New Jersey Ballet Staff

DIRECTOR

CAROLYN CLARK A native of New Jersey, Ms. Clark is Founder/Director of New Jersey Ballet Company and Director of New Jersey School of Ballet. Ms. Clark performed classical and contemporary ballet with American Ballet Theatre and toured with that company throughout North America, Scandinavia, Europe and Africa, in addition to tours in the US and Canada. Additional ballet company credits include the Metropolitan Opera Ballet, Radio City Ballet, and as principal dancer with New Jersey Ballet and New Jersey State Opera. Ms. Clark’s professional credits also include Broadway musicals, and television shows, most notably The Bell Telephone Hour where she was assistant to the choreographer. She is a founding member of ArtPride New Jersey, served two years on the President’s Council on the Arts for the John F. Kennedy Center, and five years on the Advisory Board of Channel 13. Ms. Clark was honored in 1976 by Governor Brendan Byrne for her “unique contribution to the arts of the State of New Jersey.” She has also been honored with a New Jersey Pride Award, and by the National Society of Arts and Letters and DanceNJ. Ms. Clark attended Rutgers University.

ASSISTANT DIRECTOR

PAUL H. MCRAE trained at the San Francisco School of Ballet, New Jersey School of Ballet and the School of American Ballet. He became an apprentice with New Jersey Ballet at age 16. In 1974 joined Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre, while there he attended Point Park College. In Pittsburgh he studied and worked with Nicholas Petrov, Frederic Franklin, Leonid Massine and John Gilpin. He rejoined New Jersey Ballet in 1978 performing a wide range of solo and principal roles in the Company’s extensive repertory. Named Assistant to the Director of New Jersey Ballet in 1990 and he became Assistant Director in September 2001. Mr. McRae is on the ballet faculty at New Jersey School of Ballet and for the past twenty years has been on the residence ballet faculty at Kean University. He is a cofounder and former President of Dance/New Jersey, a board member of Art Pride New Jersey and New Jersey Volunteer Lawyers for the Arts and he also serves as Co-Chair of the Arts Advisory Committee at Arts High School in Newark, New Jersey.

ARTISTIC ADVISOR EDWARD VILLELLA A Kennedy Center honoree, Mr. Villella is perhaps the greatest American premier danseur ever. Among his accomplishments are Emmy Award winner, star of New York City Ballet, guest artist with the Bolshoi, performer at President Kennedy’s Inaugural, and first American to guest with the Royal Danish Ballet. In 1968, the Bell Telephone Hour’s salute to Villella became an Emmy Award-winning special. His Harlequin – A Patchwork of Love, the first ballet ever commissioned by an American TV network, resulted in Emmy Awards for the show and for Villella as choreographer, producer and star! He is a former member of the President’s Council on the Arts and a past recipient of the prestigious Capezio Award. Mr. Villella is founder of Miami City Ballet and has been Artistic Advisor to New Jersey Ballet since 1972.

LUBA GULYAEVA (Ballet Mistress) A graduate of the Vaganova Ballet Academy in Leningrad, Ms. Gulyaeva joined the Kirov Ballet in 1972, dancing featured roles in Sleeping Beauty, Giselle, La Bayadere and Don Quixote. In the 1980s, she was invited by Mikhail Baryshnikov to join the staff of American Ballet Theatre where she taught company class and coached the dancers. She also taught all levels at the ABT School. Additional teaching credits include the Australian Ballet in Melbourne, the School of American Ballet in New York, and seminars at numerous universities in the U.S.

PETER DI BONAVETURA (Coach) credits include several years as principal dancer with Cleveland Ballet where he danced principal roles in numerous ballets including Swan Lake, Romeo & Juliet, Coppelia, Balanchine’s Apollo, Midsummer Night’s Dream and the standard classical pas de deux. He also guested numerous times in Caracas with ballerina Zhanda Rodriguez. Choreographer Fleming Flindt invited him to Denmark to film his Lucifer’s Daughter, a ballet to celebrate the Queen of Denmark’s 25th Anniversary. Most recently, he was a principal dancer with New Jersey Ballet and with the Metropolitan Opera Ballet.

