MANKATO BALLET COMPANY - Key Persons
Anastasia has been dancing for 15 years studying ballet, tap, jazz, contemporary, lyrical, acro, and musical theater. She is a freshman at Minnesota State University Mankato pursuing a major in exercise science and minor in dance. She has taken classes from The Dance Lab, as well as multiple intensives and Rochester Dance Company. She has won awards through multiple dance competitions and performed on television for The Eagles Cancer Telethon since 2015. Anastasia has taught dance for four years and is excited to get to work with the students at Mankato Ballet Company.
Benjamin Johnson is trained in Texas by Tanju and Patricia Tuzer, Mr. Johnson danced professionally with James Sewell Ballet in Minneapolis, Milwaukee Ballet, BalletMet Columbus, Dayton Ballet, Ohio Ballet and Tampa's Bay Ballet Theater, as well as with opera companies in Ohio and Illinois. He has danced on stages in a majority of the states in the continental United States, as well as in Bermuda, Iceland, Taiwan, Jordan, Spain, and Germany. He has taught ballet for over two decades, and taught sessions with Mankato Ballet School since 2010. He is a choreographer, juggling teacher, and Massage Therapist. His wife is a professional cellist, and they live with two children and two cats. He also plays and collects board games.
Catherine has been dancing since she was three years old. She danced with Ballet Blake before joining Mankato Ballet Company in 2021. She is currently a soloist in Mankato Ballet Performing Company. Catherine has trained in pointe, ballet, modern, and jazz. Some of her favorite roles were The Rat Queen in The Nutcracker and the Head Chef in The Little Mermaid. She is very excited to begin teaching ballet this fall.
Chloe Michels began her dance training at the Mankato Ballet Company at the age of three and has furthered her training with the Central Pennsylvania Youth Ballet, Kansas City Ballet and Boston Ballet summer programs. Chloe is going into her Senior year at Mankato West High School while also taking PSEO classes at Minnesota State University - Mankato. She is currently a soloist in the Mankato Ballet Performing Company. In her time at MBC Chloe has trained in pointe, ballet technique, jazz, modern and tap; She has performed the Teacake Lead, Harlequin Doll and Dew Drop Fairy in The Nutcracker.
Elise is a Senior at West Mankato High School. She is currently a Soloist with the Mankato Ballet Preforming Company and has been dancing for 14 years. Elise loves all styles of dance but trains in Ballet, Tap and Jazz at MBC. She joined the Performing Company and being a teacher's assistant at age 11 and has performed in the roles of Clara and Marzipan in The Nutcracker. She was also featured as the lead in Little Mermaid. This has grown her love of instruction and she looks forward to being a Student Teacher where she can educate and have fun teaching her students.
Millie Smith is a Mankato State University graduate with a dance background. She has been part of the MBC administrative staff for 3 seasons now and looks forward to greeting our MBC families in the office.
Eryn began her 36 years of dance experience with Kay Englert, at Washington Contemporary Ballet in Tacoma, WA. She has been accepted to many professional summer programs: Pacific Northwest Ballet, San Francisco Ballet, Kirov Ballet Academy, North Carolina School of the Arts, Houston Ballet Academy, Oregon Ballet Theatre, and Pennsylvania Rock School of Ballet. Eryn attended PNB, SFB and NCSA and was asked to stay on at PNB and NCSA. She has had the opportunity to study under prestigious names like: Melissa Hayden, Flemming Halby, Patricia Barker, Frank Bays, Dale Merrill and Sara de Luis. Academically, Eryn received a Bachelor's Degree in Business/Marketing from Bethany Lutheran College. Her instruction places a large emphasis on the history, terminology, and structure of classical ballet.
Hannah is a Junior at Minnesota State University Mankato and is pursuing her BFA in Acting and a minor in English. She has been dancing since she was two years old. In the years since her start, she has been on two different performance companies and has taken dance lessons from seven different studios. Hannah has five years of dance teaching experience, primarily teaching tap and ballet. She has choreographed professionally for two theatre companies in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, which is where she lived before attending school in Mankato. She had also lived in Iowa, Kansas, Oklahoma, and New Jersey.
Kelsey has been dancing since she was three-years-old. Her training started with Dance Conservatory of Southern Minnesota, in Mankato. Kelsey has eleven years of teaching experience beginning with the Dance Conservatory of Southern Minnesota, and currently the Mankato Ballet Company. Her 25 years of dance experience has given her a strong background in Ballet, Jazz, Tap and Modern. Kelsey attended Minnesota State University, Mankato where she graduated with her Bachelor's degree in Mass Communications with an emphasis in Public Relations and a Minor in Dance. While there she participated in MSU Theater and Dance's 2009 Spring Collection and the 2009 Fall Collection Dancing Communities. She also staged the production of Little Shop of Horrors for Merely Players. Kelsey is extremely excited to share her love of dance with Mankato Ballet Company.
Originally from California, Lori started her dance training at a young age with Bobbie's School of Performing Arts. She became a member of the company and had the opportunity to perform all over California and Nevada. While in Los Angeles, Lori taught private ballet lessons to many of the stars' children and ran the children's ballet division at the studio. With 25 years of dance experience in ballet, tap, jazz and lyrical she has choreographed many musical theatre shows including Westside Story and Grease. She moved to Mankato, MN with her husband and three children in 2015 and her love for ballet brought her to Mankato Ballet Company.
Millie Smith is a Mankato State University graduate with a dance background. She has been part of the MBC administrative staff for 3 seasons now and looks forward to greeting our MBC families in the office.
Rebekah received most of her 13 years of ballet training at Mankato Ballet Company, where she graduated in 2019. During her time training at MBC she was accepted into summer programs with the Milwaukee Ballet, Ballet Arizona, San Francisco Ballet, Pacific Northwest Ballet, and Ballet Austin. Rebekah enjoyed dancing in many performances at MBC during the years of 2011-2019. Some of her favorite roles are The Nutcracker's Dewdrop and Sugar Plum Fairy, as well as Sleeping Beauty's Lilac Fairy. This is her first year teaching ballet, and she's very excited to share her passion for expression and movement with young dancers.
Rolano Pacheco founded McAllen Ballet Company and produced professional productions for the last 14 years for the city of McAllen, TX. His training includes Ballet Español de Cuba over the past twenty years, the Spanish Ballet of Cuba were he has won the privilege of being recognized as the ultimate expression of the genre in the country, for its respect for the purity of the broad horizon of its artistic work. He was also a principal dancers and director of ECOS Flamenco Company and performed around the world.
Wendy's dance experience began when she was 3 years old at Larkin Dance Studio learning tap, jazz and ballet. Her love for ballet grew and at the age of 13 she moved on to continue her training with Classical Ballet Academy (CBA), under the direction of Andrew and Cheryl Rist. She danced their repertoire including The Classic Nutcracker with roles in Snow, Flowers, Russian and Party Scene, Giselle, and At The Museum. After graduating in 1997 Wendy went on to study Art at the University of Minnesota, Duluth and was a dance minor under Doris Ressl. In the spring of 1999, her first choreographic work debut called Welcome to Heaven, in the Collaborative Spirits in Motion, Duluth, MN. Academically, Wendy has received a Bachelor's Degree in Fine Art from the College of Visual Arts, St. Paul, MN.