Summer Intensive 3 Ballet, Pointe and Variation June 2 to June 9
Eloy Barragán is a globally recognized ballet instructor, choreographer, and filmmaker from México City. His expertise spans ballet technique at all levels, choreography, partnering, ballet pedagogy, pointe work, and screen dance. His innovative approach blends traditional ballet techniques with contemporary concepts, earning him numerous awards, including a Choreographer Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts, awards from the Boise Arts Council, a Lifetime Career Fellowship from the Idaho Commission on the Arts, and two Artist Project Grants from the Iowa Arts Council. Barragán has had an extensive and distinguished career as a dancer and choreographer. He began dancing with Joffrey II and the Washington Ballet before becoming a soloist with Compañía Nacional de Danza in Mexico City. His career then led him to Europe, where he was a soloist with the Ballet Royal de Wallonie and Mainz Staatstheater. He returned to México to perform with Ballet de Monterrey and Compañía Nacional de Danza. He later became a soloist dancer, ballet master, and regisseur for Eugene Ballet and Ballet Idaho. As a choreographer, Barragán’s works have been showcased at prestigious venues such as the Bolshoi Theatre, the Finnish National Opera, the Conservatoire de Paris, the American Dance Guild Festival, and the International Dance Festival in New York City. He was the only Mexican choreographer outside of México invited to participate in the Bicentennial of Méxican Independence and the Centennial of the Mexican Revolution. He has been commissioned to create works for renowned companies, including the National Ballet of México, Richmond Ballet, Beijing Dance Academy, National Ballet of Puerto Rico, Utah Ballet, Ballet Real de Costa Rica, Dance Theater of Oregon, Ballet Theater of Spokane, and the American Dance Repertory Company. Barragán is a dedicated educator who has taught Master Classes at prestigious institutions including the Beijing Dance Academy, the National Conservatory of Dance and Music in Paris, Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music & Art, the José Limón Dance Company, the National Ballets of México, Panama, and Puerto Rico, the National School for Classical and Modern Dance in Mexico City, Southern Methodist University, and the University of California, Irvine. Additionally, he served as a guest ballet professor at the University of Utah’s Ballet and Modern Dance Departments, where he was a guest choreographer for Utah Ballet and earned a Screendance Certification from the university’s Graduate Screendance Program. Expanding his artistic vision into film, Barragán has established himself as the founder and director of the International ScreenDance Festival, as well as the director of the Iowa Dance Festival. His films have been showcased at numerous prestigious international festivals throughout the United States, Stockholm, Cuba, and Mexico, further reinforcing his reputation as a global artist. As a board member and screen dance committee member of the American College Dance Association, he continues to champion innovation and collaboration within the dance community. Barragán’s entrepreneurship led him to create the E-DANZA non-profit organization with a mission to foster inclusivity and expand access to opportunities for talented individuals across various artistic disciplines. Through his work, Barragán remains deeply dedicated to passing on knowledge in dance, inspiring future generations of dancers and choreographers, and pushing the limits of movement across both stage and screen.
Ralitza Iordanov
Summer Intensive 3 Ballet , Pointe, Variation and Conditioning June 9 to June 13
Ms. Ralitza Iordanova – Rali, is an American Ballet Theatre Certified Teacher, with training in Vaganova, RAD, and Cecchetti ballet techniques. Rali studied ballet and contemporary theatre in Sofia, Bulgaria, at the Vaganova ballet school “Krassimira Koldamova,” under the instruction and directorship of prima ballerina Academician Krassimira Koldamova. Rali furthered her dance education in Auckland, New Zealand; there she trained with “L’Academie de Dance,” under the RAD ballet system and “Black Grace” – a NZ contemporary dance company. Rali’s early career as a performer and a young choreographer includes ballet and contemporary productions, dance tours, TV productions, musical theatre, movies, and music videos. Rali received her teacher training and certification at American Ballet Theater in New York, USA, through the “ABT National Training Curriculum” program, under the instruction of Raymond Lukens and Franco De Vita. Her career in the performing arts continued as a teacher, choreographer and performance producer at Faubourg Theatre in Chicago, USA. As an instructor and choreographer, Rali trained and coached dance students and future dance professionals for international ballet competitions, including YAGP, Prix De Lausanne, WBAC, WBC, and IDO Championships. As a performance producer, she directed theatre staging, casting, choreography, lights and sound design. Rali’s focus is on developing young dance artists with impeccable technique, musicality, mental agility, and love of life and creativity.
