Master Guest Artists

Morgan Burke

Morgan Burke was born in Pittsburgh, PA, and raised in Nashville, TN. By age twelve, he had performed on American Juniors, America’s Most Talented Kids, Showtime at the Apollo, Carnegie Hall, Good Morning America, and City Center Encore’s production of Golden Boy. 

He trained in every possible movement style at DC Dance Factory and Wharton Arts Magnet Middle School. At 14, Morgan began attending the Nashville School of the Arts, studying on full scholarship at the Debbie Allen Dance Academy in the summers.  As a professional dancer in LA, he worked closely with Mia Michaels, Erica Sobol, and Ray Leeper, assisting and performing. His credits include Jennifer Lopez, Chaka Khan, Blood Orange, Florence and the Machine, American Idol, Cirque Du Soleil, Dancing With The Stars, Eurovision, Mobbed, and behind-the-scenes work on So You Think You Can Dance.

During this time, Morgan began honing his skills as a dance educator, mentor, and choreographer, training dancers in Los Angeles and working in residency in Austin, TX. For the past decade, his work has been consistently in the top three at UDA nationals. Morgan now lives in Nashville, where he continues his work as a dance educator, mentoring and choreographing.

Elizabeth Corbett

Elizabeth Corbett danced with the Joffrey Ballet and the Milwaukee Ballet before becoming a soloist with William Forsythe’s Frankfurt Ballet. She teaches ballet, improvisation technologies and Forsythe repertory internationally. She has served as a choreographic assistant to Forsythe, Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker and Robert Wilson for productions at Paris Opera and Rosas. Elizabeth also taught classes and workshops around the world, including PARTS/Rosas, Impulstanz Vienna, Cullberg Ballet, Paris Opera Ballet, the University of the Arts, Panetta Movement Center, Dance Platform Istanbul, Hong Kong Academy for the Performing Arts and Beijing Dance Academy, where she received an honorary professorship. She has been an American Dance Festival faculty member since 2006, and she earned a Master of Fine Arts from Hollins University where she received a Hollins Fellowship.

Chrysogone Diangouaya

Congolese artist, Chrysogone Diangouaya, is a master of African dance, choreography, drumming, and storytelling. His unique contemporary style and technique emerged through the study of traditional African dances and natural body movements. Diangouaya’s professional career launched in the 1990s when he founded the Center for Body Expression, Dramatic Art, Stories, Percussion, and African Songs in Brazzaville, his home in the Republic of Congo. This program eventually became the first Congolese contemporary dance company, Ballet Theatre Monana. Before leaving the war-ravaged Congo in 1998, Diangouaya also organized the Association of Young Creators of Brazzaville and the first choreographic festival in the community.
In 1998, Diangouaya settled in Paris and founded the Compagnie Monana, a reiteration of his Ballet Theatre Monana, which creates and presents artistic and socio-cultural activities that promote and disseminate African culture. In the years since, he has collaborated with many recognized choreographers and become a celebrated international performing artist. Much of his work is honored at the annual Mabina-Danse Choreography and Dance Festival in Paris, which he founded.
Today, the Chrysogone Diangouaya Dance Center, located in the 18th District of Paris, is home to Diangouaya’s experimentation with new choreographic language based on contemporary thought and mixed culture. From this home base, he now travels throughout the world to drive social action, especially in support of women against discrimination, and to deliver his educational framework for teaching and mentoring children.

Nomalanga “Nomi” Eniafe

Nomi Eniafe teaches in Metro Nashville Public Schools, the Nashville Magnet School for the Performing Arts, and has taught West African dance in the Vanderbilt University Dance Program. She has choreographed numerous productions for Nashville-area theaters and dance ensembles. Her work and classes are known for their energy derived from a foundation of traditional West African rhythms and dance forms. Nomi has taught throughout the South and Midwest. She returns to Memphis each summer as a Guest Master Teacher for CityDance.

