Staff of Harford Ballet Company
The Harford Ballet Company is fortunate to have a great administrative and artistic team led by Founder and Executive Director, Pamela Villeneuve. HBC strives to provide dancers with a professional training and performing experience that is unparalleled in the region. In addition to an experienced core staff, the company also attracts guest professionals to choreograph new works and teach master classes and workshops in dance. This gives HBC dancers a chance to work with accomplished professionals and offers dancers a wider view of the profession. Below is a listing of the current staff and previous guest artists who have worked with the company.
Pamela Villeneuve - Founder and Executive Director
Pamela Villeneuve is the founder and Executive Director of the Harford Ballet Company and the Dance Conservatory of Maryland. Ms. Villeneuve established the Harford Ballet Company in the spring of 1997 and has seen the organization grow from a core group of dedicated students to a professional company with over 20 dancers. Ms. Villeneuve has extensive training and coaching in classical ballet from professionals such as New York City ballerina Suzanne Farrell, Camille Izard of the American Ballet Theatre, and Murial Stewart of Anna Pavlova’s Company. In addition to receiving scholarships from the Boston Ballet, Atlanta Ballet, Towson State University and others, she holds a BFA degree in dance performance and choreography from TSU. Her 24-year teaching experience has encompassed many dance forms-from all levels of ballet to jazz, tap and modern dance-bringing versatility and breadth to her teaching style. As the former director of the Harford Dance Center at B.A.A.C. from its inception to 1994, she was able to bring successful full-length classical and contemporary performances to Harford County in addition to establishing a full-scale dance program. Ms. Villeneuve has taught at schools throughout Maryland such as Ballet Academy of Baltimore, Caryl Maxwell Classical Ballet, School of the Long Beach Village Center, and Dancemoves.
Barclay Pease - Artistic Director
Barclay Pease has come to the Harford Ballet Company from the dance department at the Peabody Institute of Johns Hopkins. Barclay received her early dance training at the Peabody Preparatory, Towson University, the Baltimore School for the Arts, and the Central Pennsylvania Youth Ballet. She performed professionally with Ballet British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada and with Charleston Ballet Theater in South Carolina. Barclay has performed in works by leading choreographers such as George Balanchine and Paul Taylor and has danced in the Nutcracker with the Moscow Ballet. Barclay is an associate of the Royal Academy of Dance having completed her Advanced Ballet and Solo Seal RAD examinations. After attending Towson University as a dance major, Barclay has taught and choreographed ballet and modern dance at schools throughout the area including the Central Pennsylvania Youth Ballet, Towson University’s Children’s Dance Division, Baltimore Ballet, and the Peabody Preparatory. Barclay joined HBC in 2008 and is the current Artistic Director of the Dance Conservatory of Maryland and the Harford Ballet Company.
Kaitlin Kenny - Company Manager
Kaitlin Kenny received her early dance training at The Dance Center, the official school of the Brandywine Ballet. She went on to train at the Washington Ballet, Pennsylvania Governor’s School for the Arts and Wilmington Academy of Dance. Ms. Kenny is a graduate of Towson University where she earned her BA in Mass Communications as well as pursued the Dance Performance major, graduating Cum Laude. While an honors scholarship recipient at Towson, she performed with the Towson University Dance Company and performed lead roles in the Nutcracker as well as several other classical and contemporary works. She also performed with the Baltimore Ballet in various productions and taught ballet, modern and jazz at the school for five years. After graduation, Ms. Kenny pursued her communications career, working as an account executive for advertising and public relations agencies in Baltimore.
Shana O'Brien - Resident Choreographer
Shana O’Brien has been a faculty member at DCM since 2002, teaching ballet, jazz, tap and modern dance. A graduate of Goucher College with a degree in dance performance and choreography, Shana has performed in works set by dance professionals such as Steven Mills of Ballet Austin, Rachel Berman, formerly of Paul Taylor Dance Company, and Jean-Pierre Bonnefoux and Christopher d’Amboise, both former principals with New York City Ballet. She has presented choreography in many diverse venues including the American College Dance Festival, the Maryland Council for Dance Choreographer’s Showcase, and the Youth America Grand Prix ballet competition. In addition to her training at DCM, Shana has studied under Marilyn Gaston at the Ballet Academy of Baltimore, Laura Dolid of the Sudbrook Arts Center, and at the Rock School of the Pennsylvania Ballet. She has experience performing in such varied settings as the Nutcracker at the Lyric Opera House, musicals in regional dinner theater, and competitions held by Dance Masters of America.
Christine Villeneuve-Jones - Artistic Advisor and Guest Choreographer
Christine Villeneuve-Jones is an artistic advisor and guest choreographer to the Harford Ballet Company and frequents the Dance Conservatory of Maryland as a master class teacher. Miss Villeneuve has danced professionally with the Pennsylvania Ballet and the Milwaukee Ballet under the direction of Richard Weiss and Richard Tanner. Her primary training was with the Rock School of the Pennsylvania Ballet and Ballet Academy of Baltimore. Miss Villeneuve was awarded the Princess Grace Scholarship during her apprenticeship with the Pennsylvania Ballet for her commitment to the art form, as well as her accomplished technique and artistry. Currently she is on the faculty of the Pennsylvania Performing Arts Academy teaching all levels of ballet. She is also a teacher and ballet mistress for the Dance Theatre of Pennsylvania directed by Marilyn Budzynski. As a certified Physical Therapist, Miss Villeneuve brings a wealth of additional knowledge to her teaching. Miss Villeneuve currently performs as a free-lance artist in Pennsylvania and Maryland.
