Meet the Artists
Elisa Alexander
Elisa Alexander was born in West Virginia and started dancing at the age of three. She trained at Inwood Performing Arts and the Frederick School of Classical Ballet before leaving home to attend high school at the prestigious Interlochen Arts Academy on scholarship. She spent two summers at North Carolina Dance Theatre and one at Boston Ballet’s summer program. Elisa recently earned her BFA in ballet at the College-Conservatory of Music in Cincinnati. While there, she enjoyed dancing roles in Paquita, La Bayadere, Swan Lake, and Balanchine’s Walpurgisnacht and Pas de Dix, as well as original works created by CCM faculty. She also choreographed two pieces that were chosen to be performed in the Choreographer’s Showcase at CCM. Additionally, Elisa performed as a guest artist two years ago in Dayton Ballet’s performance of The Nutcracker. She is excited to begin her second season with Charlottesville Ballet.
Check out Elisa’s “Meet the Artist” interview from November 2011.
Megan Giroir
Megan Giroir began her dance training at the School of the Hartford Ballet in her home town of Hartford, Connecticut. She received her early training from Franco DeVita, Raymond Lukens, Hilda Morales, and Susan Brooker. She was chosen to perform the role of Clara in Kirk Peterson’s world premier of “The American Nutcracker” and performed the role at The Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles, California. During high school, she also performed side by side with professionals from American Ballet Theatre’s Studio Company in “The American Nutcracker.” After graduating from high school, Megan attended Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre’s Graduate Program for two years. She performed The Nutcracker with the company and danced in many ballets with the Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre School including Allegro Brillante, La Bayadere, Theme and Variations and Paquita. In 2007, she joined the Ballet Theatre of Maryland as an apprentice where she studied and performed for three seasons. Megan is very excited to be returning for her second season with Charlottesville Ballet and to be on faculty at Charlottesville Ballet Academy.
Check out Megan’s “Meet the Artist” interview from October 2010.
Kirsten Glaser
Kirsten Glaser was born and raised in Cape Cod, Massachusetts. She began her training at the Cape Cod School of Ballet and danced there until the age of fourteen. She then moved to Torrington, CT to train at the Nutmeg Conservatory for four years. While there she had the opportunity to perform in several productions. Some of her favorite roles were Sugar Plum Fairy, the Le Corsaire Pas De Duex, and the Swan Lake Pas De Duex. She was also able to pursue her passion of teaching young students. In 2009, Kirsten was chosen to be a competitor in the New York International Ballet Competition. After the completing the competition, she moved West to Denver, CO to be a member of Colorado Ballet’s Studio Company. This will be her second season with Charlottesville Ballet.
Veronica Hart
Veronica, originally from Long Island, was raised in Charlottesville. She formerly danced and toured with the Charleston Ballet Theatre, San Diego Ballet, and The Garage Contemporary Ballet. Her training began at age 6 with her mother, Sally Hart, and continued at the Virginia School of the Arts in Lynchburg, VA. Veronica’s summers were spent at the Joffrey Ballet School in New York City, the Joffrey Midwest Program in Flint, MI, and at Charleston Ballet Theatre. She received scholarships at all schools attended. Veronica has performed leading roles in Paquita, Les Corsaire, Les Sylphedes, Etudes, as Maria in West Side Story, in Ryan Beck’s The Mexican and Filia Artemis, the King & I ballet Uncle Tom’s Cabin, as Cinderella, and as the Sugar Plum Fairy. Veronica teaches ballet and jazz at the Albemarle Ballet Theatre, her family’s school, and has choreographed and staged original classical and contemporary pieces and full length ballets. Veronica is also a chef and loves experimenting in the kitchen- especially with soups! She is passionate about bringing dance into the community, and is looking forward to her second season with Charlottesville Ballet.
Check out Veronica’s “Meet the Artist” interview from February, 2011.
Caitlin Lennon
Originally from Bozeman, Montana, Caitlin Lennon began her intensive training at the Queen City Ballet. While a student there, she was given the honor of performing such roles as Sugar Plum, Dew Drop, and Snow Queen in the Nutcracker, as well as Aurora and the Lilac Fairy in Sleeping Beauty. Caitlin competed in the Youth America Grand Prix in 2006 and placed in the Top 12, in both classical and contemporary. She spent her summers studying at Julliard, American Ballet Theatre New York, Atlanta Ballet, Houston Ballet, and Ballet West on scholarship. Her travels across the country ended at the Richmond Ballet, where she was accepted into the trainee program on full scholarship. While at the Richmond Ballet, Caitlin performed as a demi-soloist in Waltz of the Flowers and in Balanchine’s Who Cares? In the Trainee workshop performances, she appeared as the Dryad Queen in Don Quixote, Paquita in Paquita and in Ariadne Conner’s who’s it all for anyway?. In addition to working with Charlottesville Ballet, she is attending Piedmont Virginia Community College. Caitlin is also a teacher for the Charlottesville branch of the Minds In Motion outreach program, bringing dance to the public school system. This is Caitlin’s fourth season with Charlottesville Ballet.
