Faculty
Sacramento born choreographer, Rachel Angulo, began dancing at the young age of two with her mother; a Tap Instructor in the Orangevale area. Rachel furthered her training from multiple professional dancers such as Bernard Brown, Philip Flickinger, Heidi McLean, Nahn Ho, and Samuel Fulk within African, Contemporary, Modern, Tap, Jazz and Ballet aesthetics. Rachel is honored to have trained and performed for many well-known choreographers of the time such as Nolan T’sani, Li Chiao Ping, Tiffany Rea-Fisher, Valerie Gnassounou, and Bahiya Movement’s Afia and Nafi Thompson. Rachel received her BA in Dance from Sacramento State in 2020 and plans on going back to school in the near future. Since graduation, Rachel has continued working in the dance field and occasionally showcases her own works under the company name Anguloarts.
Ava was born and raised in Flint, Michigan, and received her early training at the Flint School of Performing Arts. She then went on to earn a Bachelor of Science in Ballet and Legal Studies from Indiana University. She also trained at the Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre School and performed with the company while there. Since joining the Sacramento Ballet in 2010, Ava has been a leading dancer with the company; some of her favorite roles have been Choleric in The Four Temperaments (George Balanchine), Tall Girl soloist in Rubies (Balanchine), soloist in Wild Sweet Love (Trey McIntyre), Myrtha in Giselle (Ron Cunningham), and Gertrude in Hamlet (Stephen Mills). She has been a dancer with Texture Contemporary Ballet, Oakland Ballet and has performed at the Kennedy Center with The Suzanne Farrell Ballet. Ava is also a founding member, dancer and teacher with local company Capital Dance Project.
Ava has over a decade of teaching experience and has been on faculty at the Sacramento Ballet School, Northern California Dance Conservatory and Indiana University. She has also been invited to be a guest teacher at the Flint School of Performing Arts, Crooked Tree Arts Center, Mid-Columbia Ballet, and Ovations Dance Studio.
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Florrie Sésé Geller began her pre-professional training with the legendary Marcia Dale Weary and
the faculty of Central Pennsylvania Youth Ballet. She continued her education at Next Generation
Ballet with Ivonne Lemus and directors Peter Stark and Philip Neal, as well as summer programs
at the School of American Ballet and San Francisco Ballet school on full tuition scholarships.
Florrie won the gold medal at the Youth America Grand Prix Semi-Finals, and distinguished
herself by placing in the Top 12 Junior Women in the Final Round of YAGP at Lincoln Center
where she was selected by Susan Jaffe and Gillian Murphy as the first recipient of the Gillian
Murphy Endowed Scholarship to UNCSA. After performing Aurora and Giselle in Next Generation
Ballet’s full-length productions, Florrie completed her pre-professional training at San Francisco
Ballet school on full scholarship.
At the age of eighteen Florrie was offered a professional contract with Cincinnati Ballet’s main
company where she performed Princess Florine in Devon Carney’s The Sleeping Beauty, the solo
role in Jiri Kylian’s Sechs Tanze, Virginia Woolf in Sarah Van PaYen’s Skylight, Cygnet in Kirk
Peterson’s Swan Lake, and a soloist role in Myles Thatcher’s Anomaly. Florrie also danced in
ballets by Adam Hougland, Victoria Morgan and Septime Webre.
Florrie performed the Black Swan pas de deux from Swan Lake with Rochester City Ballet, and
originated the role of Arsinoe in Terpsicorps Theatre of Dance’s world premier Cleopatra. She has
appeared in galas including YAGP’s Stars of Today Meet the Stars of Tomorrow and was invited to
represent the United States in the Beijing International Ballet and Choreographic Competition in
2019.
As an artist with Oakland Ballet Company she danced in the premiere gala of Misty Copeland’s
short film Flower and performed works by Graham Lustig, Phil Chan, Feng Ye, and Natasha
Adorlee.
Florrie is a certified instructor in various training modalities including Progressing Ballet
Technique and mat Pilates. She has taught ballet on the faculties of Cincinnati Ballet’s Otto M.
Budig Academy, Magaly Suarez’s The Art of Classical Ballet, and the Draper Center for Dance
Education and has been certified in the Escuela Nacional de Ballet de Cuba Methodology, Year 1.
Florrie has been featured in Dance Spirit Magazine’s “Dancer You Should Know,” the podcasts
Becoming Ballet, Dancer Talks, and most recently Dance Magazine’s “Pack it Up.”
Florrie is thrilled to join Sacramento Ballet for the 24/25 season.
