Howard Pitterson {Assistant Director}
Jamaican-born, studied and danced with Les Grands Ballets Canadiens de Montreal. It was American Ballet Theatre that brought Howard to the United States, from Canada, as a scholarship student. While at ABT, he joined The Harkness Ballet in New York City.
Howard has guest-artisted with numerous regional ballet companies in the US. He is the author of two novels: Spectre of Seven and Deadly Embrace. Howard has performed with the South Florida Ballet Theater as a character dancer in La Fille Mal Gardée.
Maria A. Jimenez {Ballet Mistress}
Maria A. Jimenez studied at the School of Classical Ballet, Nina Novak and National Ballet of Caracas Venezuela . She won the silver metal for International Classical & Contemporary Ballet Competition Trujillo Peru.
Maria has performed as a soloist and Assistant Director with the South Florida Ballet Theater for the past five years in several Nutcrackers, Don Quixote, Sleeping Beauty, Peter and the Wolf, La Fille Mal Gardée, A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Pas de Quatre.
Edgar Anido {Principal}
Edgar Anido was born in Santa Clara, Cuba. He studied ballet at the National School of Ballet in Havana Cuba, with instructor Adria Velasquez. Edgar joined Camaguey Ballet in 1999 where, as a soloist, he danced principal roles including La Fille Mal Gardee, Flower Festival, Don Quixote, Romeo & Juliet and Carmen. In 2002, Edgar joined Central Theater Ballet in Guayaquil, Ecuador as a principal dancer, where he performed leading roles in Coppelia, La Sylphide, Le Corsaire, Diana y Acteon, and The Nutcracker, among others.
He won the silver medal and a special mention for Interpretation at the Contemporary Dance Competition, Solo Para Dous 2001. Offstage, Edgar and his wife, Anna, welcomed their first child in 2005, daughter Alisha. This is his first season with Ballet Gamonet Maximum Dance. Edgar has performed with the South Florida Ballet Theater for the past two seasons in The Sleeping Beauty, La Fille Mal Gardée, Stars and Stripes. Edgar is presently performing with Complexions Contemporary Ballet.
Diana Catalina Gomez {Principal}
Trained at the Instituto Colombiano de Ballet Clasico, Incolballet. Recipient of the bronze medal at the 2002 Ballet Competition in Havana, Cuba; participated in the 2003 Prix de Laussane; the 2003 Trujillo International Ballet Competition (Trujillo, Peru); and the 2006 USA International Ballet Competition.
Christine Hodges
Christine Hodges is a native of Caracas, Venezuela. Her ballet training includes the Academy Lidija Franklin, Maria Teresa Ballet School and Nina Novak Academy. In 1995, she received first place in the London Ballet's summer workshop, and in 1998 and 2002, participated in the Jackson International Ballet Competition. Christine danced with National Ballet Juvenile of Venezuela, Ballet Classic of Camara, Tulsa Ballet Theater, and Ballet Florida. Her repertory includes Carmen, Don Quixote, The Nutcracker, Theme and Variations, Who Cares, Dracula by Ben Stevenson, and Romeo & Juliet, among others.
This is Christine's first season with Ballet Gamonet Maximum Dance. Christina has performed with the South Florida Ballet Theater for the past three years as Principal Dancer in Don Quixote as Ketri, The Sleeping Beauty as Aurora, Peter and the Wolf The Bird, Nutcracker as The Dew drop fairy.
Jorge Cardenas
A native of Lima, Peru began his taining at the ballet municipal de Lima. As a principal dancer with the Karem Connoly Dance Company he performed in Don Quixote and the Nutcraker.
Mr. Cardenas persued his dancing careerwith Miami International Ballet, where he performed many classical and modern ballets. After moving to New York he joined the Alex Tressor Dance Company, a Neo-Classical Company. Jorge continues his carrer as a freelance performing artist in Classical Ballet, Mordern, Character Theater and Movies.
M. Quimen Sanchez
He started his early training with Linda De Chane. He continued on to study under full scholarships with Orlando Ballet School, Joffrey Ballet School and Ballet Hispanico. Under the direction and guidance of the late Fernando Bujones, Quimen has performed rolls in The Nutcracker, Spartacus and Coppelia. He has also originated several principal rolls with Ohio Dance Theatre in their productions of Snow White, Alice In Wonderland, and Carmen. This past summer Quimen performed Sierra Nevada Ballet in Reno, Nevada.
