Cem Catbas, Artistic Director

Mr. Catbas is the Artistic Director of Baltimore Ballet School and co-founder and Director of Baltimore Ballet Company.  He danced principal roles with Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre, the Istanbul State Opera and Ballet, the Istanbul Contemporary Ballet, and the Koblenz Ballet in Germany in addition to Baltimore Ballet.  Roles he danced include the title role of Dracula in Ben Stevenson's (Houston Ballet Production) Dracula, the title role of Romeo in Romeo and Juliette with the Istanbul State Opera and Ballet, The Monk in Carmina Burana (Kent Stowell's production from Pacific Northwest  Ballet), the title role of Peer Gynt with the Koblenz Ballet, and numerous other principal roles.

Awards he has won include the 2006 and 2002 Individual Artist Award for excellence in solo dance performance from the Maryland State Arts Council, Gold Medal in the 1^st International Seleznyov Ballet Competition in 1991, and the Most Promising Dancer Award from the city of Istanbul.

He has a B.F.A. egregia cum laude from the Istanbul University State Conservatory where he studied with Ramazan Bapov, Nikolai Morozov, and Ludmilla Morkovina.  He has worked with Ben Stevenson (Houston Ballet), Patricia Wilde (NYC Ballet) Marianna Tcherkassky and Terrence Orr (ABT), Richard Glasstone (Istanbul Ballet), and Kent Stowell (Pacific Northwest Ballet), among others.

He has choreographed The Nutcracker, Pictures at an Exhibition, A Gershwin Rhapsody, Carnival of the Animals, excerpts from Petrouschka, and danced in and staged Scheherazade, Les Sylphides, the 2^nd act of Giselle, Swan Lake and La Bayadere for Baltimore Ballet.  The esteemed dance critic George Jackson praised his "passionately stretched line, buoyant leaps and plush landings."

He has been a judge for several competitions including the Frederick Arts Council, and a panelist for Maryland State Art Council.  His students have gone on to dance professionally, have won numerous awards including 1^st Prize at the regional Youth America Grand Prix Competition, winner of the MD Distinguished Scholar Award, and have received full scholarships to the School of American Ballet and other schools.  He has been interviewed on WBFF-Fox News, WMAR-TV, WJZ-TV, WBAL-TV and Comcast Local Edition.  He has given Master Classes in the US, Canada, and Europe.  He also has several articles on dance which were published at www.bourgeononline.com and he maintains an art/philosophy blog called "BARRE NONE".  He appeared in May and June issues of Dance Magazine 2012.

April Giangeruso Ballet, Variations (Guest Faculty)

Ms. April was born in Washington D.C. and began her early training in her hometown of Ellicott City, Maryland.  At age nine, she received a full scholarship to the Kirov Academy of Ballet where she studied from 2001 - 2005 under the direction of Ludmilla Morkovina.  She also studied with Valentina Kozlova and at 15 years old was the youngest female finalist at the 2006 USA International Ballet Competition in Jackson, Mississippi.  She has performed the Bluebird Pas de Deux from The Sleeping Beauty, the Grand Pas de Deux from The Nutcracker and Raymonda, and Medora and the Slave Pas de Deux from Le Corsaire.  She has attended the ABT Summer Intensives as a National Training Scholar, and in September 2007 she joined the Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis School at ABT.  Giangeruso joined ABT II in December 2007 and joined American Ballet Theatre as an apprentice in January 2010 and became a member of the corps de ballet in June 2010.  April was recently featured in The New York Times, click here to read.
 

Evgenia Singur Ballet, Variations and Character (Guest Faculty)

Ms. Evgenia was a principal dancer for the Russian State Ballet in Moscow, where she performed principal roles in The Nutcracker, Giselle, Coppelia, Swan Lake, Sleeping Beauty, Spartacus, and Don Quixote.  She toured with the company internationally to Austria, England, Germany, Japan, Switzerland, Ireland, Italy, China, Indonesia, Mexico, North & South Korea, United Arab Emirates (Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Oman), and Spain.  Ms. Singur began training as a rhythmic gymnast, then a figure skater, and finally as a ballet dancer from 1993-2001 at the Bolshoi Ballet Academy and Moscow State Institute of Choreography before joining the Russian State Ballet.  She won the 2004 International Dance Festival in Korea, and the Silver Award in the 2002 Dance Europe Magazine Competition.  Ms. Singur recently appeared in the lead female role in Baltimore Ballet's productions of Scheherazade at Kraushaar Auditorium and Les Sylphides at the BMA, as well as a lead dancer at Artscape at the Lyric Opera House in July 2009.

Bat Udval, Ballet Ballet, and Variations (Guest Faculty)

Bat Udval Erdene is a former principal dancer with the Russian Ballet Theater and was inducted into the Hall of Fame as one of the world’s greatest male dancers.