FACULTY
Heidi-Erin Alford Skursky
Heidi-Erin Alford Skursky
Heidi-Erin Alford Skursky began her training at the age of three in Dayton, Ohio at Pontecorvo Ballet Studios under the direction of Barbara Pontecorvo. At the age of ten she was chosen to dance with the pre-professional company Gem City Ballet and has danced in several summer programs around the United States including Chicago Ballet, RDAs Craft of Choreography and Alvin Ailey School of the Arts.
Mrs. Skursky graduated from Friends University in Wichita, Kansas with highest honors gaining a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Ballet and Drama in 2009. Upon graduating, she began dancing with Ballet San Antonio where she danced and taught from 2009 to 2012. In 2012, she began dancing, teaching and choreographing for the Corpus Christi Ballet under Cristina Stirling Munro and Mrs. Alexandra Trevino. She moved to Pensacola, Florida with her husband in 2016, and shortly after they moved to Jacksonville.
Mrs. Skursky joined The Florida Ballet in 2018. She is an ABT® Certified Teacher, who has successfully completed the ABT® Teacher Training Intensive in Pre-Primary through Level 3 of the ABT® National Training Curriculum.
Olivia Barcia
Olivia Barcia
Olivia Barcia started her dance training in 2005 at the Boca Ballet Theater. In 2007, she moved to Jacksonville, FL and began training at The Florida Ballet under the founder and Artistic Director, Mrs. Laurie Picinich-Byrd.
Ms. Barcia attended Douglas Anderson School of the Arts from 2013-2015. In the fall of 2015, she joined The Florida Ballet Conservatory until graduating high school in 2017. Olivia attended the Graduate Program at The Florida Ballet for the 2017/18 season and during that time was an assistant teacher in multiple ballet classes.
Ms. Barcia’s classical repertoire includes Clara, Arabian, Lead Marzipan, Dew Drop in “The Nutcracker”, Little Swans in “Swan Lake”, Firebird in “The Firebird”, Gulnare in “Le Corsaire”, Myrtha in “Giselle”, and Swanhilda in “Coppelia”. She has also performed in original classical and contemporary works choreographed by locally and nationally recognized choreographers.
Currently, Ms. Barcia is attending Florida State College at Jacksonville earning her associate’s degree. In 2018, she joined The Florida Ballet Faculty. Ms. Barcia was also a member of The Florida Ballet Studio Company from Fall 2018-Spring 2020.
Hilly Bodin
Hilly Bodin
Hilly Bodin was born in 1993 in Miami, Florida. She started ballet at the age of 2 and attended local art schools under a dance concentration. Ms. Bodin graduated with a BFA in dance from Purchase College, State University of New York. While in New York, she became a dance artist with New York City’s Company XIV directed by Austin McCormick, and Artery Collection under Willy Laury.
Currently a freelance dancer and martial artist, Ms. Bodin has had the pleasure of working with many people of all ages and backgrounds around the globe, with the hopes of using her expertise to work towards a world more incorporated with the performing and martial arts.
She has performed extensively and internationally including Rome, Vienna, Greece, Germany, and Brazil. Her training includes work with choreographer William Forsythe and the former Frankfurt Ballet, and twin brothers Gen Hongthonglek and Joe Hongthongnoi, both lumpinee stadium champions and former classmates of Saenchai, now premiere coaches at Hongthong Muay Thai in Chiang Mai, Thailand.
Ms. Bodin’s goal is embodying and bringing a plethora of knowledge on movement language, awareness, creativity, self-defense, and most of all, to bridge the gap creatively between the two art forms.
Rebekah Duncan
Rebekah Duncan
Rebekah is originally from Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. She began her training at Central Pennsylvania Youth Ballet under the direction of Marcia Dale Weary. While dancing at CPYB she performed the Sugar Plum, Dew Drop, and Arabian in George Balanchine’s Nutcracker and the lead role of Cinderella.
She continued her training with the San Francisco Ballet School. After spending one year in the school, she was asked to join the trainee program. While in San Francisco, Bekah performed the lead role of the Liberty Bell in Stars and Stripes, as well as, had the opportunity to perform in The Nutcracker, Romeo and Juliet, and Swan Lake with the Company.
After two years in San Francisco, Bekah joined Boston Ballet II. While in Boston, she performed The Nutcracker, La Bayadere, and A Midsummer’s Night Dream. Later Bekah joined Ballet Theatre of Maryland as an apprentice and was promoted to demi-soloist. During her time at BTM, she performed roles such as Spanish in the Nutcracker, The Diamond Fairy in Sleeping Beauty, as well as, several other featured roles in original works.
