American Repertory Ballet

Archives: People

Lar Lubovitch

Lar Lubovitch trained at The Juilliard School and founded the Lar Lubovitch Dance Company in NYC in 1968, and over the course of 56 years, it has gained an international reputation as one of America’s top dance companies. Lubovitch’s dances have been performed by many other major dance companies throughout the world. Othello – A Dance in Three Acts, created in collaboration with American Ballet Theatre and San Francisco Ballet, was featured on PBS’s “Great Performances” (Emmy nomination). Film & television dances include Fandango (International Emmy), My Funny Valentine for Robert Altman’s film The Company (American Choreography Award nomination) and, Concerto Six Twenty-two and North Star for BBC. His contribution to the advancement of ice-dancing includes concert pieces for numerous Olympic skaters, as well as ice-dance specials for television: The Sleeping Beauty (PBS), The Planets (A&E) (International Emmy nomination, Cable Ace Award, Grammy Award). Broadway credits include Into the Woods (Tony nomination), The Red Shoes (Astaire Award) and Tony Award-winning revival of The King and I. In 1987, he conceived Dancing for Life which took place at Lincoln Center’s NY State Theater. It was the first response by the dance community to the AIDS crisis, raising over one million dollars. In 2007, Lubovitch founded the Chicago Dancing Festival. For 10 seasons the festival provided free performances by leading American dance companies and reached over 18,000 people annually. In 2016, he premiered a new evening-length ballet, The Bronze Horseman, at the Mikhailovsky Ballet in St. Petersburg, Russia. In 2014, he was appointed a Distinguished Professor of Dance at UC/Irvine. Some recent awards include: 2007, Chicagoan of the Year (Chicago Tribune); 2008, Chicagoan of the Year (Chicago Magazine); 2011, Ford Fellow (US Artists); 2011, Dance/USA Honors Award; 2012, Prix Benois de la Danse for Choreography, Bolshoi Theatre, Moscow; 2013, American Dance Guild Lifetime Achievement Award; 2014, Honorary Doctorate from The Juilliard School; 2015, named one of America’s Irreplaceable Dance Treasures by the Dance Heritage Coalition; 2016, ADF Scripps Award for Lifetime Achievement; 2016 Dance Magazine Award; 2018 Martha Graham Award; and 2024 Honorary Doctorate from Boston Conservatory.

Photo by NYC Dance Project

Alexia Williams

Alexia is a junior at Mason Gross School of the Arts, pursuing a Bachelor of Arts degree with a minor in Theater and Arts Administration at Rutgers University. With 15 years of dance experience, she recently choreographed her first musical, The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, in December 2024. She currently serves as the Dance Coordinator and Associate Producer at Cabaret Theater, where she contributes her expertise in movement and production to Rutgers’ thriving arts community.

Cheryl Mintz

Cheryl Mintz (Production Stage Manager) is pleased to return to American Repertory Ballet for her 4th season. Cheryl celebrated 30+ seasons at McCarter Theatre Center, 25 as the Resident Production Stage Manager, with 111 productions to her credit, and has a career-long (38 productions) collaboration with director/playwright Emily Mann. With 70+ Operas, Dance and Music events to her credit, Cheryl has enjoyed thirteen collaborations with Maestro Gian Carlo Menotti and Spoleto Festival USA and Italy. She spent five seasons at Lincoln Center with New York City Opera where she Stage Managed 40 operas and musicals, three tours and three PBS telecasts. Cheryl is a recipient of the 2010 Applause Award and the 2020 Award of Excellence at the New Jersey Theatre Alliance Curtain Call. Broadway: Six productions. Co-Founder, Partner and Creative Director of princetonVIRTUAL. Currently, Production Stage Manager for American Repertory Ballet, New Jersey Ballet, and Adjunct Professor in Theater at Montclair State University. Stage Managers’ Association Executive Board 20 years and Producer of the annual Del Hughes Awards event. MFA Yale School of Drama.

Photo by Matt Pilsner.

Devon Nicole Austin

Hailing from West Windsor, NJ, Devon Nicole Austin graduated from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts with a BFA in Stage Management and Costume Design. She has worked with companies such as José Limón Dance Company (NYC), Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDs (NYC), The Public Theater (NYC), Ars Nova (NYC), Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade (NYC), New York Stage and Film (NY), 59E59 Theaters (NYC), Walt Disney World (FL), Crossroads Theatre Company (NJ), and Princeton Symphony Orchestra (NJ).

Eddy Tovar

Eddy Tovar trained at the National Ballet School in Havana. He began his  professional career in Brazil at the Bale do Estado de Goias before joining the  Orlando Ballet under the direction of Bruce Marks and the late Fernando  Bujones. Eddy rose through the ranks of Orlando Ballet to that of principal  dancer, while also serving as the resident guest artist of the Los Angeles Ballet.  He retired from the stage after dancing for Texas Ballet Theater as a principal  dancer, under the direction of Ben Stevenson. 

Eddy has performed principal roles in virtually every full-length classic ballet, as  well as roles in works by George Balanchine and Twyla Tharp. He has won  numerous medals in competitions all around the world and appeared as a guest  artist on the TV show “So You Think You Can Dance”. From 2012 to 2014, Eddy  served on the faculty of the Hartt School of Dance Department at the University  of Hartford. Throughout his career, he has staged ballets as well as instructed  students of all levels.  

