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Resident Dancers
Kelsey Bartman
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Kelsey Bartman, originally from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, began formal training with Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre School (PBTS) and Pittsburgh High School for the Creative and Performing Arts (CAPA). Summers were spent studying at American Ballet Theatre, New York, Jacob's Pillow Jazz Program for two years and PBTS for several years. Kelsey then continued as a trainee with Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre (PBT). During that time she choreographed works for PBT’s School and Company. She then joined Nashville Ballet 2 in 2007 and was hired as a Nashville Ballet Apprentice. She is a co-creator of Works in Progress (WIP) Choreography Project, and has choreographed for Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre, Nashville Ballet, Nashville Ballet 2, Arova Contemporary Ballet, Columbus Modern Dance, and Texture Contemporary Ballet. Kelsey's works, Stills From Italy and Old Skin, have been performed at White Wave DUMBO Dance Festival, and The Rose was showcased at Dance Canvas in Atlanta. She had the great pleasure of choreographing for Resonance Works’ production of Amahl and the Night Visitors. She has had the honor of dancing in Balanchine's Four Temperaments, Theme and Variations, and Serenade, Sarah Slipper's Postcards From the Boys, as well as Paul Vasterling's Adjustable Wrench and Carmina Burana, as well as multiple works by Alan Obuzor and Gabriel Gaffney Smith. Ms. Bartman has taught for the School of Nashville Ballet, Evolve Productions, Alloy School, Laurel Youth Ballet, Xtreme Tumbling and Dance and is currently teaching for Millenium Dance Complex. She has recently had the privilege of teaching a workshop for the group Yaledancers at Yale University. Kelsey is now Associate Artistic Director, Resident Choreographer, and Dancer for Texture Contemporary Ballet.
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Abigrace Diprima
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Abigrace is from Lawrenceville, GA and trained under the direction of Lisa Sheppard Robson and Wade Walthall. During this time, she attended the Youth America Grand Prix NYC finals in 2010 and 2014. She continued her studies at University of North Carolina School of the Arts under Dean Susan Jaffe, receiving her BFA in dance. During her time at UNCSA, she enjoyed performing various works including Russian demi-soloist in Balanchine’s Serenade, Balanchine’s Donizetti Variations, and the Mazurka variation and pas de deux from Fokine’s Les Sylphides. Abigrace went on to dance with Oklahoma City Ballet’s Studio Company and Ballet Tucson as an apprentice. Following this, she danced as a freelance artist with Kayzer Ballet (Covilha, Portugal), Bluebird Uncaged (Atlanta, GA), Jana Taylor and Dancers, and Pasadena Dance Theatre. Abigrace joined Eugene Ballet as a company artist in 2020 and enjoyed dancing full length classical ballets and contemporary works. Her favorites include soloist roles in Suzanne Haag's Conduct and With Your Own Wings, as well as Haag's Heaven and Earth. She also enjoyed dancing for #instaballet events in Eugene, which used audience participation to choreograph on professional dancers. She is happy to be joining the beautiful artists and individuals at Texture Contemporary Ballet this season.
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Adrian Green
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Born in Fort Worth, Texas, Adrian Green started his classical dance training at the age of 15 at the Fort Worth Academy of Fine Arts. He performed several works, musicals, and ballets staged by Krista Langford, such as Sleeping Beauty, Paquita, Napoli, and Academy Dance Company concerts. Adrian has attended several summer programs including the Royal Ballet in Covent Garden, the Glenda Brown Choreography Project, and Kansas City Ballet, and was an apprentice with the Pillow Projects directed by Pearlann Porter. Adrian is a graduate from Point Park University’s Conservatory of Performing Arts earning his B.F.A in Dance with a concentration in ballet. While at Point Park he performed several works including Shimmer by Maree Remalia, Spokes of Venus along with Thresholds both by Dan Karasik, Diversion of Angels by Martha Graham, and was a principal performer in A Solo in Nine Parts by Jessica Lang, as well as In creases by Justin Peck. Adrian is a resident dancer at Texture Contemporary Ballet while also performing locally in Pittsburgh as a freelance artist performing in works such as Bluebird Pas de Duex, several Nutcrackers, and Swan Lake as a featured artist. As a passionate emerging choreographer Adrian has created works such as the celestial contemporary ballet “the Green Flash'' and the Nina Simone inspired film “Porgy in Blue ''. Adrian is also a dance teacher in the Pittsburgh area who has taught at Abby Lee Dance Company, Studio 412, Dance Expressions by Erica , Dance Ink., and Dance Academy by Lori, as well as masterclasses all across the Pittsburgh region.
