PRIVATE COACHING

BALLET & VARIATIONS/COMPETITION COACHING

Karel Cruz is from Holguin, Cuba, and received his training at Cuba’s Escuela Nacional de Artes. He joined Ballet Nacional de Cuba in 1996 and left in 1998 to join Ballet Clasico de Camara in Venezuela. From 1999 to 2000, he danced with Teatro Teresa Carreno, also in Venezuela. After coming to the United States, Mr. Cruz spent a year at the Rock School joining Pacific Northwest Ballet as a member of the corps de ballet in 2002. He was promoted to soloist in 2007 and principal in 2009. Mr. Cruz retired from Pacific Northwest Ballet in July 2018. He joined The University of Oklahoma as a ballet instructor for the dance department in 2019. READ FULL BIO HERE

BALLET, POINTE, & VARIATIONS/COMPETITION COACHING

Lindsi Dec is from Fairfax, Virginia. She trained at Washington School of Ballet and on scholarship at Pacific Northwest Ballet School. She joined Pacific Northwest Ballet as an apprentice in 2001 and was promoted to corps de ballet in 2002, soloist in 2009, and principal in 2014. Ms. Dec retired from Pacific Northwest Ballet in July of 2020 but will continue to teach master classes, privates, and stage ballets for Kiyon Gaines, former PNB Soloist. READ FULL BIO HERE

PILATES, BALLET, CONTEMPORARY & CHOREOGRAPHY, PHOTOS/PHOTOSHOOTS

Hannah Knorr is from Dayton, Ohio and began her early training with Camille Izard Morris (formerly with ABT) before training at Dayton Ballet under Dermot & Karen Russo Burke, and others, where she performed alongside the professional company. She spent her summers training with BalletMet, ABT, The Washington School of Ballet, Orlando Ballet, and Milwaukee Ballet. Hannah earned her BFA in Ballet Performance from the University of Oklahoma School of Dance with a Minor in Health/Exercise Science. There she enjoyed repertoire in both classical and modern/contemporary including works by Merce Cunningham, Trey McIntyre, George Balanchine, Amy Hall Garner, Nilas Martins, Willam Christensen and many others. Hannah is also a choreographer and recently created a world premiere for Confluence Ballet. She has performed with Fort Wayne Ballet, Ballet North Texas, and Texture Contemporary Ballet. She works in administration, social media/marketing and teaches for DeCruz Ballet. Hannah is a certified Pilates Instructor and has completed the ABT NTC Teaching Certification for Pre-Primary through Level 3.

BALLET, PBT, VARIATIONS/COMPETITION COACHING

Yania Noyola graduated as a Professional Dancer and Ballet Teacher from the National School of Art of Havana in 1998, she entered the Cuban National Ballet that same year participating in all the International Ballet Festivals of Havana and in national and international tours throughout Europe and Latin America interpreting the entire classical, neoclassical and contemporary repertoire of the Company. She shared the stage with figures such as Alessandra Ferri, Carlos Acosta, Carla Fracci, Cecilia Kerche, Maximiliano Guerra, José Manuel Carreño, Tamara Rojo, Julio Bocca, among many others until 2004.

In 2004 she was offered a contract at Mexico’s Nacional Dance Company, where she danced in productions by national and international choreographers such as Mark Godden "The Afrodite’s Triumph", Mauricio Wainrot "The Mesias", Joshua Beamish "Allemande", Alberto Méndez " Tarde en la Siesta ", Gustavo Herrera" Dionaea ", George Balanchine" Serenade ", James Kelly" A Midsummer Night's Dream ", Guillermo Arriaga" Zapata "and all the classical and contemporary repertoire of the company interpreting soloists roles among which stand out the Gypsy and Carmen in "Don Quixote", the Florestan Pas de trois from "The Sleeping Beauty", the Two Swans of the "Swan Lake", The Snowflakes soloist, the Spanish Dance and the Arab Dance of the "Nutcracker".

Simultaneously, she worked as a ballet teacher in various private academies and at the professional school Eos Dance Institute.

Yania also worked as a regisseur and teacher at the National Dance Company of Mexico (CND)

She recently moved to San Antonio and has been teaching in many dance studios and academies as a certified PBT and Ballet teacher. She is a passionate teacher who enjoys transmitting and sharing her love for the art of dance.

Lauren Ader-Cumpston began her dance training at an early age in Conifer, Colorado where she studied various styles of dance including jazz, and tap. In 2004, with a growing passion for ballet, she began to pursue training in classical dance and studied primarily under Nikoloz Makhateli in Denver, Colorado in the Vaganova Technique. While continuing the study of classical ballet under Nikoloz Makhateli and later Anastasiya Buchele, Ms. Ader-Cumpston attended University of Colorado at Denver, studying Biology and Pre-physical therapy. While unable to complete her degree before pursuing a career in dance, the time studying at UCD inspired a passionate and growing interest in Dance Medicine and in cross-training/conditioning for dancers. In 2010 Ms. Cumpston had the opportunity to train at the Gelsey Kirkland Academy of Classical Ballet (GKACB) in New York City and performed as a part of their Studio Company for two years. She is grateful to have been able to study under wonderful teachers including Gelsey Kirkland, Rinat Imaev, Karina Elver and Lyubov Fominich and to perform various works including excerpts from Swan Lake, Sleeping Beauty, Paquita, La Bayadère, La Vivandiere, The Nutcracker, La Sylphide and Napoli among others. Following her study at GKACB, Lauren moved to Chicago, IL and became a founding member of Ballet 5:8 as a Company Artist in 2012; she was later promoted to Lead Artist in 2014. While dancing with Ballet 5:8, Lauren also served as the Ballet Mistress for Ballet 5:8 Professional Company and as the Director of Residency Programs for Ballet 5:8 School of the Arts. While serving at Ballet 5:8 school of the Arts, Ms. Ader-Cumpston played a crucial role in instituting and developing a curriculum for the Pre-Professional and Conservatory training programs based on the Vaganova syllabus. (Recently, Ms. Ader-Cumpston was excited to join Ballet 5:8 on staff again as the head instructor for their new online program Ballet 5:8 NOW). CLICK HERE TO READ MORE