Opening Night

Lil Buck

Lil Buck is a movement artist who began jookin at age 13. Named one of Dance Magazine’s 25 to Watch, he gained international notoriety after an impromptu piece with Yo-Yo Ma went viral. Since then he has collaborated with artists including JR, Damian Woetzel, the New York City Ballet, Madonna, Benjamin Millepied, and Spike Lee. Buck is an avid arts education advocate, recipient of the WSJ Innovator Award. He has collaborated with brands like Glenfiddich and Louis Vuitton, and launched a capsule collection with Versace.​

Shawn Cusseaux

Shawn Cusseaux is BalletX’s Independence Foundation Dance Fellow. Shawn is an emerging performing artist hailing from Tampa Bay, FL, where he attended Pinellas County Center for the Arts at Gibbs High School. He continued his studies in Pittsburgh PA at the Conservatory of Performing Arts at Point Park University, where he received his Bachelor in Fine Arts. During this time he was given opportunities to perform works by Garfield Lemonious, Jae Man Joo, Kiesha Lalama, Jennifer Archibald, Jose Limon, Jason Mcdole, Amy Hall Garner, Robert Priorie, Edwaard Liang, and Camille A. Brown.The BalletX Dance Fellowship is sponsored by the Independence Foundation.

Michelle Dorrance

Michelle Dorrance (Artistic Director, Choreographer, Dancer) is a New York City–based artist. Mentored by Gene Medler (North Carolina Youth Tap Ensemble), she studied under many of the last master hoofers. Career highlights include: STOMP, Derick Grant’s Imagine Tap!, Jason Samuels Smith’s Charlie’s Angels/Chasing the Bird, Ayodele Casel’s Diary of a Tap Dancer, Mable Lee’s Dancing Ladies, and playing bass for Darwin Deez. Company work includes: Savion Glover’s Ti Dii, Manhattan Tap, Barbara Duffy and Co., JazzTap Ensemble, and Rumba Tap. Solo work ranges from The Late Show with Stephen Colbert to commissions for the Martha Graham Dance Company and American Ballet Theatre. A 2018 Doris Duke Artist, 2017 Ford Foundation Art of Change Fellow, and 2015 MacArthur Fellow, Dorrance is humbled to have been acknowledged and supported by United States Artists, the Joyce Theater, New York City Center, the Alpert Awards, Jacob’s Pillow, Princess Grace Foundation, The Field, American Tap Dance Foundation, and the Bessie Awards. Dorrance holds a B.A. from New York University and is a Capezio Athlete.

She was the Festival’s Artist-In-Residence in 2017.

Robbie Fairchild

Robbie Fairchild was born in Salt Lake City, Utah, and began his dance training at Dance Concepts. His formal ballet training began at the age of ten at the Ballet West Conservatory. Mr. Fairchild attended the 2002 and 2003 summer courses at the School of American Ballet (SAB), the official school of New York City Ballet, and enrolled as a full time student in the fall of 2003. In June 2005, Mr. Fairchild became an apprentice with NYCB, and the following June, he joined the Company as a member of the corps de ballet. He was promoted to soloist in May 2007, and in October 2009 was promoted to principal dancer.

Dario Natarelli

Dario is a 2016 graduate of Fiorello H. LaGuardia HS of Music & Art and Performing Arts and a 2020 Cum Laude graduate of The Pennsylvania State University’s BFA Musical Theatre Program. Credits include: Vail Dance Festival (2016-present), Tap Dance Kid (NYCC Encores!), DanceCaptain & Swing for Justin Peck (Broadway Labs), Tappin’ Thru Life with Maurice Hines (Off-Broadway), Funny Girl (Broadway Pre Production), The Radio City Christmas Spectacular(National Tour), A Salute to the Presidential Scholars at The Kennedy Center directed by Debbie Allen, Breaking Brooklyn (film), Vail Dance Festival (performer/soloist), Assistant Choreographer to Michelle Dorrance at Vail Dance Festival, Jazz at Lincoln Center, national commercials, and more. Dario is a tap dance teacher at the acclaimed Broadway Dance Center in New York City. Dario is grateful to all of his teachers and supporters, at Penn State and throughout his training -especially his late tap dance mentor, Robert L. Reed, who always reminded him to “Respect the dance.”

Unity Phelan

Unity Phelan is a Principal Dancer with New York City Ballet. Born in Princeton, NJ, she began her dance training at age 5 at the Princeton Ballet School and came to the School of American Ballet in 2009. Named an NYCB apprentice in 2012, she joined the NYCB corps de ballet in 2013, was promoted to Soloist in 2017, and to Principal Dancer in 2021. Her repertory includes leading roles in works by George Balanchine, Jerome Robbins, Robert Binet, William Forsythe, Lauren Lovette, Peter Martins, Andrea Miller, Matthew Neenan, Justin Peck, Alexei Ratmansky, Jamar Roberts, and Christopher Wheeldon. 