Valery Lantratov
Summer Intensive 3 Ballet and Pointe Thursday, June 19
Valery Lantratov has had a distinguished career as a dancer in the companies of Vladimir Vasiliev, Maya Plitsetskaya and Ekaterina Maximova and international tours with Rudolf Nureyev. Most recently he has made international headlines for his role as Czar Nicholas II in a production of the new ballet Rasputin, with Farouk Ruzimatov of the Marinsky Theater (Kirov) and for successful international tours of Don Quixote and original choreography for the annual festival for the goddess Aphrodite in Cypruss. A graduate of the Moscow Academic Choreographic College, Lantratov was selected as a first soloist with the Moscow Stanislavski Ballet. With the theater he danced principal roles in such ballets as Don Quixote, Copellia and Romeo and Juliet. He has received accolades in the Russian and international press for his strong technique, personality and expressiveness. In 1993, Lantratov began working for the Kremlin Ballet. This same year, he formed the Russian National Ballet Foundation. He has toured as a solo guest artist in such countries as Japan, Germany, Italy, Greece, France, Portugal, Spain and the United States. The Russian National Ballet Foundation has toured in Europe, Asia, The Middle East and the United States. In 1997, Russian president Boris Yeltsin named Valery Lantratov “ People’s Artist of Russia,” the Russian Federation’s highest artistic honor. Mr. Lantratov holds a teaching certificate Russia's renowned National Academy of Theatrical Arts- GITIS.* For three years, Mr. Lantratov served as a guest instructor at the Boston Ballet. With his Russian National Ballet Foundation, Lantratov is able to realize his goal of introducing new audiences throughout the world to some of the finest classical works of Russia. “No matter what might happen between the countries in the world, dance can deliver peace, compassion and art—eternal values.” *GITIS' ballet department was founded in 1946 under A. Gorsky, R. Zakharov and Leonid Lavaovsky of the Bolshoi Ballet with equal state funding to the Bolshoi. It is the only institute in Russia to offer a diploma in choreography and direction for ballet theatre. Its distinguished ballet masters include Vladimir Vassiliev (director of the Bolshoi, retired), Nadja Pavlova (prima ballerina absoluta of the Bolshoi, retired) and Katirina Maximova (prima ballerina absoluta of the Bolshoi, retired).
Ashley Thopiah
Summer Intensives 2 and 3 July 7 to July 11 Ballet, Pointe and Variation
Ashley Thopiah (they/she/he) holds a BFA in Dance Performance from Butler University. Their dance training began at the Christine Rich Dance Academy and was further honed through summer programs at State Street Ballet, Joffrey Ballet, and Hubbard Street Dance Chicago. At Butler, Ashley took on various roles including corps, soloist, and principal in productions such as Swan Lake, The Nutcracker, Giselle, La Bayadere, Cinderella, and George Balanchine’s The Four Temperaments. As a choreographer, Ashley has created two significant works for Butler University’s dance department: Jyoti and Ekta. These pieces intertwine modern dance with Bharatanatyam, a classical Indian dance form, reflecting the dual aspects of their identity. In the summer of 2018, Ekta was performed at the National Opera House in Warsaw, Poland, and traveled to Prague, Krakow, Poznan, and Bratislava. Since joining Oakland Ballet in 2019, Ashley has made notable contributions, including creating the role of Coffee in Graham Lustig’s The Nutcracker and performing in works such as Caili Quan’s Layer Upon Layer, Alyah Baker’s 4 Parts Jazz, Graham Lustig’s Dialogues, and Seyong Kim’s Duet from Exquisite Corpse. They are also a contributing choreographer for OBC’s Angel Island Project, collaborating with distinguished artists Natasha Adorlee, Ye Feng, Elaine Kudo, Phil Chan, and Lawrence Chen.
Corbin Phillips
Summer Intensive 2 and 3 All summer Ballet, Contemporary and Choreography
Corbin Phillips is a dancer and choreographer based outside of Chicago Illinois. He received a BFA in Dance from the University of Iowa in 2020, with a focus on choreography. Growing up, he trained heavily in ballet and travelled to schools across the country including Ballet Chicago, Next Generation Ballet, Joffrey Ballet and the Dance Theater of Harlem. His choreographic work explores the contrast between his classical training and idiosyncratic movements, while aiming to create a fluidity between the two.
Richard Smith
Summer Intensive 2 All Summer Character Dance and Ballet
Richard began his training at the age of 18 in Peoria, IL. While in Peoria, he was able to perform soloist and principal roles during and after his training was completed. Such credits include: the Prince from Cinderella, Prince Ivan from The Firebird, and a recording of the Sugar Plum adagio from The Nutcracker. Richard spent time training at The Rock School under Bo and Stephanie Spashoff among others. Richard has performed as a guest artist in Chicago, New York, and Florida; and currently is a freelance artist in Minneapolis, MN. He most recently was a member of Minnesota Dance Theatre where he performed in Loyce Houlton’s Nutcracker Fantasy and performed with Continental Ballet Company in the spring of 2023. In addition to his dancing, Richard is an accomplished teacher, having taught for UFAC for the past 5 years. He currently teaches at North Ballet Academy in Otsego, MN and has been coaching their full length production of The Sleeping Beauty.