There he danced as part of the original cast in several new exciting works by Rosine Bena. In addition, Quimen has previously performed with South Florida Ballet in their production of Sleeping Beauty and is glad to be back for Nutcracker 2006.
Jimmy Rodriguez
Mr. Rodriguez, Trained at the Cuban School of "Alicia Alonso", gaining Gold and Silver Medal in the International Festival De Ballet Of Havana-Cuba in1986 performing "EL CORSARIO PASDEDEUX". Jimmy then Joined Compania de Danza Nacional de Cuba from 1987 to ’89 and Compania Prodanza under Director Laura Alonso. Jimmy performed internationally with many companies such as National Ballet of Mexico as Soloist, Company of National Dance Of Yucatan State, Pennsylvania Ballet and Jorgen Ballet in Toronto Canada, New York City Opera, as dancer in Carmen and Aida and the South Florida Ballet Theater.
As dancer and choreographer, Jimmy was awarded many Medals as “Better dancer and choreographer”, for dancing main roles in the Lion King (timone), Chicago, Wizard of Oz (scarecrow), Don Quixote, Privateer, Romeo and Julieta, Nutcracker (Cavalier), the Russian Firebird (Ivan) Alan in La Fille Mal Gardée and Bottom in A Midsummer Night’s Dream.
Felix Cuello
Started his ballet training under the tutelage of maestro Vladimir Issaev. He attended the summer seminars with mr. hector Danton and Fernando Bujones. He also attented the Imperial Russian seminar for two consecutive summers with renowed teachers Vladimir Issaev, Anna Karpova, Irina Lebedeva, Tataina Djoloukhadze and madame Alla Osipenko. Although his short time traning, he participated in all productions of Arts Ballet Theater of Florida. He has had roles in the Firebird, the Mouse King, and the Russion Dance in the Nutcracker, the Chief Tomato in Chipolino.
Felix has also performed with Ballet Etude in The Nutcracker performing in various roles including and debuting as a soloist in the role of the Russian. Felix also trained and performed with South Florida ballet Theater in t”Sleeping Beauty” and tonight he performs a Mother Ginger.
Jessica Colina
Trained at the Conservatoire de Nimes and The Colette Armand School in Marseille, France. Danced with Ballet National de Marseille, France (1994), Ballet National de Nancy, France (1995-2001) Ballet Florida (2001) Miami City Ballet (2002-2005) and currently with Ballet Gamonet since 2005.
Carolina Medina
Carolina Medina began her studies at Ballet School Of Santiago de Chile. In 1995 she moved to Miami where she join New Century Dance Company. Since then she has travel performing nation and worldwide in different corporate events, as well as touring with famous singers. Currently she’s part of Brazarte Modern Company.
Karen Hirst Kennedy
Karen was born in New York and started her ballet training in Buenos Aires, Argentina. She then continued her ballet training in Dallas with the Dallas Ballet and the Dallas Metropolitan Ballet. Her professional career begun with Boston Ballet II and the Boston Ballet. She then joined the Washington Ballet where she performed leading roles from Nutcracker and others. With the company she danced at the White House, and performed in Europe and in Asia. Later she joined Pitsburgh Ballet Theatre.
She earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from Southern Methodist University before joining the Fort Worth Dallas Ballet. Some of her roles include the lead in Martin Van Hamel's Not of Kin, the Sugar Plum Fairy in the Nutcracker, Le Corsaire pas de deux, and Giselle in Giselle. She currently lives in Miami with her husband and three sons, Aiden, Ethan, and new baby Ashton. She is guesting for companies while teaching ballet in the Miami area.
Deann Pertuschke
DeAnn Pertuschke was born in Mentor, Ohio. She received her training at the School of Cleveland Ballet from age 12, and later continued at the School of American Ballet, Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre and the Milwaukee Ballet schools. In 1993, DeAnn was invited to join the Cleveland Ballet as a trainee. She joined Ballet Arizona in 1995, and danced there for four seasons before returning to the Cleveland Ballet. Memorable performances include Swan Lake, Roland Petit's Carmen, Dennis Nahat's Moments, Midsummer Night's Dream, and Mendelssohn Symphony.
In 2001, DeAnn joined the Oregon Ballet Theatre and then, in 2003, joined the Atlantic Southeast Ballet to dance a principal role in its production of Giselle. From 2004-2005, DeAnn danced with Michigan's Grand Rapids Ballet. She recently traveled to China to dance in the Warner Brothers production of Casablanca, and has participated in Verb Ballet's Summer Season for the past three years. This is DeAnn's fourth season with Ballet Gamonet Maximum Dance.
