Judges

Raisa Khylko was born in Dnieperpetrovsk, Ukraine and graduated from the Kiev State Choreographic Institute. At the age of eighteen she was accepted as a soloist in the National Opera Theatre of Ukraine and swiftly rose to the rank of Prima Ballerina. Her illustrious career on the stage performing in principal roles in classical and contemporary ballets spanned more than twenty years and three continents. Ms. Khylko’s forte as a lyrical ballerina is legendary and earned her the honor as Best Giselle of the Year in 1978.

Her many accolades include: Honored Artist of Ukraine, the Peoples’ Artist of the Soviet Socialist Republics, the highest honor that an artist can receive, and the Gold Medal of the International Ballet Competition at Varna. In 1984 she graduated with a Master’s Degree in Ballet Arts from the State Institute of Theatre Arts in Moscow. Ms. Khylko continues to pursue her passion for the art of ballet as a pedagogue and Ballet Mistress in the National Opera Theatre of Ukraine; as well as in many teaching engagements in the United States of America, Europe, Asia and South America.

Tina LeBlanc - USA/San Francisco Ballet

Tina LeBlanc - trained at Marion Tracy Dance Studio, Central Pennsylvania Youth Ballet, School of American Ballet, American Ballet Theatre School, and School of the Pennsylvania Ballet. After dancing with Joffrey II and The Joffrey Ballet, she joined San Francisco Ballet. Lead roles include those in Tomasson’s Giselle, Swan Lake, The Sleeping Beauty, Romeo and Juliet, and Nutcracker, and in Tomasson/Possokhov’s Don Quixote. She created roles in Tomasson’s Bartok Divertimento, Quartette, Criss-Cross, and 7 f or Eight; Adam’s Angelo and Night; Morris’ Pacific; Bintley’s The Dance House; and Wheeldon’s Quaternary. Principal roles in other ballets include Tomasson’s Prism, Nanna’s Lied, and Chaconne for Piano and Two Dancers; Forsythe’s Artifact Suite and The Vertiginous Thrill of Exactitude; Lander’s Etudes; Balanchine’s Theme and Variations, Square Dance, Serenade, Symphony in C, Apollo, and “Rubies”; Possokhov’s Study in Motion; Caniparoli’s Lambarena; Robbins’ Other Dances and Dances at a Gathering; and Flindt’s The Lesson. Her honors include two Isadora Duncan Dance Awards (ensemble performance, 2001; individual performance, 1999) and the Princess Grace Statuette Award (1995). Ms. LeBlanc has performed extensively as a guest artist.

Jean Logrea - Romania/Graz Ballet, Westchester Ballet/Director

BIOGRAPHY COMING SOON

D David Palmer avid Palmer - Australia/Washington Ballet/Artistic Associate

David Palmer, Director, Choreographer, Dancer, began his career as a dancer with the Australian Ballet. Since then he has danced as a Principal Dancer with the Joffrey Ballet, Miami City Ballet, Koninklijk Ballet Van Vlaanderen, San Francisco Ballet and Maximum Dance Company. He has also appeared as a guest artist with Sydney Dance Company, Ballet du Nord, PACT Ballet, the Queensland Ballet, San Francisco Ballet, Joffrey Ballet of Chicago and the Australian Ballet. He has been highly regarded as an International Guest Artist and principal dancer in both the classics and the more contemporary works of today’s masters for over two decades. He has had many works created upon him including works by Mark Morris, Helgi Tomasson, Paolo Mohovich, Graham Murphy, Stanton Welch, Julia Adam, Lynn Taylor-Corbett, Dietmar Seyffert, Gerald Arpino, and Val Caniparoli. Along with having performed all of the Classical Ballets David danced many of the leading roles in Balanchine works. As a choreographer David created some Thirty-Five works, performed by Maximum Dance Company (him and Yanis Pikieris founded in 1996) the Australian Ballet, San Francisco Ballet, Balletto D’Ell Esperia and Miami City Ballet. “The Rite of Spring” was named …..Best Original Work of the 2002-03 Season by SunPost Winner. David won the Choo-San Goh Award for “Concerto Romantique” a World Premiere choreography commissioned by the San Francisco Ballet in 2000. From 1999 -2001 David was named South Florida’s “Best Male Dancer” by the Miami Beach Sun Post. In 2004 he received The New World School of The Arts Achievement Award. David led Maximum Dance Company on four international tours and has performed and worked internationally in dozens of countries and venues. He was a featured artist in the dance film “To Dream of Roses” presented at the world’s fair in Osaka in 1991.