In 2016, Eddy became Ballet Master for Philadelphia Ballet II (formally  Pennsylvania Ballet) and was promoted to Director of Philadelphia Ballet II in  2018. During this time, he guided many dancers as they transitioned from  student to professional, helping them not only with their technique and artistry, 

but also with their partnering skills and their performance capabilities.  As a  member of the artistic team of Philadelphia Ballet, Eddy also taught company  class for the main company and coached them in  many leading roles including  Swan Lake, Don Quixote, Sleeping Beauty and Coppelia as well as Balanchine’s The Nutcracker and Who Cares?  He is married and has a daughter.

Rylee Berger

Rylee Berger is a recent graduate of Rider University where she earned a B.A. in Theatre Design and Production and Arts and Entertainment Industries Management. Rylee has previously worked with the American Repertory Ballet as a production management intern, stage manager, and technical director, and is thrilled to step into this role. Additionally, Rylee has worked with Berkshire Theatre Group, McCarter Theater, Passage Theatre Company, and the Hangar Theater. 

Grant Jacoby

Grant Jacoby joined American Repertory Ballet | Princeton Ballet School in 2024. He previously held Marketing roles at Morven Museum & Garden, DANCE NOW, Ballet Tech, and the Sarah Lawrence College Dance Program. He was a company member of Quicksilver Dance and Lorraine Chapman The Company, and has performed in works by Merce Cunningham, Trisha Brown, David Parker & The Bang Group, Mark Dendy, and Annie Kloppenberg, among others. He has presented his choreography nationally and abroad in venues such as La MaMa ETC, Triskelion Arts, Green Space, Movement Research, The Dance Complex, Green Street Studios, AS220, Les Champs Melisey, and The International Festival of Arts & Ideas. He has been on faculty at Boston Ballet, The Boston Conservatory at Berklee, and The National Theater Institute. He received his Bachelor of Arts in Dance and Theater from Connecticut College and his Master of Fine Arts in Dance from Sarah Lawrence College.

Samantha Dunster

Samantha Dunster began her ballet training with Cristina Pora in Toronto, Ontario. Then, at age 17, she traveled to Havana to train with the National Ballet of Cuba. She continued dancing with the company of Centro Pro-Danza, under the direction of Laura Alonso, where she also worked as Regisseur and Ballet Mistress.

In 1996, Samantha accepted the position of Artistic Director and Principal Dancer of Bale da Ilha in Brazil, where she staged numerous full-length ballets. By 2000, she became Ballet Mistress of Orlando Ballet, where, under the direction of the late Fernando Bujones, she re-choreographed La Fille mal gardée for the company. In 2004, she was commissioned by Orlando Ballet to create a world-premiere production of Camelot, the success of which broke ticket sales records. In 2007, she accepted the role of Assistant to the Artistic Director of Orlando Ballet, under the direction of Bruce Marks. The following year, the pair together staged the full-length Don Quixote.

In 2011, Samantha accepted the position of Chair and Artistic Director of the Hartt School Community Division Dance Department at the University of Hartford. During that time, she created and choreographed two new full-length ballets: Snow White and Peter Pan with original scores by Kermit Poling. She also founded the pre-professional company HarttWorks as well as created the summer ballet intensive program “From Studio to Stage,” which has attracted Guest Artistic Directors such as Bruce Marks, Laura Alonso, and Angel Corella.

Samantha has danced and taught in countries all around the world, including Sweden, Argentina, and Brazil. In 2003 and 2009, she set her staging of La Fille mal gardée for the National Ballet of Korea and the NBA Ballet Company in Tokyo, respectively. Additionally, she has staged several works by Bruce Marks, including Lark Ascending for Louisville Ballet, and in 2010, she served as the Canadian judge for the International Ballet Competition in Jackson, MS.

Samantha began her tenure as Ballet Mistress with Philadelphia Ballet (formally Pennsylvania Ballet) in November 2014 and was appointed Assistant Artistic Director in November 2015. During her time there, she choreographed Snow White, Prince Charming, and Fairy Rhymes for Philadelphia Ballet II and staged Peter Pan for the School of Philadelphia Ballet. She has also appeared on stage as ‘Carabosse’ in The Sleeping Beauty and ‘Berthe’ in Giselle.

Noelani Pantastico

Ms. Pantastico joined the Pacific Northwest Ballet as an apprentice in 1997 and became a corps de ballet member a year later. She was named soloist in 2001, and a year after dancing Aurora in Sleeping Beauty, a principal in 2004. In 2008, she left PNB and joined Jean-Christophe Maillot’s Les Ballets de Monte-Carlo in Monaco as a soloist, having previously danced Maillot’s Roméo et Juliette at PNB. She was named first soloist a year later. In 2015, she returned to PNB again as a principal dancer. During her 25-year career, she has danced a diverse repertory, including works by George Balanchine, Jean-Christophe Maillot, Jiri Kylian, William Forsythe, Jerome Robbins, Susan Stroman, Crystal Pite, Alejandro Cerrudo, Penny Saunders Robyn Mineko Williams and many more. She was featured in the 1999 filmed version of PNB’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream. In 2017, Pantastico choreographed Picnic for Sculptured Dance by the Seattle Art Museum. Outside of PNB, in 2004, she made a guest appearance at the New York City Ballet, dancing the second movement of Balanchine’s Brahms–Schoenberg Quartet at NYCB’s Balanchine Centennial. In 2019, she founded Seattle Dance Collective with fellow PNB principal dancer James Moore. In January 2022, Pantastico announced her retirement from Pacific Northwest Ballet and dedication to teaching. Ms. Pantastico is a freelance teacher, coach, and stager for Jean-Christopher Maillot’s works.

Photo Credit – Lindsay Thomas