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Elena Martins is a professional dancer and dance educator from Boston, MA. She received her early training at Donna Miceli Dance Center and The Academy of Ballet Arts before graduating from SUNY Buffalo with a BA in dance and a minor in speech and hearing sciences. Elena’s performance career spans national and international stages, with experience in dance companies on both coasts. These include Prometheus Dance and Lorraine Chapman The Company (Boston); Robert Moses’ KIN, Liss Fain Dance, LEVYdance, Sarah Berges Dance, Axis Dance Company, West Edge Opera, and Bellwether Dance Project (San Francisco Bay Area), among others. She has had the privilege of being on faculty at prestigious institutions such as The School of Classical Ballet (Cambridge, MA), Jeannette Neill Dance Studio (Boston, MA), Dana Hall Upper School (Wellesley, MA), Shawl-Anderson Dance Studio (Berkeley, CA), ODC School (San Francisco, CA), The East Bay Center for Performing Arts (Richmond, CA), Piedmont Ballet Academy, and more. elenamartins.com
Born in Portland, OR, Wyatt McConville-McCoy began his ballet training at Oregon Ballet Theatre. In 2017 he joined Boston Ballet II, under the tutelage of Peter Stark, where he performed Harlequinade in Boston Ballet’s At Home Series and alongside the main company in Jerome Robbin’s West Side Story. Two years later he joined Atlanta Ballet II where he had the privilege of performing in ballets such as La Bayadere and in featured roles of The Nutcracker while on tour to the Kennedy Center. Wyatt joined Sacramento Ballet in 2021 where he has graced the stage in roles such Gnome in The Nutcracker, the Men’s Trio in Val Caniparoli’s Tutto Eccetto il Lavandino, and the featured pas de deux in Isaac Bates-Vineza’s Rumor as well as in Jennifer Archibald’s Soar.
Photo by Tony Nguyen
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Juan Negreira was born in Montevideo city, Uruguay in 2004. His family emigrated to Brazil in 2009. At the age of 10 he joined the Guaira Theater Dance School in the city of Curitiba. Two years later he was accepted into the prestigious Bolshoi Theater School of Brazil where he graduated as a Classical Dancer in 2021. He participated in different competitions in Brazil, winning first place several times. In 2022 he was admitted to the Arles Youth Ballet Company (Arles/France) directed by the talented directors Norton Fantinel and Karina Moreira. During his two-year stay in the company he had the honor of working with several prestigious choreographers such as: Craig Davidson, Julien Guérin, Katarzyna Kozielska, Kinsun Chan, Patrick Delcroix, Ricardo Amarante and Young Soon Hue. This is Juan’s second season with Sacramento Ballet.
Born and raised in Houston, TX, Julia Payne began her ballet training at Payne Academy of Ballet. After graduating high school, Julia attended the University of Oklahoma where she continued her training in the School of Dance under the direction of Michael Bearden. In 2019, she joined Texas Ballet Theater’s Studio Training Company where she performed in many works including Ben Stevenson’s The Nutcracker and The Sleeping Beauty. Julia joined Sacramento Ballet in 2021 as a trainee and joined the main company this season as an Apprentice. Primarily teaching ballet, Julia also teaches a wide range of styles including jazz, tap, lyrical, and contemporary, as well as stretch and conditioning. She has had the pleasure of teaching all ages during the summer programs at School of Sacramento Ballet, including Young Dancers Workshops and the Junior and Senior Summer Intensives. This is Julia’s third year teaching for School of Sacramento Ballet.
Samantha Trained professionally on full scholarship for 4 years with Pacific Northwest ballet. She went on to dance professionally with Fort Worth Dallas Ballet, Long Beach Ballet and Inland Pacific ballet as a Principle dancer. Throughout her professional career she danced leading roles such as Myrtha in Gisselle, Dark Angel in Balanchine’s Serenade, Balanchine’s Stars and Stripes, Who Cares, Concerto Barocco, Romantic girl in Graduation Ball, Prayer in Coppelia, Sugar Plum Fairy, Dew Drop Fairy, Snow Queen, and Arabian in the Nutcracker and many more leading roles in varies ballets. Samantha became certified in Pilates in 1998 through Long Beach dance conditioning with Marie Jose Blom. After working many years rehabbing injured patients at Rehab Technical Works Physical Therapy she decided to open her own Pilates studio in 2001, State Street Pilates in Redlands California. After her retirement from her ballet career she began to fall in love with yoga. She is now also a certified yoga instructor and teaches yoga daily in Loomis and El Dorado Hills. Samantha loves working with dancers and brings her knowledge of the body and injury prevention to her teaching. She lives in Loomis with her husband and three boys.
