Academy of Ballet Class Schedule

Academy of Ballet Faculty
Cathy Dunlap	Cathleen began teaching in 1979 in the Tri-Cities area of Virginia-Tennessee. She moved to New York in 1982 and taught at the American Academy of Ballet for six years. In 1988 she returned to Georgia to teach with the Gwinnett School of Ballet, under the direction of Lynn Snipes. Cathleen taught for the schools for seven years, during which time she staged many performances of Nutcracker with the Gwinnett Ballet Theatre. She has also performed, studied and been involved with SERBA (South Eastern Regional Ballet Festivals) for over eleven years. Cathleen’s great love of ballet and her interest in passing her knowledge onto students prompted her to open the Academy of Ballet in 1994. Three years later, she developed the Academy Performing Ensemble, offering advanced students an even higher level of dance training.
Kimberly Linenkohl	Co-Director of Academy Jazz Ensemble / Ballet Mistress of Academy Performing Ensemble. Kim received her early training at the Joni Messler Studio of Dance in Gainesville, Florida. She later studied at the Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre School with David Holladay and the Joffrey Ballet School with Francesca Corkel and Dorothy Lister. After graduating from Santa Fe Community College, Kimberly joined the Georgia Ballet in Marietta, Georgia where she has been featured in Balanchine’s Allegro Brilliante, Serenade, and Iris Henley’s Nutcracker performing lead roles such as Spanish, Dewdrop and many more. She has been with the Academy of Ballet for many years where she has choreographed several works including: Why, I Am What I Am, Die Another Day, and pieces choosen for performances at the Festival of Trees and the first annual Balletfest where Inspirations was selected to be performed by the Senior Company Ballet Ensemble. We were proud to have her perform the lead in our Academy 2003 performance of Sleeping Beauty as Princess Aurora. She continues to excel at teaching, choreography, performing and directing.
Lisa Clearman	Lisa Clearman is a mother of five and has been working with young children for years. She is a graduate from Illinois State University with a degree in Dance Theatre. She is still an active member of Illinois Dance Association and choreographer for many local fashion shows and pageants. Lisa trained with Lou Conte, Hubbard St. Dance Company, Keith VonHeake, and has been teaching since age 13. She has performed in productions of Swan Lake, Don Quixote, Nutcracker and Sleeping Beauty.
Caroline Fass	Caroline Fass B.F.A. Dance, Wright State University Pre-Ballet/Creative Movement instructor Caroline began her dance training at Ballet New England in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. She continued her studies at the Dayton Ballet in Dayton, Ohio. She is a graduate of Wright State University with B.F.A. in Dance. Her training includes Ballet, Jazz and Tap. She has performed in Guys & Dolls, 42nd Street, West Side Story and many more. She is an inspiring teacher with great patience and dedication to her students. We are proud to have her on staff at the Academy of Ballet.
Angela Harris	Angela Harris is originally from Baltimore, MD, and a graduate of The Baltimore School for the Arts. She received her dance training at Dance Theater of Harlem, School of the Hartford Ballet, and The Eglevsky Ballet. She attended Mercyhurst College and City College of New York, earning a B.A. in Journalism, while on full ballet scholarship at Steps on Broadway in NYC. Professionally, Angela has danced corps de ballet and soloist rolls with The Georgia Ballet, Columbia City Ballet, Ballet Savannah and Urban Ballet Theater in NYC. Besides dance, Angela’s Atlanta theatre performance credits include Sophisticated Ladies and Degas’ Little Dancer (u/s) at the Tony award-winning Alliance Theatre, as well as Camelot, Guys & Dolls, Chicago and Annie Get Your Gun at the Aurora Theatre in Lawrenceville, Georgia. In 2009, Angela was selected by Jasmine Guy to be a soloist dancer in her “Daughters of Alpha” production in New Orleans. Angela's choreography has been presented by The Georgia Ballet, Dance Canvas, Ballet Dalton, Dekalb School for the Arts, and in two New York City premieres at Steps on Broadway. She has been a guest instructor at many dance institutions across the county, including University of New Mexico, Dozier Center for the Arts, The Georgia Ballet and the Keshet Dance Company in New Mexico. Angela served as Ballet Director at The Studio Atlanta Dance for 8 years and has created and directed dance programs for The City of Atlanta's Office of Cultural Affairs and grammy award winning recording artist, Usher’s New Look Foundation. She is an “Emerging Arts Leader” national scholarship recipient from Americans for the Arts (2006, 2008, and 2010). Currently, in addition to teaching, she is the Executive Artistic Director of Dance Canvas, a non-profit dance organization dedicated to providing opportunities to the Next Generation of dance makers. Angela is very excited to begin her first season on faculty at Academy of Ballet.
