PRINCIPALS

Yevgeny Shlapko Ukraine

Courtney Schenberger began her formal training at age 8, at The Ayako School of Ballet in Okinawa, Japan. At age 10, she continued her training at Ballet Hawaii. While attending she competed at Youth America Grand Prix (YAGP) San Francisco and won 3rd place bronze in the Junior Women Classical category. She also competed at the World Ballet Competition where she achieved the 3rd highest score in the Pre-Professional category as well as receiving the Jury’s Award. At age 15, she attended the Washington School of Ballet’s professional training program and then the University of North Carolina School of the Arts (UNCSA).

Ms. Schenberger’s featured roles with Carolina Ballet include Lead Couple in George Balanchine’s Valse Fantasie, Cinderella in Robert Weiss’ Cinderella, and August Bournonville’s Flower Festival.

Pointe Shoe Sponsors: Jane Small and George Sanderson

Margaret Severin-Hansen (Founding Member) from Huntington, Long Island started ballet at the Huntington School of Ballet until she went to the School of American Ballet in 1993. In 1997 she was invited to study at The Royal Danish Ballet in Copenhagen, Denmark. In 1998 she joined Carolina Ballet as an Apprentice and rose through to Principal in 2002. Ms. Severin-Hansen’s principal roles include: Giselle, Juliet, Princess Aurora, the Firebird, the Sylph, Swanhilda, Cinderella, Carmen, Odette/Odile, the Sugar Plum Fairy and many principal roles in Balanchine ballets such as Rubies, Square Dance and Who Cares? just to name a few. In January 2009, Ms. Severin-Hansen was one of eight graduates of the School of American Ballet personally invited by Peter Martins to perform with New York City Ballet dancers in the 75th Anniversary Celebration of the school. She is currently the Director of Carolina Ballet’s Ruth S. Shur Summer Intensive.

Dancer Sponsors: Dr. and Mrs. Clif Patterson

Pointe Shoe Sponsors: Peggy Wilks and Don Davis

Yevgeny Shlapko was born in Odessa, Ukraine but was raised in Brooklyn, New York. He began his ballet training at age eight, with Madame Olga Kostritzky at The School of American Ballet. During his years at SAB, he had the opportunity to work with many choreographers including Christopher Wheeldon, Benjamin Millepied, and Justin Peck. In his final years of training, he performed featured roles in Peter Martins’s Les Gentilhommes, Christopher d’Amboise’s Tribute, and Benjamin Millepied’s 28 Variations on a Theme by Paganini. In 2007, Mr. Shlapko launched his professional dancing career by joining Carolina Ballet. He was promoted to the rank of Principal dancer in 2016 and has been featured in Robert Weiss’ Don Quixote, as well as Lynne Taylor-Corbett’s Carmina Burana. Roles choreographed on him include “Renfield” in Lynne Taylor-Corbett’s Dracula, and the principal couple in Zalman Raffael’s Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto #1.

Pas de Deux Sponsors: Rosemary and Christopher Royce