Check out Caitlin’s “Meet the Artist” interview from July 2010.
Melissa Raffanello
Melissa Raffanello grew up in Falls Village, Connecticut. She began her training at Nutmeg Conservatory of the Arts where she graduated the 12 year pre-professional program. Melissa also attended the school formerly known as The Kirov Academy in Washington DC. She owes her training to Eleanor D’Antuono, Alexei Tchernichov, Victoria Mazzarelli, Sharon E. Dante, Susan Szabo, Denise Warner Limoli, and Joseph Albano, among many others. Melissa went on to compete in the Youth America Grand Prix in 2004 where she achieved first place in the preliminary round, top 12 at the finals, and was also invited to perform an excerpt from William Forsythe’s 2nd Detail in the Youth America Grand Prix Gala: Stars of Tomorrow. She was later invited to attend the Stiefel and Stars program at Martha’s Vineyard, MA where she performed with many stars from American Ballet Theater including Gillian Murphy and Ethan Stiefel. Before graduating from Nutmeg she was also given the opportunity to perform the Second Act Pas de Deux in the Nutcracker with Gennadi Saveliev (ABT Soloist) and Eric Tamm (ABT II). She later went on to join Albano Ballet Co. of America in 2007 where she stayed for several years, performing at the Mohegan Sun Arena. She has now ventured to the South to begin her first season with Charlottesville Ballet.
Devin Sweet
Born and raised in upstate New York, Devin received his training at the North Carolina School of the Arts (NCSA) under the supervision of Ethan Stiefel, Warren Conover, Frank Smith, Melissa Hayden, and Christine Spizzo. During his time at NCSA, Devin matured as an artist and learned to view movement as a whole. He performed many roles from ballets including La Sonombula, Raymonda, Serenade, Nutcracker, Fanfare, Jockey Dance, and Les Patineurs. Most recently, Devin was on faculty at Triangle Youth Ballet and performed in many cities throughout the east coast as a free-lance artist. Devin brings a wealth of performance experience and dance knowledge to the table. He is joining Charlottesville Ballet for his first season.
Voltaire Wade-Greene
Voltaire began his dance training at the age of 10 with the Civic Dance Center in Bakersfield, California. Over the years, Voltiare has trained with The Orange School of Performing Arts (under Ricardo Porter and Heather Powell), San Francisco Ballet (Jeff Lyons, and Jorge Esquivel), The Rock School for Dance Education (Bo and Stephanie Spassoff, Christopher Fleming, Jorge Laico, Violette Verdy, Maiqui Manosa, William Glassman, Joaquin De Luz, Phillip Otto, and Natasha Barr), Dance Theatre of Harlem (Arthur Mitchell and Keith Saunders), and University of The Arts (Scott Jovovich).
Voltaire was a Principal dancer in the Contrast Dance Theatre under the direction of Christopher Fleming (former New York City Ballet Principal) and performed two of Chris Fleming’s original pieces “Janis and Joe” and excerpts from “Tommy”. He was also a Principal dancer in the Delaware Opera’s “Aida” in 2003 and has been a guest artist for the Metropolitan Ballet Academy, Civic Dance Center, Bakersfield Regional Ballet, Orange School of Performing Arts, West End Academy of Dance, and Les Jeunes. He teaches full time at Orange School of Performing Arts, School of Theatrical Dance and West End Academy of Dance. Voltaire is pleased to join the company for his first season with Charlottesville Ballet.
Moira Price, Apprentice
Moira Price was born and raised in Annapolis, Maryland and received the majority of her ballet training at the school of the Ballet Theatre of Maryland. She performed as an apprentice to the company from 2005-2007, most memorably in Willam Christensen’s Swan Lake. Moira recently graduated magna cum laude with her BFA in ballet from Point Park University, where she studied extensively with Susan Stowe, Lindy Mandradjieff, Jason McDole, Peter Merz and Kiesha Lalama. She had the great honor of performing Kiesha Lalama’s Patterns at the 2009 Youth American Grand Prix New York finals. Other favorite performances include Balanchine’s Raymonda Variations, Patrick Frantz’s Cote Jardin, and several pieces by Peter LeBreton Merz. Moira is delighted to begin her first season with the Charlottesville Ballet.
Blake Seidel, Apprentice
Although Blake only started dancing 3 years ago as a freshman at Vassar College, his newly found passion has lead him to unparalleled happiness. Along with his training at Vassar College under such names as John Meehan and Steve Rooks, Blake trained with Six Step Studios in his hometown of Fairfax, Virginia in Contemporary and Hip-Hop dance. He is ecstatic to be dancing with Charlottesville Ballet this year and cannot wait to contribute to the company and the Contemporary program at Charlottesville Ballet Academy. Now dancing with the University of Virginia, he will finish out his last year of college devoting as much time as possible to creating a life for himself with the love he finds from dancing and performing.