Hailey Rozzano-Keefe, originally from Daly City, California, began her dance training at the Westlake School for the Performing Arts, under the instruction of Cristina Fargas, Malu Rivera-Peoples, and Irene Liu. She was trained in various styles such as Ballet, Modern/Contemporary, Jazz, Tap, Hip Hop, and Polynesian/Hula. While being versatilely trained, Hailey has always kept a main focus in Ballet/contemporary. Hailey joined Sacramento Ballet’s trainee program in their 2022/23 season and went on to train for two years as an SB2 member in the second company.
Since joining Sacramento Ballet, Hailey has danced in company productions such as Nicole Haskins, Julia Feldman, & Colby Damon’s Nutcracker, Anthony Krutzkamp’s Swan Lake, Paul Vasterling’s Cinderella, Michael Pink’s Dracula, and Young Soon Hue’s Romeo & Juliet. She has also been in many works by choreographers such as Adam Hougland, Thang Dao, Ilana Goldman, Tempe Ostergren, Rhodes Elliott, and Jill Krutzkamp. This is Hailey’s first year as an Apprentice with The Sacramento Ballet.
Amy Frost Schultze is originally from Roanoke, Virginia. She graduated high school from Virginia School of the Arts and received her BA from Hollins University with a major in dance. Amy danced professionally for thirteen years with companies such as Orlando Ballet, Charleston Ballet Theatre, and Roanoke Ballet Theater. She hasenjoyed performing leading roles in the classics, such as Swan Lake, Giselle, The Sleeping Beauty along other neoclassical, modern and contemporary works from choreographers such as George Balanchine, Jerome Robbins, Fernando Bujones, Jill Eathorne Bahr, David Parsons and Twyla Tharp, among others. Amy has been teaching dance for over twenty five years and has enjoyed watching many of her students continue on into professional dance careers. Having taught for many studios, schools, companies, and universities, she has experience teaching all
ages and abilities. She taught ballet at American Dance Festival at Duke University 2000-2006, choreographed and performed solo works, facilitated post performance discussions and was an ADF adjudicator at National High School and College Dance Festivals. Amy helped establish the Académie, a free integrated arts and academic education program at Northwest Florida Ballet and served as the Académie Lead from 2004-2009. Before joining The School of Sacramento Ballet, she was Assistant Director, teacher, choreographer and stage manager for Holt Ballet Conservatory in Nevada City, CA.
Amy has received her Professional Teaching Certificate (Dance K-12) from the State of Florida and is certified to teach Progressing Ballet Technique. She recently became a Certified Pointe Safe Teacher through SF Performing Arts Physical Therapy. She has been on faculty with The School of Sacramento Ballet since 2024 and is grateful to share her love of dance with the community.
Ana grew up in Fort Worth Texas, and trained with Texas ballet theater school. Ana attended summer programs with Houston ballet, Pittsburgh ballet, and ballet Austin, before joining Texas ballet theater’s Studio training company. After one season with TBT, she accepted a trainee position with the Orlando ballet, where she stayed for two seasons. At OB, she had the opportunity to perform in the world premiere of Jorden Morris’s “The Nutcracker”, and Christopher Stowell’s “Sleeping Beauty”. She also had the opportunity to assist in ballet classes and outreach events for special needs children and adults. Ana joined Sacramento Ballet’s second company last season, and got to perform in Michael Pink’s “Dracula” and “the Nutcracker” with the main company. Her favorite moment of the season was getting to perform a pas de deux by guest choreographer Juliana Godlewiski for “Beer and ballet”. Ana is excited to be returning as a trainee with the second company for a second season.
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Genevieve Szaly began her classical ballet training at Anchorage Classical Ballet Academy under the direction of Farah Zoetmulder. While training in Alaska, she had the opportunity to work with artists such as Gilmer Duran, Dubraskha Arrivillaga, Niki Maple, and Joseph Kerwin of Finnish National Ballet.
Her performing arts education spans multiple genres, with Folklórico training with Xochiquetzal-Tiqun and tap under the legendary Diane Walker, protégée of Gregory Hines, playing a central role in her artistic development.
In 2013, Genevieve joined Ballet 5:8, where she performed and toured both classical repertoire and original works with the school and company. After stepping away from the stage, she discovered her true passion for teaching and choreography. She has since taught and choreographed for programs across Alaska, Illinois, California, and Kyiv, Ukraine.
Genevieve joined the faculty of the School of Sacramento Ballet in 2019, where she has worked with students of all ages and levels. In 2024, she was appointed Children’s Rehearsal Director and has had the opportunity to work with choreographers such as Paul Vasterling, Michael Pink, Young Soon Hue, Elise Elliott, Stefan Calka, Colby Damon, and Julia Feldman.
In the summer of 2024, she was also appointed Director of Outreach and Social Media Manager. Her greatest passions are continuing to grow and expand Sacramento Ballet’s Falls Prevention program for older adults—deepening its impact on mobility, confidence, and community connection—and leading young dancers with both joy and rigor, cultivating a new generation of technically proficient, resilient artists who can pursue their craft with longevity, supported by a strong and healthy foundation.