Daniel Fetecua

A native of Bogotá, Colombia, Daniel Fetecua holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Folkwang-University of the Arts in Essen, Germany. He was a guest artist in Pina Bausch’s Rite of Spring and Tannhäuser. He was a soloist for the Jose Limón Dance Company (2006-16) and is a régisseur and master teacher of the Limón modern dance technique. Daniel has danced in works by Jiří Kylián, Susane Linke, Rodrigo Pederneiras/Grupo Corpo, Lar Lubovitch, Anna Sokolow and Doris Humphrey. He has served on faculty with the Limón Institute and is a founding member of Limon4Kids program. Daniel is the founder and artistic director of two New York City-based companies: Pajarillo Pinta’o, which preserves and promotes Colombian traditional dances through performance and workshops, and
D-Moves, which focuses on contemporary dance projects that combine Colombian traditions, dance forms, modern dance and German TanzTheater. He is currently an adjunct professor at New York University and dancing with Movement Migration under artistic director, Kim Jones.

General McArthur Hambrick

General McArthur Hambrick is a graduate of Texas Christian University, where he earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts in dance. He also studied at American Ballet Theatre, Dance Theatre of Harlem and the Alvin Ailey Dance Theatre School. He earned his Master of Fine Arts in dance from the University of Washington.
General was a soloist with the Fort Worth Ballet and Hartford Ballet and danced with Minnesota Dance Theatre in Minneapolis where he received the 1999 McKnight Fellowship for his achievements in the dance community. His extensive musical theatre credits include Broadway and national touring companies of Cats, Miss Saigon, and The Phantom of the Opera. Off-Broadway, he appeared in the revival of Martha Clarke’s critically acclaimed Garden of Earthly Delights. He also toured with many other productions including Swing, Once On This Island, Jesus Christ Superstar and The King and I. He appeared as guest vocalist with Della Reese on the PBS special “With Ossie and Ruby: Life Is.” General was director and choreographer of the Centennial Singers and the founder and director of the Joyful Noise Choral Ensemble. He is currently an assistant professor of dance at West Virginia University.

Francesca Harper

Francesca Harper is an internationally acclaimed, multi-faceted artist. After being named a Presidential Scholar in the Arts and performing at the White House, Harper began her career with Dance Theater of Harlem and went on to dance as a principal in William Forsythe’s Ballet Frankfurt. Her Broadway credits include Fosse, The Producers and the Tony Award-winning treasure The Color Purple. Regionally, she performed leading roles in Sweet Charity and Sophisticated Ladies. Her latest solo work, “The Look of Feeling,” was described as “a piece rich in truth and authenticity.” She was also a featured performer in Punchdrunk’s production of Sleep No More in New York. Harper has choreographed works for Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, Dance Theatre of Harlem, Ailey II, Tanz Graz, Hubbard Street II, Dallas Black Dance Theater and her own company, The Francesca Harper Project, which has become the platform for her own artistic vision. The company has toured nationally and internationally at venues including the Holland Dance Festival, Venice Biennale, New Jersey Performing Arts Center, Impulstanz, the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Joyce Theater. Harper is greatly inspired by the movement for equality and social justice, and will continue to inspire others as the recently named Artistic Director of Alvin Ailey II.

Eriko Iisaku

Eriko Iisaku began her dance training with her mother, Yoshimi Iisaku. In 2006, she moved to New York and entered The Ailey School as a Fellowship student for four years and has also trained at Jacob’s Pillow Contemporary Tradition and the American Dance Festival. Eriko has performed works choreographed by Francesca Harper, Sonia Dawkins, Iquiail Shaheed, Edger Zendejas and Helen Pickett. She also appeared in Alvin Ailey’s Memoria at New York City Center from 2007-09. She has performed with Dallas Black Dance Theater, New Ballet as a Guest Artist, the Eikichi Yazawa ”Still Rockin” concert tour as a featured dancer, the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra and International Tanz Gala in Graz Austria. Eriko has served as a rehearsal director and company member with the Francesca Harper Project since 2010.

Damien Johnson

Damien Johnson is a Dallas, Texas, native and received his early training there from Kitty Carter, Dallas Metropolitan Ballet and Booker T. Washington High School for the Performing Arts. He went on to study at Rock School in Pennsylvania and the School of American Ballet. In his diverse career, he has performed with the American Repertory Ballet, Dance Theatre of Harlem, New Chamber Ballet, Los Angeles Ballet, Madison Ballet, London-based Ballet Black, and most recently, The Suzanne Farrell Ballet and The Ashley Bouder Project. During his years dancing in London, Damien also maintained a busy teaching schedule at Ballet Black and several other studios in the city. He is currently on the faculty of the Washington Ballet.