Abby McDowell	Abby McDowell - Abby began her formal training at the age of twelve at the School of North Carolina Dance Theatre. She has studied under Patricia McBride, Mark Diamond, and Kathy Moriarty. Abby was later appointed an apprentice, performing in many works with the company. Abby was awarded a full tuition scholarship at age eighteen for Pacific Northwest Ballet School's professional division and later a fellowship with the Atlanta Ballet. She is looking forward to performing roles with the Georgia Ballet.
Shawna Wagner	Shawna Wagner began her dance training at Dan & Co. Studios at the age of six and has been a member of the Atlanta Jazz Theatre for nine years. She has studied in Atlanta with nationally known choreographers Kenneth Green and Robbie Mackey and in Alabama with Cornelius Carter and Edie Barnes. Every summer she trained with the Oakland Ballet under the direction of Ron Guidi. Upon experience, she began choreographing her own works. Shawna has performed in various shows and conventions around Atlanta. She was given a dance scholarship to the University of Alabama and danced with Dance Alabama. Shawna then went on to study dance and child and family development/marriage and family therapy at the University of Georgia. Since her return to Atlanta, she has taught for Tinker-Belles, Smyrna School of Ballet, and Dan and Co. She is excited to join the staff of Academy of Ballet this year!
Bartley Cross	Bartley Cross - Ballet, Jazz Tap Bartley began dancing at age four and soon started performing and competing with the Jazz Company at The Southern Strutt Dance Studio. Under Director Nancy Giles, Bartley studied Jazz, Broadway Tap, Ballet, and Tumbling. Excelling in Jazz and Tap she won multiple Regional and National Overall High Score Awards, Double Platinum and Platinum Awards at Starbound, Star Systems, Show Stoppers, LA Underground and Tremaine Dance Competitions. While the majority of her training came from Southern Strutt, Bartley furthered her studies by participating in Summer Intensive Programs with the Columbia Ballet Company under William Starret, and the University of South Carolina's summer dance workshops. Additionally, by participating in Master Classes at Southern Strutt, she had the privilege to learn from choreographers such as Joe Tremaine, Gregory Hines, Ray Leeper, and Marcea. Bartley attended the University of South Carolina from August 1994 to May 1998, and continued to study dance adding Ballet, Jazz and Modern dance classes to her schedule. She began teaching in September 1995 and as a choreographer has won High Gold, Platinum, and Double Platinum awards at Applause, Bravo, Show Stoppers, and Star Systems Competitions. She currently teaches at Sugarloaf Performing Arts and Academy of Ballet while continuing to study at Dance 101, the Atlanta Ballet, and the Georgia Ballet.
Marilyn Hazelrigs	Marilyn has been dancing since the age of 3. She grew up in Alpharetta, GA and began taking classes from Tolbert Yilmaz School of Dance in Roswell, GA. There she performed in many ballets and also traveled to New York to dance in The Nutcracker on Broadway. At the age of 10 she moved to Buford, where she began dancing at 5678 Dance Academy of Performing Arts. While dancing there she competed in several regional and national dance competitions and won many scholarships and placed in the top 10. She has been doing competitions for 9 years and has also been in The Nutcracker, and 12 Days of Christmas with 5678. Marilyn attended North Gwinnett High School and danced 4 years in the Advanced class and was in North Gwinnett's dance company “Dance North”. In her last year of dance, Marilyn taught at 5678 Dance and also taught at Metro Gymnastics in 2007. Marilyn yearns to teach students more about the art of dance.

Academy of Ballet Faculty