PRINCIPALS

Amanda Gerhardt began training at age 10 in Florida under Dulce Anaya. She attended numerous summer intensives including Boston Ballet, American Ballet Theatre and The School of American Ballet where she was chosen to perform for the New York Choreographic Institute. She attended Miami City Ballet School in the pre-professional division before joining Carolina Ballet in 2013. She has since risen through the ranks to principal dancer and was nominated for the Princess Grace Award. She has performed principal roles like Sugar Plum Fairy, Firebird, and Cinderella. As well as performing George Balanchine’s Apollo, Agon, Serenade, Four Temperaments, Rubies, and Raymonda Variations; August Bournonville’s Flower Festival; Zalman Raffael’s In the Grey, Frankenstein, and The Other Ravel; Lynne Taylor-Corbett’s Carmina Burana, Boléro, and Dracula; and Robert Weiss’ Messiah among numerous others.

Dancer Sponsors: Dr. and Mrs. Malcolm McDougal Brown

Pointe Shoe Sponsors: Nancy and Christopher Bolen

Ashley Hathaway is a native of Raleigh, North Carolina where she began her ballet training at age six at the Raleigh School of Ballet. Having grown up in the capital city, she was chosen to be part of Carolina Ballet’s productions from a young age and was the very first Clara in The Nutcracker. Ms. Hathaway continued her education at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts and has also trained at the School of American Ballet, Pacific Northwest Ballet, and Jacob’s Pillow. Upon joining Carolina Ballet, Ms. Hathaway’s featured roles include Lucy in Lynne Taylor-Corbett’s Dracula, The Sugar Plum Fairy in The Nutcracker, and Juliet in Robert Weiss’ Romeo & Juliet. In the summer of 2018, Ms. Hathaway was selected to dance at the National Choreographers Initiative in Irvine, California.

Dancer Sponsor: Sandy Sully

Pointe Shoe Sponsors: Dr. and Mrs. Robert S. Grew

Pas de Deux Sponsor: Norrish Munson Rozgonyi

Richard Krusch Richard Krusch was born in Budapest, Hungary. He started his ballet training in 1994 at the Hungarian Dance Academy, where he received training in the classical Vaganova technique and classical repertoire. He attended numerous summer programs in the United States, including the University of North Carolina School of the Arts and The School of American Ballet in New York City. He graduated from UNCSA in the summer of 2002 and joined Carolina Ballet the same year. Mr. Krusch has also worked with the American Ballet Theatre in 2004 and the Hungarian National Ballet in 2005 where he also toured with the Hungarian Ballet in Europe. In 2006 hr returned to Carolina Ballet and was made a Principal 2011. He has danced many major roles and many roles were choreographed on him by Robert Weiss and Lynne TaylorCorbett and Zalman Raffael. In 2011, Mr. Krusch represented Carolina Ballet at the International Ballet Festival of Miami.