Adam Sklute - USA/Joffrey Ballet, Ballet West/Artistic Director

Adam Skulte Adam Sklute was named Artistic Director of Ballet West in March of 2007. Prior to that time he was Associate Artistic Director of The Joffrey Ballet where he began as a dancer in the mid 1980’s.

In less than three years, Sklute has introduced Ballet West to such renowned contemporary choreographers as Ulysses Dove, Nicolo Fonte, Jiri Kylian, Mark Morris, Twyla Tharp and Stanton Welch while expanding the company’s Balanchine and Smuin repertoire and adding historical masterpieces by Michael Fokine and Bronislava Nijinska. He has reintroduced lost elements of Willam Christensen’s beloved production of The Nutcracker, and this season he is remounting Sir Frederick Ashton’s The Dream and producing a new classic version of Swan Lake. Most notably, Sklute developed Ballet West’s wildly successful Innovations program, designed to nurture and present new creations by emerging Utah, national, and international choreographers.

Under Sklute’s leadership Ballet West appeared at Washington D.C.’s Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts as part of the 2008 Ballet Across America Festival. In February 2009 the company graced the cover of Dance Magazine for the first time in 24 years and Sklute’s production of The Treasures of the Ballets Russes garnered rave reviews from The New York Times. On the strength of that review, the company was invited to appear at New York City’s City Center as part of their 2009 Fall for Dance Festival, Ballet West’s first return to New York since 1981.

Sklute conceived Ballet West’s Viewpointe panel discussion series, its Shoe-in project (a collaboration with Utah local artists) and its Fusion fashion show fundraiser. He has lectured at the Chicago Art Institute, and has served on the board of Chicago’s Dance for Life and on Utah’s Salt Lake County Cultural Facilities Master Plan Advisory Board. A finalist judge for the Youth America Grand Prix, and an adjudicator for the American College Dance Festival Association, Sklute was listed as one of the 25 Movers and Shakers of the Utah Arts Scene in 2007.

An Adjunct Professor of dance at the University of Utah, Sklute actively oversees Ballet West’s Academy, teaching regularly and developing and focusing its syllabus with the Academy faculty. Sklute is also a guest teacher and coach for dance programs and workshops nationwide, including The Southwest Regional Ballet Festival, Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival, Brigham Young University, The University of Cincinnati, The Joffrey Ballet School in New York, The Joffrey Workshop Texas in San Antonio, and the Utah Regional Ballet.

A native of Berkeley, California, Sklute began dancing at the age of 15. His early training was at the Oakland Ballet and San Francisco Ballet schools. After only two years of formal study he joined The Joffrey II Dancers (The Joffrey’s apprentice company). Two years later he was asked to join The Joffrey Ballet. Sklute was one of the last two artists personally chosen by Robert Joffrey.

Throughout his dancing career Sklute performed leading roles by such choreographers as Gerald Arpino, Sir Frederick Ashton, George Balanchine, John Cranko, Agnes DeMille, Robert Joffrey, Jiri Kylian, James Kudelka, Leonide Massine, Jerome Robbins, and Paul Taylor. He has performed with New York’s Metropolitan Opera Ballet, Dallas Metropolitan Ballet and California’s Diablo Ballet. Sklute’s television credits include The Joffrey Ballet’s Dance in America filmings of Vaslav Nijinsky’s Le Sacre du Printemps and Gerald Arpino’s production of Billboards, the role of The Old Soldier in WTTW’s filming of Kurt Jooss’s The Green Table and Herr Drosselmeyer in the WTTW one-hour special of Robert Joffrey’s The Nutcracker. In 2003 he assisted with and appeared in Robert Altman’s feature film The Company, based on The Joffrey Ballet.

Marianna Tcherkassky - USA/ABT, Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre/Ballet Mistress

Marianna Tcherkassky Before arriving in Pittsburgh, Ms. Tcherkassky enjoyed a dancing career with American Ballet Theatre spanning twenty six years, and has been recognized as one of the world’s leading ballerinas. Since her retirement from the stage in 1996, Ms. Tcherkassky continues to teach throughout the United States including the American Ballet Theatre Summer Intensive Program in New York as well as the University of Cincinnati where she received an honorary doctorate of performing arts, being cited for “exemplifying the highest ideals of ballet and the performing arts in general, and setting a standard of excellence which will have a lasting impression for generations to come.”

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