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Rachel Harman
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Rachel Harman, originally from Leesburg, VA, recently graduated from Point Park University in April of 2017 with a B.A in Dance. While studying at Point Park, Rachel had the pleasure of performing works by Nicolas Petrov and Ernest Tolentino as well as performing Giselle choreographed by Jean Coralli and Jules Perrot. Rachel has previously trained at summer intensives such as Complexions Contemporary Ballet, Alonzo King's LINES Ballet, Ballet Austin, and Indiana University. She is very excited to be working with Texture Contemporary Ballet.
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Madeline Kendall
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Madeline Kendall was raised in Sacramento, California where she trained from the age of eight at Capitol Ballet Center under the direction of Stuart Carroll and Sharron Newton. In 2014, Madeline moved to Salt Lake City, Utah to dance with Ballet West, where she had the opportunity to perform in productions of Giselle, Swan Lake, The Nutcracker, Aladdin, Beauty and the Beast, George Balanchine’s Symphony in C, and John Cranko’s Romeo and Juliet. Over the past two years, Madeline toured the state of Utah as a part of an educational outreach called Ballet West for Children. She also performed as a guest artist in a production of The Nutcracker in Fairbanks, Alaska. More recently, Madeline travelled to Germany where she participated in a Cultural Dance Exchange Program with The Staatliche Ballettschule Berlin.
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Katie Miller
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Katie Miller is originally from Michigan and began taking dance classes at the age of three. She studied for many years at the Paavola School of Dance, spending summers at Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre School’s (PBTS’s) Intensive Summer Programs. She continued her studies at PBTS’s Graduate Program for two years where she had the opportunity to perform with Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre, attended Complexions Contemporary Ballet Summer Intensive, and also received private instruction from Giuseppe Canale of Northeast Academy of Dance.
She has performed with Texture Contemporary Ballet for ten years, The Sacramento Ballet for six years, and had the opportunity to perform in The Suzanne Farrell Ballet Forever Balanchine: Farewell Performances at The Kennedy Center. The performances have ranged from classical, to contemporary, to tap, to neoclassical ballets exemplified by George Balanchine: Serenade, Chaconne, Concerto Barocco, The Four Temperaments, Who Cares?, Stars and Stripes, Western Symphony, and Rubies. Katie has taught at Paavola School of Dance, The School of the Sacramento Ballet, and Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre School in their Pre-Professional Division, Summer Intensive, and Community Division. She has also choreographed for Texture Contemporary Ballet’s WIP Choreography Project. For several years, Katie has been doing wide ranging administrative tasks for Texture as an Administrative Assistant and Manager of Outreach & Community Involvement. She is also currently pursuing a Bachelor of Arts at St. Mary’s College of California. |
Alan Obuzor
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Alan Obuzor was honored in 2013 by Dance Magazine by being named one of the "Top 25 to Watch". Originally from Pittsburgh, Alan began dancing at the age of nine. Two years later he attended Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre School(PBTS), where in 1998 he was a recipient of the prestigious Princess Grace Foundation Dance Honorarium. Alan received a contract to join Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre's(PBT's)professional company at the age of 17. During his seven years in PBT's Company, he danced a wide array of ballets ranging from classical to neoclassical to contemporary, which included principal and soloist roles in ballets such as The Nutcracker, Swan Lake, Symphony in C, Carmina Burana and Divertimento 15. In that time he also worked with many world renowned figures in dance, and was selected to originate soloist roles in new works by choreographers Dwight Rhoden, Derek Dean, Matjash Mrozewski and Jiabin Pan. Alan began teaching in 2002; from 2007-2012 Alan was on the faculty of PBTS as one of the primary Pre-Professional Division teachers and choreographers. In the fall of 2012, Alan joined the teaching faculty of Pittsburgh Youth Ballet. Alan choreographed his first work in 2002 on himself and a fellow dancer. Since that time he has choreographed over 55 new works for Texture Contemporary Ballet, PBT, PBTS, Pittsburgh Youth Ballet Company, New Ballet Ensemble, Harvard Ballet Company, Point Park University, Dancers' Trust, Canton Ballet, Pittsburgh High School for the Creative and Performing Arts and various independent projects. In 2011, Alan won first place in the Pittsburgh Chapter of the National Society of Arts and Letters Dance/Choreography competition. He is also the founder and Artistic Director of Texture Contemporary Ballet in 2011.
