Along with KBI Artistic Director Paloma Herrera, faculty and guest teachers include Kaatsbaan co-founders Martine van Hamel, Kevin McKenzie, and returning resident instructor Lorin Mathis. More faculty to be announced soon!
KBI Artistic Director, Paloma Herrera, leads a class in the Studio Complex Building
Paloma Herrera was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and began her training at the age of seven. In January 1991 at just 15 years old, she moved to New York and continued her studies at the School of American Ballet. After only six months, she joined the American Ballet Theatre and in 1995 became the youngest Principal Dancer in American Ballet Theatre history at age 19. She has appeared in ballets ranging from Don Quixote, Romeo and Juliet, and Swan Lake, to Apollo, The Prodigal Son, and Stepping Stones. She has appeared as Guest Artist with prestigious companies including New York City Ballet, Kirov Ballet, Bolshoi Ballet, Tokyo Ballet, Teatro Colon, and National Ballet of Cuba, to name a few. Since retiring from American Ballet Theatre at the end of November 2015, she has moved back to Buenos Aires, Argentina, and continued to teach all over the world.
Herrera wrote her autobiography that was presented at Feria del Libro in 2017. In that same year, she launched her own perfume, Paloma Herrera. Subsequently, she launched her second fragrance Paloma Herrera Passion in 2019, and her third fragrance Paloma Herrera Fantasy in 2022.
She has received many notable Argentinian awards such as the Konex de Platino, Maria Ruanova, and has been given distinctions by the Honorable Camara de Diputados de La Nación and Medalla del Bicentenario by the government of Buenos Aires. She has been a member of the gallery of popular idols of the Argentine Government House since 2012.
In 2017, she became the Artistic Director of Ballet Estable del Teatro Colon. After taking the company to new heights, she resigned in 2022 and has held the role of Kaatsbaan Ballet Intensive Artistic Director ever since.
Born in Burlington, Vermont and trained in Washington, DC by Mary Day, Kevin McKenzie won a silver medal in the Varna International Ballet Competition in 1972. After starting his professional career with the National Ballet of Washington under the direction of Fredrick Franklin and Ben Stevenson, he moved to New York City to work with the Joffrey Ballet before joining American Ballet Theatre as a soloist in 1979 and promoted to Principal dancer that same year.
After enjoying a full performing career with ABT, he became Artistic Associate with the Washington Ballet and in 1992 was appointed Artistic Director of ABT. During his 30 years in that position, he nurtured 3 generations of ABT dancers while establishing and overseeing the ABT Studio Company, The Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis School at American Ballet Theatre, The ABT National Training Curriculum, The ABT Innovation Initiative for choreographic development as well as welcoming Alexie Ratmansky as the Artist in Residence at ABT to create some of the most treasured additions to ABT’s repertoire in the company’s experience.
Retiring from his position at ABT, Mckenzie has turned his attention back to Kaatsbaan Cultural Park, an institution he co-founded in 1991 and now serves as Chairman and Artist Advisor.
Martine van Hamel studied ballet in Copenhagen, Java, The Hague, Caracas, and Toronto. She leapt to widespread acclaim by winning The Gold Medal, and the seldom awarded Prix de Varna, at The International Ballet Competition in 1966. She went on to stardom, first with The National Ballet of Canada, and followed by two illustrious decades as a Principal dancer with American Ballet Theatre. From 1992 to 1997, she regularly performed with Nederlands Dans Theater III. She still performs character roles with American Ballet Theatre. A Co-founder of Kaatsbaan Culutral Park, which is dedicated to the preservation of professional dance, van Hamel directed the Kaatsbaan Ballet Intensive summer intensive where she continues to teach. She also teaches for the JKO school and Studio Company of American Ballet Theatre.
Mr. Mathis began his training at Ballet Arts Minnesota before training at Pacific Northwest Ballet School and San Francisco Ballet School. Some of his most influential teachers included Bonnie Mathis, Lirena Branitski, Flemming Halby, Jorge Esquivel, Johan Renvall, and Ricardo Bustamante. In 1999, Mr. Mathis was hired as an apprentice with San Francisco Ballet. He continued to dance with SFB for two seasons as a member of the Corps de Ballet, before joining Alberta Ballet, Boston Ballet, and Philadelphia Ballet. During his performing career he danced leading roles by choreographers such as Marius Petipa, George Balanchine, Christopher Wheeldon, Jirí Kylián, Mikko Nissinen, Anthony Tudor, Jorma Elo, Helen Pickett, William Forsythe, John Butler, Jerome Robbins, and Nacho Duato. National and International touring has allowed him to perform throughout the United States, Canada, China, England, Ireland, and Spain.
Retiring from performing in 2016, Lorin’s mentoring experience includes teaching for Pennsylvania Ballet School, Artifact Dance Project, Saint Paul Ballet Company and School, Ballet Royale, Twin Cities Ballet of Minnesota, BC Dance, and has attended the ABT National Training Curriculum. Lorin has served as Associate Artistic Director for Kaatsbaan Ballet Intensive, where he has been teaching, coaching, and choreographing since 2017. During the year Lorin teaches Ballet Technique, Men’s Technique, Ballet Repertoire, and Pas de Deux at the University of Arizona School of Dance.