Kim L. Jones

A choreographer, dancer and native New Yorker, Kim Jones is an associate professor of dance at University of North Carolina at Charlotte, a régisseur for the Martha Graham Resource Center, and the founder and artistic director of Movement Migration, an intergenerational and international dance company based in Charlotte.
Kim previously danced with the Martha Graham Dance Company and the Metropolitan Opera Ballet and served as a principal dancer in the U.S. national tour of The King and I. In 2012-13, she reconstructed Martha Graham’s Imperial Gesture (1935), supported by the National Endowment for the Arts’ American Masterpieces grant. The work was performed by the Martha Graham Dance Company and is now in their repertory. Kim’s article, “American Modernism: Reimagining Martha Graham’s Lost Imperial Gesture (1935),” was the cover article of the December 2015 issue of the Dance Research Journal, published by the Congress on Research in Dance.
Recently, Kim reconstructed Paul Taylor’s Tracer (1962), a collaboration with the artist Robert Rauschenberg (set and costumes), which had not been categorically archived and had no historical video, audio or first-hand oral record. Tracer was funded by her second NEA arts work grant, reviewed by The New York Times chief dance critic, Alastair Macaulay, and performed across New York at the Museum of Modern Art, the 92nd Street Y, the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Joyce Theater, NYC.

Myrna Kamara

Myrna Kamara received her early ballet training with Ellen Gniadowska and Peggy Lynne in Baltimore, Maryland. After studying one year at the Washington Ballet School in D.C., she pursued her studies at the School of American Ballet in New York. From 1984 to 1989, Myrna was a member of the New York City Ballet where she danced roles in ballets by George Balanchine, Jerome Robbins, Peter Martins, Eliot Feld and Lar Lubovitch. During the 1989-90 season she danced in Bonn, Germany under director Youri Vamos, where the role of the Nubiana from Spartacus was created for her. In 1990, Myrna joined Miami City Ballet working with director Edward Villella. Subsequently, she was promoted to principal ballerina. There she received critical acclaim for her performances in the Balanchine repertoire including the Arabian solo from the Nutcracker, the siren in Prodigal Son, Calliope in Apollo, the solo girl in Rubies, the Russian girl in Serenade, Allegro Brillante, Who Cares, Bugaku, Agon, Four Temperaments, and many more.
Her final company contract was with Maurice Bejart from 1996-1999 in Switzerland. During this period she performed several of his ballets, including the renowned Bhakti, Sacre du Printemps, Le Mandarin Merveilleux, L’oiseau de Feu, and Ballet for Life (Le Presbytere).
Myrna has appeared as a guest artist throughout the United States and Europe. Some of her well-known performances were at the Arena di Verona for her notable and distinguishing performances in Aida, working with Placido Domingo for his Gala evening of Carmen and performances of  Aida in Japan, performing Franco Zeffirelli’s Aida in Teatro alla Scala (Choregraphy Vladimir Vassiliev), an evening event for Bulgari at Terme di Caracalla in Rome with Roberto Bolle and Andrea Volpintesta, Gala des Ètoiles in Luxembourg (where she performed two Balanchine pas de deux’s licensed from the Balanchine Trust), and performing for the last two closing night galas on the occasion of the 20th anniversary of the “Miami International Ballet Festival”.
Other tours included the Spoleto Festival, the Edinburgh Festival, the Leonide Massine Festival, South Africa, Portugal, Japan, and the Kennedy Center, to mention a few.
Myrna is a guest teacher (Basel Ballet School, San Francisco Ballet School, School of American Ballet, New York City Ballet , Orsolina 28, Art Studio Danza, Mimarsinan Fine Art and State Konservatory, Istanbul,Turkey) and coaches dancers, competition ice skaters to help improve their artistic performance qualities and has also been a jury member for the 2021 Prix de Lausanne.
In addition to all of this, Myrna is the founder, director and performer of her own dance company, balletXtreme, a strong neoclassical contemporary ballet company performing works from diverse internationally renowned choreographers.