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Sophie Powell
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Sophie Powell was born in Kirkland, WA and trained in her early years at Turning Pointe Dance Center and then with Deborah Hadley, where she started her pursuit of a dance career. She went on to train at the Houston Ballet Academy in their Professional Division from 2015 to 2018 where she performed in Stanton Welch’s The Nutcracker, The Ladies, Long and Winding Road and others. While in Houston she had the opportunity to present her first choreographic work which was originally performed in May of 2018 with her fellow students and then was featured in November 2018 at Houston Ballet’s Elle Emerge program. From there she moved to Pittsburgh to train at Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre and performed with the company in their productions of The Nutcracker, Giselle, and Beauty and the Beast. She continued her choreography at PBT and presented works in 2019 and 2020, and in the summer of 2020 she broke new ground by choreographing and editing her first virtual performance with Shana Simmons Dance. Sophie is happy to be working with Texture Contemporary Ballet and all the lovely humans involved within its organization.
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Jillian Sinko
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Jillian Sinko is a graduate from Point Park University where she received her B.F.A. in Dance. Originally from Bethlehem, PA, Jillian grew up training with the Pennsylvania Youth Ballet. During her time at Point Park, she developed her passion for contemporary dance and finding ways to fuse that with her classical training. Jillian performed various works at Point Park by Susan Stowe, Daniel Karasik, and Rocker Verastique. She has also choreographed several works/films, including The Other Side which was featured in The Constructed Sight Dance Film Festival, and Breathe which was featured in the Kennedy Center’s Art Under a Minute project. Jillian first guested with Texture in their show Reimagine, and is so excited to be joining them for her first full season.
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Elaina Sutula
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Elaina Sutula, of Brookfield, Connecticut, graduated magna cum laude from Mercyhurst University with a B.A. in Dance and a B.A. in Pre-Nutrition Studies in May 2016. Under direction of dance chair Tauna Hunter, she performed works including Flower Festival in Genzano, Pas de Quatre, Bruce Marks’s La Fille Mal Gardée, contemporary choreography by Rick McCullough and Hannah Baumgarten, and the title role in Melissa Bobick’s production of Little Match Girl. She received additional training during summer programs at The Nutmeg Conservatory, Ballet Austin, and Tulsa Ballet. Elaina spent four years in Minnesota dancing professionally with St Paul Ballet and Ballet Co.Laboratory, where she worked with choreographers including Zoé Henrot, Joseph Morrissey, Peter Davison, and Kinsun Chan. Elaina is an American Ballet Theatre® Certified Teacher, who has successfully completed the ABT® Teacher Training Intensive in Pre-Primary through Level 3 of the ABT® National Training Curriculum. She is excited to be working alongside the beautiful artists of Texture Contemporary Ballet.
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