Owner / Ballet, Pilates
Hannah started taking gymnastics at the age of four and began taking ballet lessons at age 10 to supplement her dance skills as a competitive gymnast. She soon realized that she preferred dance over tumbling. She studied ballet at SBS for over 15 years and has had many roles in their productions, including four years as the Sugar Plum Fairy in The Nutcracker. She has attended summer dance intensives at Joffery Ballet School (NYC), American Ballet Theater, Ballet Austin (TX), and Mills College (Oakland, CA) and also studied jazz, lyrical, tap and modern at SRJC. Hannah is a certified Pilates Mat instructor and taught Pilates at Sonoma Academy.
Ballet
Dana Jane began at Sebastopol Ballet at age 9, after five years of dancing in a variety of styles (Irish, ballet, folk, hula). She has danced many roles in Sebastopol Ballet’s annual production of The Nutcracker, including that of Sugar Plum Fairy. To further her dance education, she took ballet classes from the SRJC, competed and placed 3rd in the Helen Cochrane Scholarships’ seniors division, and attended summer intensives at the Gelsey Kirkland Academy of Classical Ballet (Brooklyn, NY) and City Ballet (San Francisco). She completed her studies at the Santa Rosa Junior College, graduating with highest honors and associate degrees in Mathematics, Art, and Natural Sciences. Dana Jane enjoys sharing her love of ballet through teaching and resides in Sonoma County with her family and their dogs.
Ballet, Jazz, Tap
Lily Borgeson grew up dancing at Sebastopol Ballet, The Dance Center and Santa Rosa Junior College. She completed four seasons with Santa Rosa-based Risk Dance Company. In 2014 Lily completed American Ballet Theater’s national Training Curriculum and is ABT certified to teach levels pre-primary through 3. Lily lives in Sebastopol, teaches at Analy High School, and has a dancing daughter, Mesa.
Founder / Ballet
Susan Borgeson first trained with the Santa Rosa Ballet School, and while in high school, danced as a member of the Santa Rosa Ballet Company under the direction of Julien Herrin. During this same time, she danced summer musicals at Oakland’s Woodminster Theater. She studied at both the San Diego and England campuses of the United States International University School of the Performing Arts under the tutelage of John Hart, Elaine Thomas and Betty Cavanaugh. Sue also attended California State University in San Diego. After returning to Sonoma County, Sue became the director of the Santa Rosa Ballet School, and is an original member of the Redwood Empire Ballet. She was associate director and choreographer with Robert Ronan of Santa Rosa’s first full-length productions of The Nutcracker in 1980-1982, sponsored by Ballet Circle of Santa Rosa. In 1987, Sue became director of SRB Production, a non-profit ballet company. Here she produced her original children’s ballet, Once Upon a Butterfly, scored by singer/songwriter Carol Ann Eberly. Later, she would join the Karen Campbell Ballet School in Sebastopol to produce a full-length The Nutcracker. And through the Sebastopol Ballet, The Nutcracker has continued to be an annual holiday tradition for the city of Sebastopol. Sue’s students have received national and international acclaim. They have gathered awards in competitions and received scholarships at some of the world’s most highly visible ballet schools such as The San Francisco Ballet, the School of American Ballet in New York, the Bolshoi Academy in Vail, Colorado and the National Ballet of Canada.
Ballet
In 1994, Jennifer became a founding member of Smuin Ballet S/F where she danced until 1998 performing principal roles in the Christmas Ballet, Dances with Songs, Bouquet, Songs of Mahler, the Tempest Suite, and others. With the company she has had the honor of being on film in The Fantastiks, A Walk in the Clouds, and The Return of the Jedi Special Edition. In addition, Jennifer performed in the televised broadcast of Ira Gershwin at 100 live from Carnegie Hall. She has also danced with The San Francisco Opera, Houston Grand Opera, Sacramento Ballet, and The Ohio Ballet. Jennifer has taught at numerous Bay Area studios including San Francisco Dance Center, Westlake School for Performing Arts, Berkeley Ballet Theater, Stapelton School of the Performing Arts, and Petaluma School of Ballet, and she currently teaches at Sonoma State University. Jennifer is working on completing her Master’s degree in History and enjoys taking ballet class and spending time with her fiancee and young son.
Tap, Hip Hop
Bio coming soon…
Contemporary
Jess began dancing at the age of 3 at Dancemaker, a local performing arts studio in her hometown of Covina. She took every jazz, tap, ballet, pointe, vocal and acting class available and was also part of the dance studio's performing group, Prime Movers, where they traveled to nearby cities and performed at various festivals, fundraisers, parades and pageant events. Jess later joined her high school’s competition dance team, and later a collegiate-level competitive team, where they participated in Nationals each year alongside other dance teams from all over the state. Post college, Jess has fostered her love of dance through taking classes at local studios and junior colleges. In her next chapter of dance, she is looking forward to passing along her knowledge and passion to a new generation of aspiring dancers.
Ballet
Bio coming soon…
Ballet
Bio coming soon…
Contemporary
Bio coming soon…
Founder / Retired
Lois Hartman trained at the Royal Academy of Ballet for ten years, studied at United States International University School of Performing Arts in San Diego with highly regarded Nancy Johnson. Mrs. Hartman has more than 20 years of experience in performing, choreography, costume design and execution, and instruction. As a performer, Mrs. Hartman danced with San Francisco Dance Theater (Penelope-Lagios Johnson), Santa Rosa Ballet (Julien Herrin), Redwood Empire Ballet (Jean Hart), and Ballet Circle (Robert Ronan). She taught pointe classes, advanced levels and pas de deux classes and was actively involved in all phases of Sebastopol Ballet School productions. Mrs. Hartman has choreographed several parts of Sebastopol Ballet's The Nutcracker, most notably the Grand Pas de Deux.
Founder / Retired
Paula Martens began studying ballet at the age of seven with Lodena Edgecombe and continued with Shirley Ray of the San Francisco Ballet through her high school years. In 1966, she was a recipient of a Ford Foundation scholarship with the San Francisco Ballet School. Mrs. Martens graduated from UC Berkeley in 1970 and she began teaching for the Sebastopol Union School District in 1972. That same year, she began teaching at the Santa Rosa Ballet School, which was under the direction of Julien Herrin. She is an original member of the Redwood Empire Ballet and became assistant choreographer for Ballet Circle under the co-directorship of Sue Borgeson and Robert Ronan. She has choreographed for Sebastopol's The Nutcracker since 1992.