Calvin Royal III

Calvin Royal III began his formal dance training at the Pinellas County Center for the Arts in St. Petersburg, Florida under the direction of Suzanne Pomerantze􀀁 and Patricia L. Paige. He was a finalist at the Youth America Grand Prix Competition, and was awarded the Ethan Stiefel Scholarship to train at American Ballet Theatre’s (ABT) Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis School in 2006. Royal joined ABT II in 2008, ABT main company as a member of the corps de ballet in April 2011. In September 2017 he was promoted to Soloist and in September 2020 Royal was appointed Principal Dancer with ABT. He has soared across stages worldwide with ABT in productions of Swan Lake, Manon, Fancy Free, Apollo, Giselle, and Romeo & Juliet. Royal has been featured in works by Twyla Tharp, Christopher Wheeldon, Alexei Ratmansky, Kyle Abraham, Justin Peck, Wayne McGreggor, Michelle Dorrance, Jamar Roberts, and many more. He was nominated for numerous awards including the Clive Barnes Award, the winner of the Leonore Annenberg Fellowship in 2014, a $50,000 grant to further his artistic development working with private coaches at the Paris Opera Ballet, Royal Ballet, Mariinsky Ballet and Royal Danish Ballet. Royal was named the July 2020 cover star of Dance Magazine, and continues to expand his outreach in mentorship as well as conducting masterclass series for young dance students worldwide. Royal is represented by IMG Models and has been featured in global campaigns for GAP, Tommy Hilfiger, Calvin Klein, Ralph Lauren, Canali, starred in the 2019 Pirelli Calendar alongside Misty Copeland, and named the 2020/21 Artist-in-Residence here at the Vail Dance Festival.

Follow Calvin on Instagram @calvinroyaliii and to learn more visit calvinroyaliii.com.

Ai Shimatsu

Ai Shimatsu, originally from Tokyo, Japan, started training ballet at the age of 3 and studied with Tokyo Ballet School. In 2007, Ai moved to NY and continued her dance training in Jazz, Hip-hop, Contemporary, House and more at Broadway Dance Center. She has toured with top artists including Madonna, Beyoncé, Pharrell Williams, Katy Perry, and Brandy. She has performed on numerous TV and award shows with artists such as Prince, Kanye West, Janelle Monae, and many other Incredible stars. Her style, grace, and remarkable skill in dance have not only gained mass attention in the dance world but in fashion also. Ai starred in major fashion campaigns with Tommy Hilfiger, GAP, KENZO, NIKE, abercrombie and fitch, and more.

Cory Stearns

Born on Long Island, New York, Cory Stearns began his classical training at the age of five with Mme. Valia Seiskaya at the Seiskaya Ballet. At age fifteen, he participated in the Youth America Grand Prix and was offered a full scholarship to The Royal Ballet School in London. Stearns performed in Madrid, Moscow, Milan, Düsseldorf and London while at The Royal, and appeared with Kylie Minogue in her music video Chocolate in 2004. Upon graduating from The Royal Ballet School with honors, he received, for the second year consecutively, the Dame Ruth Railton Award for excellence in dance. Stearns joined the American Ballet Theatre Studio Company in September 2004, the main Company as an apprentice in January 2005 and became a member of the corps de ballet in January 2006. He was appointed a Soloist in January 2009 and a Principal Dancer in January 2011. Stearns won the 2009 Erik Bruhn Prize for best male dancer.

Devon Teuscher

Devon Teuscher began her ballet training at the age of nine under Deanna Doty of the Champaign Urbana Ballet Academy in Champaign, IL.  When her family moved to Vermont, she continued her training at the Vermont Ballet Theatre School in Essex, Vermont under the direction of Alex and Kirsten Nagiba.  At the age of eleven, Teuscher attended The Kirov Ballet Academy summer intensive.  She also attended the Pacific Northwest Ballet summer intensive on full scholarship for two years.

From 2002 to 2006 Teuscher attended American Ballet Theatre’s Summer Intensive, and was a National Training Scholar from 2003 to 2006.  In January 2005 at the age of 15, Teuscher relocated to New York City to dance at American Ballet Theatre’s Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis School on full scholarship.

Teuscher joined ABT Studio Company in 2006.  She joined American Ballet Theatre as an apprentice in December 2007 and the corps de ballet in June 2008.   She became a Soloist in August 2014 and Principal Dancer in September 2017.

Teuscher was nominated for the Clive Barnes Award in 2014 and received the Leonore Annenberg Arts Fellowship in 2016.