Elizabeth Ferrell was born in St. Louis, Missouri and began her training with Alexandra Zaharias. At age 14, she was awarded a Ford Foundation Scholarship to study at the School of American Ballet and upon graduation was chosen by Peter Martins to receive the Danish American National Cultures Exchange scholarship to study with the Royal Danish Ballet. In 1985, Elizabeth was invited by Mikhail Baryshnikov to become a member of American Ballet Theatre where she danced from 1985 to 1998. During that time she appeared in much of the classical and contemporary repertory. She also performed with the Pennsylvania Ballet, Eglevsky Ballet, New York City Opera, Alessandra Ferri’s “Stars of the American Ballet”, and most recently Hong Kong Ballet. She can be seen in several “Dance in America” programs for PBS, Herbert Ross‘ movie “Dancers” and Frederick Wiseman’s documentary “Ballet”. Elizabeth took part in the inaugural teacher training program of ABT’s National Training Curriculum and is now an ABT certified instructor. She has taught at Ballet Hispanico, Peridance Center, Gibney Dance, and Steps on Broadway in New York, Danceworks in London, and the Hong Kong Academy of Performing Arts and has guest taught in the U.S., London and Hong Kong. Since 2016, Elizabeth has been teaching for both the Children’s Division and Pre- Professional Division at the JKO School of American Ballet Theatre and for the ABT Summer Intensive program in New York.
Born in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Luciana Paris began her ballet training at the age of seven with Elena Perez. From 1991-1996 she studied at the Colon Theater Superior de Art Institute with Katty Gallo and Raul Candal. Paris is a recipient of a Colon Theater Foundation Scholarship, based on her outstanding qualifications at Colon Theater Superior Ballet Institute. She won a Gold Medal at the Latin American Dance Competition in 1995. In December 1996, Paris joined Julio Bocca’s Ballet Argentino as a principal dancer and became Bocca’s dance partner. From 1997 to 2001, Paris and Julio Bocca danced together classical, neoclassical and modern repertoire. Paris joined American Ballet Theatre as a member of the corps de ballet in October 2001. She was appointed a Soloist in August 2015. Her repertoire with the Company is vast. In 2012 American Ballet Theatre designated Paris as a Certified Teacher.
Jessica Saund began her early dance training with California Ballet before continuing her studies on full scholarship at the Kirov Academy of Ballet in Washington, D.C. In 1996, she joined the Washington School of Ballet under the direction of Mary Day, and that same year earned the Gold Medal in the junior division at the 2nd International Ballet Competition in South America.
In 1999, Ms. Saund was invited to dance with Le Jeune Ballet de France in Paris, and soon after joined English National Ballet, where she spent five years performing a wide range of classical and contemporary repertoire. She entered American Ballet Theatre in 2006.
Ms. Saund has performed soloist and principal roles in every major full-length classical ballet. Her repertory includes leading roles in works by George Balanchine, Mikhail Fokine, Anthony Tudor, Sir Kenneth MacMillan, Michael Corder, Jerome Robbins, Sir Frederick Ashton, and John Cranko. She has also created roles and worked closely with many of today’s most celebrated choreographers, including Twyla Tharp, John Neumeier, Kevin McKenzie, Paul Taylor, Mark Morris, Jirí Kylián, Dwight Rhoden, Lar Lubovitch, James Kudelka, Benjamin Millepied, Christopher Wheeldon, and Alexei Ratmansky.
Guided for many years by her mentor and coach David Howard, Ms. Saund has appeared as a guest artist with numerous U.S. ballet companies and has been featured in campaigns for Barney’s New York, Vogue, Glamour, Yves Saint Laurent, Seiko, and Bloch Ballet.
As an educator, Ms. Saund currently teaches company class for Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater and at Steps on Broadway. She has also taught for ABT Studio Company, English National Ballet, the ABT Summer Intensive, Complexions Contemporary Ballet, Ballet Arts NYC, Broadway Dance Center, and Regional Dance America. She has served as a coach and jury member for the ADC International Ballet Competition.
Most recently, she coached and prepared her longtime colleague and friend, Misty Copeland, for her farewell performance with American Ballet Theatre—guiding her return to peak performance condition. Her private students currently dance with American Ballet Theatre, The Stuttgart Ballet, English National Ballet, National Ballet of Canada, and the Royal Danish Ballet.
Born in Guatemala City, Guatemala, Adrienne Schulte began her ballet training with Marcia Dale Weary at the Central Pennsylvania Youth Ballet at the age of seven. She continued her studies at the Paris Opera Ballet School in France from 1996 to 1998 before joining the American Ballet Theatre’s Studio Company in 1998.
Schulte joined American Ballet Theatre as a member of the corps de ballet in January 1999. In 2007, she moved to London and danced as a First Artist with the English National Ballet for two seasons. Schulte rejoined American Ballet Theatre in September 2011. Schulte retired from American Ballet Theatre in July 2015. She received her Teacher’s Certification with Central Pennsylvania Youth Ballet, and has been a guest teacher with CPYB, Ballet Academy East, Eglevsky Ballet, Prodigy Dance and Performing Arts Centre, and Dallas Ballet Center. Adrienne was on faculty during the 2016–17 academic year at the ABT Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis School, Children’s Division and again for the 2021–22 academic year with the JKO Pre-Professional Division. Schulte is currently on faculty at Greenwich Ballet Academy since 2018, and a returning faculty member for Kaatsbaan Ballet Intensives.
