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Faculty Biographies:
Nataliya Andriyevska, is originally from the Ukraine where she received her
choreographic education from Kherson Cultural College, Ukraine, majoring in ballet,
historical ballroom dance, modern and character folk dance. She began her career touring
with various venues throughout Ukraine, Bulgaria, Lebanon, Greece and Macedonia.
Since she moved to Hawaii in 2001, she has been involved as a dancer and choreographer in many venues
around Honolulu, including Mardi Gras Follies, the Honolulu Academy of Arts, Hawaii Opera
Theater and Army Community Theater and is currently involved in the Allure Dance Ensemble
project as well as teaching creative dance and ballet classes for the beginners at NIXPAC
and Ballet Hawaii in Kapolei .
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Maria Jose Beltran, originally from Lima Peru, started her ballet training at the
National Ballet School. After winning the Bronze Medal at an
International Ballet Contest, she won a Houston Ballet Academy
scholarship, followed by another scholarship with the Joffrey Ballet.
Beltran then returned to Peru to dance with the National Ballet Company
and was later encouraged to go to Europe to continue her career.
She
danced as a soloist with the Statische Buhne Hagen, appearing in most
of the classical ballet repertoire such as Swan Lake, Sleeping
Beauty, Giselle, and Coppelia. In Chile, under the direction
of Ivan Nagy, Beltran danced in numerous Balanchine Ballets such as
Concerto Barrocco, The Four Temperaments and Serenata.
In Japan, she danced with Dance Works, a contemporary dance company
directed by Nosaka Sensei. In Hawaii Beltran worked with Dances we
Dance and now directs the adult ballet program and Pilates classes at
Ballet Hawaii.
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Peter Rockford Espiritu, Modern Dance, began his training in Hawaii
and has danced professionally with several companies in New York before
returning home where he has starred in numerous Ballet Hawaii
productions for over 10 years.
As the director of Tau Dance Theater,
Peter's company is the first local professional dance company to be
reviewed in Dance Magazine and the first from Hawaii to receive the Lila
Wallace-Reader’s Digest & Doris Duke Foundation grant.
website: taudance.org
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Daphne Hargrove - began her training at the School of American
ballet. In 1993 she performed with the New York City ballet in its
Balanchine celebration. The following year, Ms. Hargrove graduated from
the High School of Performing Arts and joined the Miami City ballet
where she performed various soloist and principal roles. During this
time, she performed in Washington D.C. at the Kennedy Center Honors for
President Clinton and other distinguished guests. In 1998, Daphne left
Miami to become a founding member and principal dancer with Carolina
Ballet.
During the next four years in North Carolina, she created many
principal roles in world-premier ballets by renowned choreographers
such as Lynn Taylor-Corbett and Robert Weiss, as well as being featured
in many class works. Her repertoire includes Balanchine's Rubies,
Concerto Barocco, Who cares, and Steadfast Tin Soldier, Anthony
Tudor's Lilac Garden, Jose Limon's Moor's Pavane, and
Peter Martin's Valse Triste.
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Jim Hutchison has worked as an actor, director, writer, producer and choreographer in
theater, television and motion pictures for over 40 years. His work has
taken him from Arkansas to a scholarship at the Balanchine School of
American Ballet in New York and five Broadway shows. A half-dozen major
films in Los Angeles followed this and finally a move to Hawaii. Along
the way, there were touring, summer stock and television productions
along with many feature films. Hutchison has worked with dozens of
well-known personalities over the years and has gathered an impressive
list of credits.
Hutchison spent eighteen years as Artistic Director of Diamond Head
Theatre and established the Pacific Rim Playwriting Festival. He is a
member of the National Society of Arts and Letters and serves on the
local and national boards of the Screen Actors Guild and on the board
of Ballet Hawaii.