Byron Tittle

At a young age, Byron Tittle began tap dancing with David Rider and the American Tap Dance Foundation in his hometown of New York. Determined to be a multi-faceted artist, he trained weekly at Broadway Dance Center and Steps on Broadway in other disciplines: ballet, jazz, hip-hop foundations, modern, and dancehall. Byron is a co-captain of Dorrance Dance, touring with the tap dance company for the last decade. He is humbled to have been a featured dancer with Hugh Jackman’s 2019 “The Man, The Music, The Show,” touring The United States, Australia, and New Zealand, and in Jon M. Chu’s soon-to premiere feature film “In the Heights.” He is also a recipient of a 2019 Princess Grace Foundation Dance Fellowship Award.

James Whiteside

Born in Fairfield, Connecticut, James Whiteside began his training at age nine at the D’Valda & Sirico Dance and Music Centre, where guest faculty included Charles Kelley, Franco De Vita and Raymond Lukens. He continued his training at the Virginia School of the Arts for one year under the direction of Petrus Bosman and David Keener. In 2002, Whiteside joined Boston Ballet II, where he continued to train under the tutelage of its director Raymond Lukens, now director of ABT’s National Training Curriculum. Whiteside joined the corps de ballet of Boston Ballet in 2003 and became a second soloist in 2006. He was promoted to first soloist in 2008 and to principal dancer with Boston Ballet in 2009.

Whiteside’s repertoire with Boston Ballet included Principal roles in George Balanchine’s Theme and Variations, Coppélia, Ballo della Regina, Rubies, The Four Temperaments(Sanguinic), Tchaikovsky Pas de Deux, Who Cares?, Serenade, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Symphony in 3 and La Valse; Maina Gielgud’s Giselle; Mikko Nissinen’s The Nutcracker and Swan Lake; John Cranko’s Taming of the Shrew and Romeo and Juliet; Marius Petipa’s The Sleeping Beauty and Raymonda Act III; Antony Tudor’s Dark Elegies; Jiří Kylián’s Bella Figura, Sarabande, Petite Mort and Sechs Tänze; Twyla Tharp’s In the Upper Room; and Mark Morris’ Drink to Me Only With Thine Eyes. He created roles in Jorma Elo’s Brake the Eyes, Plan to B, Carmen, Slice to Sharper and In On Blue; Helen Pickett’s Eventide and Etesian; and Mark Morris’ Up & Down.

Whiteside joined American Ballet Theatre as a Soloist in September 2012 and was named a Principal Dancer in October 2013. His repertoire with the Company includes Solor in La Bayadère, the Prince in Frederick Ashton’s Cinderella, Conrad and Ali, the Slave in Le Corsaire, Bryaxis in Daphnis and Chloe, Basilio and Espada in Don Quixote, Oberon in The Dream, the third sailor in Fancy Free, Colas in La Fille mal gardée, Albrecht in Giselle, Astrologer in The Golden Cockerel, Lescaut in Manon, the Nutcracker Prince in Alexei Ratmansky’s The Nutcracker, Iago in Othello, Romeo in Romeo and Juliet, Prince Désiré in The Sleeping Beauty, Prince Siegfried and von Rothbart (Ballroom) in Swan Lake, Orion in Sylvia, Caliban in The Tempest, Prince Coffee in Whipped Cream, leading roles in Bach Partita, The Brahms-Haydn Variations, Duo Concertant, Chamber Symphony, Her Notes, Raymonda Divertissements, Symphonic Variations, Symphony in C, Theme and Variations and Valse Fantaisie and featured roles in Gong, Drink to Me Only With Thine Eyes, In the Upper Room and Sinfonietta, .He created The Man in AfterEffect and leading roles in Serenade after Plato’s Symposium and With a Chance of Rain.

James Whiteside is also known for his theatrical personas JbDubs, pop-dance artist, and Ühu Betch, part of the hilarious drag posse The Dairy Queens.

Andrea Yorita

Andrea Yorita is from Irvine California, where she received her classical ballet training at Academy of Dance, under the direction of Merle Sepel, Rebecca Tsivkin, and Mignon Furman. In 2012, she graduated as a Gillespie Scholar with a BFA in Dance Performance from the University of California, Irvine, where she studied under Jodie Gates, Molly Lynch, and Donald McKayle. Originally trained under the R.A.D. syllabus, Andrea has completed all Vocational R.A.D. exams with Distinction, as well as received the Solo Seal Award. In 2008, Andrea competed as a finalist in the Genée International Ballet Competition in Toronto, Canada. She has participated in the National Choreographers Initiative, as an apprentice, and the Traverse City Dance Project. Andrea was a 2016 Dance Finalist for the Clive Barnes Award. She joined BalletX in 2012.