Linda O'Brien - Rehearsal Mistress
Linda O’Brien is a professional instructor and award winning choreographer and has been teaching in the Maryland area since 1987. An active member of Dance Masters of America, she received her teaching certification in Ballet, Jazz and Tap in 1996, and continues to further her education through DMA’s Teacher’s Training Program. Over the past twelve years, she has acted as Assistant Director, Artistic Advisor and Ballet Mistress for the Harford Ballet Company. Linda is a faculty member at the Community Colleges of Baltimore County, where in addition to teaching Ballet, Jazz, and Dance Appreciation she also acts as Associate Director of their resident company. A lifelong student, Linda has studied extensively in Maryland and New York under many renowned teachers including Tom Ralabate, Tracy Navarro and jazz legend, Frank Hatchett. Many of her older students have been awarded dance scholarships and are currently performing throughout the United States in stage and theater productions.
Jason Hartley - Guest Choreographer
Jason Hartley of Des Moines, Iowa, was in his sixth season with The Washington Ballet when he worked as a guest choreographer with HBC. He has also danced with American Repertory Ballet, Ballet Austin, BalletMet Columbus, and the Trey McIntyre Project. Mr. Hartley trained at North Carolina School of the Arts, where he won the Level I Award from the National Foundation for the Advancement of the Arts in 1995. He received the Princess Grace Award for Dance in 1997. In July 2002, The Washington Ballet premiered Mr. Hartley's choreography Crosswalks and Train Stations in Telluride and Aspen, Colorado. In 2003, his works Sanctified Shells and Nocturne Monologue premiered at The Kennedy Center's Millennium Stage as part of the Prelude Festival. For The Washington Ballet's production 7x7, Mr. Hartley created Underneath.
Melinda Howe - Guest Choreographer
Melinda Howe has served on the faculty of Central Pennsylvania Youth Ballet for more than 25 years, where she began her own training under the direction of Marcia Dale Weary. She received her BFA from The North Carolina School of the Arts and then returned to Carlisle to work with Ms. Weary. Her growth as a teacher led her to choreograph, and her ballets Vivaldi, Epsprit and Blue Moon Waltz have been shown at the Northeast Regional Festivals for Dance. In 2000, Andante won her the prestigious Monticello Award for Choreography. At CPYB, along with her teaching, she assists with the five week Summer Program and the Teachers Workshop. She is proud of the many students she has helped train over the years and you can see the current future professionals in her ballets in the June Series.
Meredith Rainey - Guest Choreographer
Mr. Rainey is a former soloist with the Pennsylvania Ballet and began dancing at the age of 15 in his hometown of Fort Lauderdale. In 1985 he joined the Milwaukee Ballet and in 1987 he was asked to join the newly formed Pennsylvania-Milwaukee Ballet. He remained with the Pennsylvania Ballet when this collaboration ended, and he also danced as a demi-soloist with the Dance Theatre of Harlem. His repertoire includes many principal and soloist roles in the works of George Balanchine, Alvin Ailey, Paul Taylor, Lar Lubovitch, John Butler, John Cranko, and William Forsythe. He is the recipient of the 1995 and 2002 PA Council on the Arts Fellowship Grant for Choreography, the 2001 Mid-Atlantic Foundation Artist as Catalyst Grant, the 2002 Independence Foundation Fellowship in the Arts, and a 2003 Pew Fellowship in the Arts Finalist. Meredith has been commissioned to create works for the Pennsylvania Ballet, Delaware Ballet, Hubbard Street 2, Phrenic New Ballet, Ballet X, Philadanco, and has had his choreography performed at festivals throughout North and South America.
Barbara Sandonato - Guest Master Teacher
Barbara Sandonato, the celebrated leading dancer now nationally esteemed master teacher, performed with extraordinary verve and dramatic flair, and her roles ranged from the traditional bravura showpieces to the Romantic realm, and from the exquisite but often relentless demands of a Balanchine ballet to the works of modernists like Limon and Butler. Ms. Sandonato was the first dancer to join Barbara Weisberger at the Pennsylvania Ballet as it formed in 1962. She remained a Principal Dancer with that company until 1977, except for a one-year stint with the National Ballet of Canada where, as a principal, she performed with Rudolf Nureyev. Most recently, in great demand as a teacher, Ms. Sandonato served as Artist-in-Residence and adjunct professor of Ballet at Barnard College of Columbia University in New York City. She has taught at other reputable schools including Ballet Academy East in New York City and the Central Pennsylvania Youth Ballet. Ms. Sandonato now runs her own school, the Barbara Sandonato School of Ballet in Philadelphia, PA