to major in biology and attend medical school after Yale. |
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Kristen Saruwatari
Jonathan Edwards '07
Kristen started ballet at age 5, but since arriving at Yale and joining Yaledancers, she is happy to semi-retire her pointe shoes and try out new forms of dance. Kristen enjoys warm weather, sushi, and "slippers" not "flip-flops". Kristen's last name means "Monkey Crossing". |
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Tara Streich-Tilles
Trumbull '09
After studying ballet in middle school, Tara joined the Berkeley Ballet Theater Youth Company at the age of fifteen. In high school she was also a member of the College Preparatory School Performing Dance Group, a modern and jazz dance company. Tara has danced with the Oakland Ballet and performed original choreography by Beth Hoge, Sally Streets, Sonya Delwaide and Kimberly Valmore. She is planning to major in biology and hopes to attend medical school after graduating from Yale. |
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Kelvin Vu
Jonathan Edwards '11
Kelvin is new to the dance world, but he is already in love with dance and Yaledancers! A competitive figure skater for ten years, he qualified for the U.S. Junior Championships three times and the U.S. National Championships twice, under the tutelage of Alex Vlassov and Iveta Ice, before coming to Yale. As a dancing newbie, Kelvin loves to improv to lyrical music and learn as much as he can from the amazing people in YD. To him, Yale and YD have been incredible experiences so far, and he is so excited to be part of both! |
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Ryan Webb
Pierson '08
Ryan has been dancing since before he was able to walk, but started pointing his toes (most of the time) about five years ago. His background is mostly in jazz and a little modern, but since joining YD has dabbled in the fine art of ballet and absolutely loves to choreograph. When not dancing he can be found doing cart-wheels on cross campus or shakin' it up in a club doing the things the YD ladies don't want him to do on stage :) |
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Michelle Weitz
Jonathan Edwards '06
Michelle decided to pursue ballet as a career in 1984, after her first ballet class. She attended a full-time performing arts high school, where she performed with the Conservatory Ballet of Washington; her favorite roles were the Sugar Plum Fairy and Kitri in Don Quixote. She moved to London in 1999 to study ballet at London Studio Centre and perform with Images of Dance in their 2000 tour of the United Kingdom. After her 15th injury and a couple operations in London hospitals, where she was forgotten by the nurses and mistaken for both the Pope and a banana by her insane fellow patients, she decided to apply for college and become a stuffy academic. She has just moved to Krakow, where she will most likely trade in her pointe shoes for red leather boots and a tambourine. Her ambition is to marry a long-mustachioed furry-hatted Cossack and buy a castle in southern Poland, where she will wile away her days with a wailing accordion, a bottle of vodka, and potatoes. |
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