Triniti McNeal

BFA Marymount Manhattan,
Dance and Sound Technology

Maribel Modrono

Maribel Modrono, a native of Cuba, was raised in Miami, Florida. Modrano trained at Ballet Etudes and the School of American Ballet as a scholarship student. She danced with the Fort Worth Dallas Ballet and was then invited by Edward Villella to join the Miami City Ballet. She has been favored to dance leading roles in Balanchine ballets including Jewels, Apollo, Square Dance, The Four Temperaments and Concerto Barocco. Maribel joined PBT in 1997 and received acclaim for her portrayals in Swan Lake as Odette/Odile, Madame Butterfly, Don Quixote as Kitri and Aurora in Sleeping Beauty and as “Marie” in Terrence S. Orr’s production of The Nutcracker. Maribel is currently on the Faculty of the Miami City Ballet School.

Kaori Ogasawara

Kaori Ogasawara was born in Japan where she studied ballet with her grandmother, Kazue Ogasawara and Takao Hisamitsu. In 1993, she came to the United States to train at the Boston Ballet School and later danced at Boston Ballet before joining Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre in 1999 with her husband, Christopher Rendall-Jackson. In 2004, she was promoted to soloist and danced in featured roles including the Sugar Plum Fairy and Marie in Terrence S. Orr’s The Nutcracker, Myrtha in Giselle, Mercedes in Don Quixote, and Russian girl in Balanchine’s Serenade.
Kaori also performed in galas and appeared as a guest artist in the roles of Swanhilda in Coppelia, Aurora in Sleeping Beauty, Sylph in La Sylphide and in the balcony pas de deux in John Cranko’s Romeo and Juliet. Kaori and her husband retired from the stage in 2009 and now live in San Francisco with their children Emiya and Hana. She currently serves as rehearsal director with Berkeley Ballet Theater.

Toni Pierce-Sands

Co-founder of TU Dance in St. Paul, Minnesota, Toni Pierce-Sands performed with Minnesota Dance Theatre, Tanz Forum in Germany, Rick Odums in Paris, and Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, where she was a featured soloist in such signature pieces as Revelations.
Her command of the Horton Technique has led to teaching posts throughout the United States and Europe. Toni directs programming and teaches classes at TU Dance Center in St. Paul and at the University of Minnesota, where she is also the director of University Dance Theater. Toni was awarded a 2004 McKnight Artist Fellowship in Dance, named the Sage Awards’ “2011 Outstanding Dance Educator” and recognized with a 2013 Links Emerald Service Award for service in the arts. She was named a 2015 USA Fellow and also received the 2015 Knight Fellowship in Dance, together with TU Dance co-founder Uri Sands.

Maxx Reed

Maxx Reed, a former New Ballet Ensemble & School student, apprentice and Teaching Artist is now based in New York, where he has become an in-demand choreographer. Trained and proficient in movement from classical ballet to urban hip-hop, his work is driven by the unconditional love of all things creative. Maxx gained a place in the New Ballet company and teaching staff in 2006, spending the next five years teaching in the studio and performing in roles such as Romeo in Romeo and Juliet and the Rat King, The Hero and The Cavalier in NutRemix™. He has appeared in the Memphis productions of Cats, Westside Story and Jesus Christ Superstar, and was featured on ABC’s primetime special Dance War: Bruno vs. Carrie Ann. Maxx danced with Usher in the 2011 American Music Awards, is seen in the Michael Jackson film This Is It, and in music videos for Jackson’s “Hold my Hand,” Beyonce’s “Who Run the World (Girls),” and The Saturdays’ “Notorious.” His commercial work includes spots for Knott’s Berry Farm and Virgin Mobile. He danced for three years on Broadway in Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark.

Chris Roberts

Christopher Roberts is a born and raised Memphian. He started dancing in the competition circuit before entering into theme park and pageant entertainment. Finding his home base at New Ballet in his teens, he focused his efforts on ballet technique, choreography, and the community engagement programs in schools. He’s been trained by Katie Smythe, Elizabeth Corbett, and Christina Bernal, as well as soloists from Martha Graham and Alvin Ailey. His choreography credits include: New Ballet Ensemble & School (Carmina/O Fortuna, Traversing, Of the Mountain, Popplagio), Rhodes College (Rocky Horror Picture Show), and MTV ($5 Cover). With 20 years experience in teaching, mentoring, and coaching his goal is to “empower confident and disciplined young dancers.”