Sally Torres-Gil – Sally majored in dance at the University of Utah where she studied ballet, contemporary, tap, musical theater, choreography, music theory and acting. She trained at the Academy of Classical Ballet (ACB) under Karen Morell, former soloist with the Dutch National Ballet. She received instructor’s certification in the Vaganova Syllabus through ACB as well as through John White of the Pennsylvania Academy of Ballet. Sally is also certified in Progressing Ballet Technique. Sally has been dancing and training her whole life. She owned and operated her own dance studio for 12 successfulyears before devoting her full attention to raising her daughter (who is now in college). Sally has been teaching ballet for over 20 years. Her performing career includes musical theater, music videos, traveling companies, and cruise ships in the U.S. and abroad. Sally has an excellent reputation workingwith students from beginner levels to the more advanced levels and strives to develop their skills and passion for dance while keeping her students motivated to perform their best.
Isabella Velasquez grew up training in Orange County at the Maple Conservatory. At 17 she joined The Washington Ballet in DC as a trainee, and continued training at Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre’s graduate program for two years after. Isabella joined Sacramento Ballet in 2014 where she has had the opportunity to perform many lead roles including Kitri in Don Quixote, Act 1, Sugar Plum in The Nutcracker, the lead in George Balanchine’s Allegro Brillante, Donizetti Variations and Tarantella, and Ophelia in Stephen Mills’ Hamlet. Outside of Sacramento, Isabella has danced with The National Choreographers Initiative, Amy Seiwert’s Imagery, Capital Dance Project, and Ballet Project OC. Isabella has also choreographed multiple works for Sacramento Ballet, Capital Dance Project, and Ballet Project OC. Isabella has been a teacher with the Sacramento Ballet School for 4 years and has taught in the Sacramento area for 7 years. She teaches a wide variety of classes from technique, to pointe, variations, contemporary, and coaching. Isabella strives to share the technical and artistic tips she has learned as a professional dancer with her students, to better prepare them for a career in the arts. When not working Isabella loves to spend time with her two wiener dogs Luigi and Leonardo!
Jennie was born and raised in Sacramento. She began taking ballet lessons at the age of two at Janelle Sebren’s Sacramento Academy of Dance. She attended the Sacramento Ballet School under the direction of Carinne Binda and Melanie Haller, and danced various roles in Ron Cunningham’s The Nutcracker. She then attended the San Francisco Ballet School for two years, before joining The National Ballet of Canada as an apprentice in 2018. In 2019 she became a member of the corps de ballet at The National Ballet and continued with them until 2021. Her repertoire includes: Frederick Ashton’s The Dream, Christopher Wheeldon’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, Anna Karenina, Giselle, Romeo and Juliet, Angels’ Atlas, Etudes, and The Sleeping Beauty, among other works. With Sacramento Ballet, Jennie has performed in The Nutcracker, Paul Vasterling’s Cinderella, Marika Brussel’s Water Ghosts, and George Balanchine’s Apollo.
Ava Grace began her training in all styles of dance under the instruction of her mom, Leigh Williams. From there, she continued to train mainly in ballet locally around her home town of Wilmington, North Carolina. Ava Grace attended summer programs such as Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre and Miami City Ballet, and went on to attend the University of North Carolina School of the Arts for all four years of high school. At UNCSA, she had the opportunity to perform roles such as Sugar Plum Fairy in the Nutcracker, Russian Girl in Balanchine’s Serenade, and Little Red Riding Hood in the Sleeping Beauty to name a few. While training at UNCSA and before hand, Ava Grace competed and placed in both YAGP and ADC IBC for multiple years. Not only this, but she focused on furthering her teaching experience during the time being. She has taught and assisted at many local studios in North Carolina including The Arts Company and The TuTu School. She began dancing with Sacramento Ballet in 2023 as a second company dancer directly after graduating high school, currently an apprentice with the company for the 2024/2025 season.
Kenzie Woodward, originally from Fort Worth Texas, began her training at The Texas Ballet Theater School and joined TBT’s Studio Company in 2019. After graduating she spent a year in New York at Marymount Manhattan College before moving to Sacramento in 2022. She has been with Sacramento Ballet’s Second Company for two years and is entering her second year as an SBII. She has trained in a multitude of styles and spent summers with American Ballet Theater, Next Generation, The Joffrey Ballet School, and Miami City Ballet. Over the last 5 years Kenzie has performed in professional productions of The Sleeping Beauty, Swan Lake, Peter and the Wolf, Cinderella and two productions of The Nutcracker.