ROSEMARY SABOVICK-BLEICH (Coach) danced with New Jersey Ballet for 20 years. A versatile ballerina, she was recognized for her strong classical performances as the Sugar Plum Fairy in Nutcracker, her bravura virtuosity in George Balanchine’s Stars and Stripes Pas de Deux, and her feistiness as the Cowgirl in Agnes deMille’s Rodeo. Ms. Sabovick-Bleich toured internationally with Pavlova Celebration Ballet, Kozlov and Friends, and International Stars of Ballet. Her teaching experience includes ballet and pointe classes for all levels as well as jazz and tap for young dancers.

ADMINISTRATIVE/PRODUCTION STAFF

DAVID TAMAKI (Director of Advancement) began his formal training at New Jersey School of Ballet at age 7 and became a member of the NJB Junior Company in 1998. A year later he joined the company and during his career danced principal roles, which include the Champion Roper in Rodeo, the Prince and Trepak in Nutcracker, Romeo & Juliet and Le Corsaire pas de deux to name a few. Mr. Tamaki is a ballet instructor for New Jersey School of Ballet and is Director of Advancement for NJB. He holds a Bachelor of Arts from Saint Mary’s College of California where graduated suma cum laude and holds a Master of Science in Nonprofit Management from Columbia University. Mr. Tamaki also leads NJ Ballet’s Dancing for Parkinson’s program, which provides free weekly dance classes to individuals with Parkinson’s disease.

KOTOE KOJIMA-NOA (Marketing, Rehearsal Coach) was born in Japan and studied with New York City Ballet principals Valentina Kozlova and Leonid Kozlov. Ms. Kojima-Noa joined NJB during the 2001-2002 season and has danced many soloist and principal roles in Nutcracker, Don Quixote, Cinderella, Giselle, and Sleeping Beauty. She is a Rehearsal Coach for the company and is on the ballet faculty at New Jersey School of Ballet. This season she joins the staff as Marketing and Social Media Director.

BRIAN COAKLEY (Production Manager/ Lighting Designer) served as Assistant Technical Director at Kean University’s Wilkins theatre for 7 years, assisted for 3 years at Raritan Valley Community College and with New Jersey Ballet productions at both venues. He was responsible for all aspects of production for NJB’s premieres of Giselle, Esmeralda and Tom Sawyer. Mr. Coakley holds a B.A. in Communications from Kean University. He most recently designed lighting for Minneapolis Ballet’s productions of A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Rodeo. He joined New Jersey Ballet in 2001.

MELANY SCHWARZ (Wardrobe Mistress) trained as a costume designer at James Madison University and received a BA degree in Theatre and Dance. She spent several years doing design, construction and wardrobe work in film, theatre and regional dance. Ms. Schwarz has worked on Willy Wonka, Sweet Charity and Romeo & Juliet.

GARY S. FAGIN (Musical Conductor) is Music Director of New York City’s Knickerbocker Chamber Orchestra and the Bucks County Symphony in Pennsylvania. Active as a composer, his Charlotte: Life? Or Theater? was premiered to critical acclaim at the prince Music Theater in Philadelphia; his John Adams in Amsterdam: A Song for Abigail, received its world premiere performance at The Concertgebouw in Amsterdam before Queen Beatrix of The Netherlands. Mr. Fagin received his undergraduate degree from the University of Pennsylvania; he was the first person to receive a Doctorate Degree in Conducting from Yale University. He is Founder and Director of The New York Conducting Institute.

PAUL MILLER (Lighting Design) Broadway: Vanities, Legally Blonde, Freshly Squeezed, Laughing Room Only. Associate/Assistant: Macbeth, Company, Sweeney Todd, Little Women, Hairspray, The Producers, Live X3, The Music Man, The Price, Saturday Night Fever, The Civil War, On The Town, The Sound of Music, Titanic. International: Cinderella (Asia), West Side Story (La Scala), Phantom of the Opera (Lisbon). OffBroadway: Waiting for Godot, Jackie Mason, Addicted, Balancing Act. Regional: Pasadena Playhouse, Theatre of the Stars, Baystreet, Lookingglass, Chicago Shakespeare, Goodspeed. TV: Camelot (Live from Lincoln Center), A&E, as well as special events: Broadway Bares XVIII, Broadway Under the Stars, New Year’s Eve from Times Square.