Pablo Francisco Ruvalcabo

Pablo Francisco Ruvalcabo, a native of San Diego, California, is a Juilliard School graduate and a 20-year Limón Dance Company veteran. During his tenure, he originated roles by notable guest choreographers such as Doug Varone, Donald McKayle, Murray Louis and Lar Lubovitch, among others. He has performed José Limón’s roles in the company’s revivals of Missa Brevis, The Traitor, Lament For Ignacio Sanchez Mejías and The Moor’s Pavane, as well as featured in reconstructions of works by Sokolow, Tudor, Kylián and more. Pablo is a co-founding director of The Higher Ground Festival of New York City and a founding member of Movement Migration, led by artistic director Kim Jones. He is a current faculty member at Hofstra University in New York and teaches the Limón technique and its repertory nationally and internationally.

Robin Sanders

Robin Sanders became a member of New Ballet’s Community Dance Space in 2008 where she built Hybrid Performance Group and Outloud Artistry, a performing arts training and mentorship program. Robin has also launched OLA programs in Little Rock, Arkansas, and Homestead, Florida. Her work is rooted in the hip-hop experience and expression with a West African dance influence. Through her ongoing partnership with New Ballet, Robin’s choreography has been featured in New Ballet’s Springloaded and NutRemix™. Most recently, Robin has partnered with artists Lil Buck and Jon Boogz of Moment Arts Is. She lives in Homestead with her husband and four children.

Marie Scioscia

Marie Elena Scioscia, M.S., R.D., CDN. is a Luigi-trained former dancer, registered dietitian, and certified fitness professional who seeks to inspire the young dancer who wishes to have a healthy and long dance career through proper nutrition and diet. Her extensive experience includes work in the clinical, non-clinical, and corporate settings including The Heart Group at Beth Israel Hospital, Manhattan Plaza Health Club, the American Red Cross, and Group Health Incorporated among other venues.
Marie is currently the nutritionist at the Alvin Ailey School, has worked with the New York City Ballet’s wellness group, and also has contributed and written for Dance Spirit and Pointe magazines. In addition to lecturing for Complexions Contemporary Ballet, the Martha Graham School, and other organizations, Marie has a private practice as a dietitian for dancers and non-dancers in both New York and New Jersey.

Wayne Smith

Wayne Smith is an adjunct professor of dance at the University of Memphis and has previously taught at Emory University, Spelman College, Kent State University, and Slippery Rock University. He has worked with Project: Motion Modern Dance Collective, the improvisational theater company Playback Memphis, and teaches and choreographs for Company d, a nationally recognized dance company of young adults with Down syndrome. Wayne’s teaching focuses on contemporary dance techniques, jazz dance, Limon, and improvisation. He has also taught dance composition, theatre movement, dance history, dance education, and interdisciplinary studies in dance. He earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts in theater and dance from the University of Memphis and a Master of Fine Arts in Dance from The Ohio State University.

Blakeley White-McGuire

Critically acclaimed as a principal dancer with the Martha Graham Dance Company from 2001-17, Blakeley White-McGuire has performed iconic dances including Lamentation, Chronicle, Appalachian Spring, Errand Into the Maze, and Night Journey. She earned her Master of Fine Arts in interdisciplinary arts from Goddard College in Vermont and currently serves on the faculties of Hunter College, the Ailey School, the Taylor School, and the American Dance Festival. Blakeley is an official régisseur for the Martha Graham Center, staging repertory performed around the globe. Most recently, she’s worked with Paul Taylor’s American Modern Dance, Semperoper, Ballet Vlaanderen, and the Juilliard School. Through her embodied research, Blakeley has materially contributed to three historical reimaginings: Ardent Song, Imperial Gesture, and Notes on a Voyage. Her writing on dance has been published by The Dance Enthusiast, Huffington Post, Dance Magazine, Performance Research Journal and A Life in Dance: A Practical Guide. In addition to her independent projects, Blakeley is currently dancing with Movement Migration under artistic director, Kim Jones.