After spending some time at BTM, Bekah joined Corpus Christi Ballet as a Principal. During her time at CCB, she performed roles such as Sugarplum Fairy, Snow Queen, and the lead role of Giselle.
Kate Fisher Levitz
Kate Fisher Levitz
Kate Fisher Levitz is a native of Jacksonville. She grew up in Riverside, studying ballet with Thelma Baggs. Over the years of her performing career, she has performed numerous roles in classical ballets with regional companies including Swan Lake, Sleeping Beauty, Nutcracker, Les Sylphides, Grand Pas De Quatre, as well as contemporary works.
After earning Masters Degree in Dance at Florida State University, Ms. Levitz studied in New York City with Finis Jhung, at the American Ballet Theatre with Maria Swoboda and in modern dance at the Alvin Ailey American Dance Center and the Cunningham School. She was one of the original members of the Joyce Trisler Danscompany.
Ms. Levitz has taught at Jacksonville University, Huntingdon College, and Florida State University where she directed the dance department’s touring company for three years and mentored M.F.A. concerts. Kate also worked with Contemporary Dancers of Canada, teaching ballet and modern dance, and directing their Apprentice Programme and touring the Province of Manitoba.
Ms. Levitz is an accomplished choreographer, having set her works on several regional ballet companies and winning the prestigious Choreographic Fellowship from the State of Florida to produce an evening of her own works. Ms. Levitz has a long association with the Ballet Arts Center of Jacksonville and the Jacksonville Ballet Theatre as dancer and choreographer. Most recently she was director of the Braided Light Dance Project.
Ms. Levitz is an ABT® Certified Teacher, who has successfully completed the ABT® Teacher Training Intensive in Primary through Level 5 of the ABT® National Training Curriculum.
Heather Olschewske
Heather Olschewske
Heather grew up in upstate New York where she began her training with Bill Hotaling. In 1995 she graduated with honors from SUNY Brockport with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Dance. There, she studied with Timothy Draper, Randy James, Clyde Morgan, Susannah Newman, Sondra Fraleigh, among many others. While at Brockport, she performed and toured with the school’s two performing companies, DANSCORE and SANKOFA.
After graduation from Brockport, she taught dance and theater in Jacksonville, FL from 1995-1999. Heather then spent the next 5 years managing the dance program at Berwick Academy in Southern Maine and choreographed for the Portsmouth School of Ballet, Portsmouth, NH. She has continued her studies in dance at Bates Dance Festival, The Florida Dance Festival, The Portsmouth Percussive Dance Festival and The FDEO conference where she has participated in Master Classes with Robert Atwood, Terry Creach, Clyde Evans Jr., Danny Buraczeski and Desmond Richardson.
Since returning to the Jacksonville area, Heather has taught at Douglas Anderson School of The Arts and is currently a member of the faculty at St Johns Country Day School, as well as the Artistic Director at Arts Edge. She has been a member of The New Hampshire Dance Alliance and is currently a member of The National Dance Educators Organization, The Florida Dance Educators Organization and The Florida Dance Association. Heather Olschewske is an ABT certified teacher, who has successfully completed the ABT® Teacher Training Intensive in Pre-Primary through level 3 of the ABT® National Training Curriculum.
Morgan Sanborn
Morgan Sanborn
Morgan Brown Sanborn previously spent a season dancing with North Atlantic Dance Theatre, City Ballet of Boston, Teatrul Balet de Sibiu in Romania, two seasons with Nevada Ballet Theater and six seasons with Portland Ballet Company of Maine.
Ms. Sanborn is a 2009 magna cum laude BFA dance graduate of Point Park University with a concentration in ballet. She is a graduate of the Portland Ballet of Maine CORPS program under the direction of Eugenia O’Brien and Daielma Santos-Decker. Her training includes summer intensives at American Ballet Theatre, Festival Ballet of Providence, Point Park University, and Boston Conservatory.
Ms. Sanborn has over 15 years of teaching experience at a variety of studios in Maine, New Hampshire and Nevada. She is an ABT® Certified teacher, who has successfully completed the ABT® Teacher Training Intensive in Primary through Level 5 of the ABT® National Training Curriculum. She is also a certified Pilates Academy International Mat instructor. She is excited to join Florida Ballet this season!
We proudly offer American Ballet Theatre National Training Curriculum!
ABT’s National Training Curriculum is a program for the development and training of young students that embraces sound ballet principles and incorporates elements of the French, Italian and Russian schools of training.
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