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 Minou Lallemand graduated from the New York High School of Performing Arts and the
Joffrey Ballet School. She has danced solo and principal roles with Ballet Arizona, American
Repertory Ballet, Ballet Chicago, Eglevsky Ballet, Sacramento Ballet, and Ballet Hawaii and
performed with The Phantom of the Opera national tour and the Radio City Christmas
Spectacular.
Minou currently teaches for Ballet Hawaii, Queen Emma Ballet, Pacific Youth
Ballet and Drill Team Hawaii, and has been a guest teacher at the Virginia School of the
Arts. She has created works for Ballet Arizona, the New Choreographer's on Point Workshop,
Chamber Music Hawaii, and is the Artistic Director of the Onium Ballet Project.
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 Brigitte Noguchi-Nakagawa, has
studied classical ballet here in Hawaii. She has trained with John Landovsky and has been a
member of the Junior Company.
Ms. Noguchi-Nakagawa has also performed with Ballet Hawaii and
Hawaii Ballet Theatre. She has danced professionally with Asami Maki
Ballet in Tokyo, Japan. Currently, she is the director of Premiere
Steps and enjoys teaching for Ballet Hawaii, Drill Team, and at local
preschools here in Hawaii.
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 Susan Ushijima
Quong received her early ballet training in the states of Oregon,
Montana, and Washington. Her most extensive training was with Madam
Gabriella Darvash in New York City. While in New York, she was
co-founder and co-director of the professional company, BalletWorks,
Ltd. and later became a teacher and resident choreographer for the
Ulster Ballet Company in upstate New York.
Her works were shown in New York City, and in Hawaii, with Danceworks,
The Dance Company, Big City Studios and the Honolulu Dance Studio. She
presently is associated with Ballet Hawaii and teaches mainly at the
Leeward branch in Wahiawa.
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Marie Takazawa - began her dance training in Hawaii. She studied and
performed at the University of Hawaii at Manoa, with Dances We Dance
Company and Hawaii Dance Theatre. Moving to New York she performed on
Broadway, with the Uncompany as the lead dancer in the Yul Brynner
production of The King and I, and in a tour of The King and I,
starring Rudolph Nureyev.
Returning to Hawaii, Takazawa was co-director
of Danceworks Honolulu, which was selected as the 1994 People’s Choice
Awards "Best Dance Company." Ms. Takazawa is a freelance choreographer
and teaches jazz, ballet, modern and street dance at local dance
studios and fitness centers. She is presently Ballet Mistress and
resident choreographer for the Tau Dance Theatre and on the faculty of Ballet Hawaii.
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 Tessa White received most of her training in California and had the opportunity to attend
intensive training programs including the Sacramento Ballet, Ballet Magnificat, and the
Marin Dance Theatre. She was Principal dancer for the Placer Theatre Ballet and danced such
roles as Sugar Plum Fairy, Snow White, and Alice in Alice in Wonderland. She was also
Assistant Director/Choreographer for the Placer Theatre Ballet and had the opportunity to
help stage many original and traditional ballets.
Tessa founded and directed Ballet Rejoice, a Christian Ballet Company which toured
Northern California performing in churches, schools, conventions and other programs. At the
age of 18 she combined her love for dancing and teaching when she opened up her own
Classical Ballet School in Rocklin, Ca. The school grew to over three hundred students in
five years and Tessa was able to train hundreds of dancers from beginning through
pre-professional. In 2007 she got married and moved to Hawaii and is excited to be a part of
Ballet Hawaii.
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takashi koshi has been the piano accompanist for Ballet Hawaii since 1981. Before
that he was the music accompanist for The Cloudgate Dance Theater of
Taiwan from 1979-1981.
He is originally from Denver, Colorado and has a Music Education Degree
from Oberlin Conservatory and Master's Degree in Music Performance in
bassoon from the University of Northern Colorado.
He has received numerous commissions for his music compositions, and his
one-hour ballet "Urashima Taro" was performed in 2005 as the Spring Recital of Ballet
Hawaii.
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