STAFF
Martha Lemire
Executive Director
Martha Lemire, Executive Director
In addition, Ms. Lemire’s experience in the performing arts includes musical theater choreography for several middle and high school productions, stage management of community theater performances and production coordination for all types of presentations including dance, theater, pageants, and music.
Roberto Forleo
Artistic Director
Roberto Forleo, Artistic Director
Mr. Forleo is a graduate of the Centre National de la Danse Pantin-Paris (France) as a certified ballet teacher and is also a certified ABT teacher (American Ballet Theatre National Training Curriculum) from Pre-Primary through level 7. He was the director of the CORPS program, the pre-professional program of Portland School of Ballet in Maine. His choreography has been seen in Portland Ballet’s Boy Meets Girl, the Portland Symphony Orchestra’s Peter and the Wolf (Discovery Series), and in 2018 his Alice was presented in collaboration with the Portland Symphony Orchestra and the Maine College of Art. He joined the faculty at Bates College (Lewiston, ME) in 2016 and until recently was the Artistic Director of Bangor Ballet in Maine and a full-time faculty member and principal dancer at Maine State Ballet. Mr. Forleo joined The Florida Ballet in August 2019 as Associate Artistic director and during his first year choreographed Creatures of Prometheus in collaboration with the Jacksonville Symphony Orchestra.
Sara Kausch
Administrative/Operations Manager
Sara Kausch, Administrative/Operations Manager
As a leader, Sara served as Secretary of Orchesis Dance Society (2019/20), as well as Treasurer (2021/22), Fundraising Coordinator (2019/20), and President (2020/21) of Movement Exchange at Western Michigan University. Her involvement in community outreach and education took her to Panama City, Panama (2019, 2022) as a way to provide dance accessibility to underserved communities and broaden her horizons of cross-cultural understanding. Sara also has experience in backstage production, working as a Theatrical Systems Assistant for WMU’s School of Theater and Dance (2021/22).
Sara’s artistic background includes exploring performance and choreography in many capacities, such as through proscenium performance, immersive performance, site-specific performance, and screen dance presentation. Sara was a member of Western Dance Project (2019/20), a student touring ensemble, under the direction of Whitney Moncrief. She has also worked with other notable mentors such as Seyong Kim and Jackie Nowicki, performing in WMU’s Winter Gala Dance Concert (2019, 2020, 2021, 2022). Sara was invited as a performer to Detroit Dance City Festival (2021) and Cleveland Dance Festival (2021). Additionally, Sara has choreographed many notable works, most recently receiving the 2021 Maggie Allessee Choreography Award for a solo piece titled Ten/10.
Lynnette McCallister
Training Center Principal
Lynnette McCallister, Administrative/Operations Manager
After two years of performing in the Jacksonville City’s Nutcracker with guest chorographer Saundra Robinson from the North Carolina School of the Arts, Lynnette, at the age of 13, auditioned for NCSA school and received a full scholarship to attend.
During summer breaks from NCSA, she trained with The Florida Ballet under Laurie and Michael Byrd. At 16, she was asked to join The Florida Ballet Company as an apprentice and danced during the 1981/82 season.
Lynnette was invited to join the Very Young Dancer program under the direction of Mary Day with the Washington Ballet where she trained for three years after her season at The Florida Ballet. In 1985, she returned to Jacksonville with an offer from The Florida Ballet, as a full Company member.
While dancing with The Florida Ballet, Lynnette was able to teach at local studios, received a full scholarship to attend Jacksonville University, and was a guest artist for the Beckley Dance Theatre Nutcracker, dancing the role of Snow Queen.
Lynnette has been teaching dance for over 25 years. She is ABT/NTC certified in levels Pre-Primary through Level 5 and in Progressing Ballet Technique through level 3.
Katie Slattery
Conservatory/Outreach Coordinator
Katie Slattery, Company and Conservatory Coordinator
Katie Slattery began her ballet training in Gainesville, Florida. As a young dancer she attended summer programs at the Joffrey Ballet School, The Rock School, American Ballet Theatre and Kaatsbaan International Dance Center. She attended Virginia School of the Arts high school program and then became a trainee with the Joffrey Ballet School and performed with the Joffrey Ballet II Concert Dancers. Katie then danced as a member of Milwaukee Ballet II for two seasons. She returned to Florida to join Orlando Ballet under the direction of Fernando Bujones, where she was a company dancer from 2001-2008. Following that, she joined Sarasota Ballet from 2007-2009.
Ms. Slattery danced in many of the classic ballets including Swan Lake, Giselle, Cinderella, Don Quixote, Spartacus, Coppelia, Raymonda, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Sleeping Beauty, Paquita, La Fille Mal Gardee, and The Nutcracker. She also danced in ballets choreographed by George Balanchine, John Cranko, Kenneth MacMillan, Frederick Ashton, Dame Ninette de Valois, and Fernando Bujones.
Ms. Slattery began teaching at Orlando Ballet School in 2002, and she took a full-time position as Artistic Assistant/Faculty in 2011. Aside from her work in the pre-professional divisions, she was proud to teach and help develop the Come Dance With Us program for children with physical challenges. She has worked as a guest teacher and judge for various organizations, and she enjoys writing articles on ballet for Pointe Magazine. Ms. Slattery is a certified teacher of the American Ballet Theatre National Training Curriculum from Pre-Primary through Level 7, and she has presented students for exams as an affiliate teacher with the ABT NTC. She is excited to be joining the faculty at The Florida Ballet!
Photography by NH Photography. All rights reserved.
