Dancers

State Street Ballet

Young Dancers

Dancers

	Performing Members
	Karina Biancone is 14 years old and is in 9th grade at Santa Barbara High School. She has studied ballet with Gustafson Dance for nine years. She has attended State Street Ballet Summer Intensive, as well as Regional Dance America for two years. This year she is a performing member with SSBYD. Karina loves dancing and being on stage. She is very excited for what the new year will bring her.
	Charlotte Brace is 15 and is currently a sophomore at Santa Barbara High School. She started her study of ballet at the age of six with the Diane Knowles Academy of Dance. This is her third year with Gustafson Dance and her second year with SSBYD. Charlotte has attended the State Street Ballet Summer Intensive, SummerDance Kids Connection, workshops with Diane Knowles and Dimitri Rounev, and most recently two summers with the San Francisco Ballet School.
	Shannon Comstock is a freshman at Santa Barbara High School. This is her fourth year dancing with Gustafson Dance. This past summer she attended School of American Ballet's Summer Intensive. Shannon started dancing at 8 years old at Bossov Ballet Theatre in Maine. She trained with Andrei Bossov and Natalya Getman learning the Vaganova method. This past year Shannon has had the wonderful opportunity to dance in State Street Ballet's production of Swan Lake. Last December she also danced the role of Clara in State Street Ballet's The Nutcracker. Shannon wishes to pursue a professional career in dance.
	Julia DePaoli is fourteen years old and a freshman at Laguna Blanca School. She has been dancing ballet and jazz for nine years, all of them with Gustafson Dance, and has been in many State Street Ballet performances. This is her second year being a part of State Street Ballet Young Dancers and her first year as a company member. She has attended State Street Ballet Summer Intensive, and this past summer spent her time in Michigan at the Joffrey Midwest Summer intensive program.
	Francesca Gonzales is a 9th grade student at Santa Barbara High School. She has been at Gustafson Dance since the age of 4. She competed with Santa Barbara Gymnastics Club from Levels 4 through 8 for seven years. Francesca decided to pick her passion of ballet over gymnastics and this fall is a performing member with State Street Ballet Young Dancers. She has appeared with State Street Ballet Hollywood Nutcracker for two years as a Shirley Temple doll and Agnes de Mille's Texas Fourth in 2006. She has attended Gustafson Dance Junior Intensive as well as State Street Ballet's Summer Intensive program. She loves to dance and looks forward to another year with SSBYD. When she is not at the studio she enjoys playing piano, acting and singing.
	Jameson Keating has trained with Gustafson Dance for six years and has participated in State Street Ballet's Summer Intensive three times. He choreographed "Four Roses" for "On the Verge," and was awarded first place in the 10th Ballet Competition/Junior Gentlemen of Santa Barbara. In addition to dance and theatre, his interests include martial arts, travel, music and cinematography. Jameson is 16 years old and is a Junior at Santa Barbara High School.
	Natalia Perea is a sixteen year old junior who attends Santa Barbara City College. She has studied ballet for eight years with Gustafson Dance and Flamenco for nine years with the Linda Vega Dance Studio. Natalia was chosen and served Old Spanish Days of Santa Barbara with the title Junior Spirit of Fiesta 2004. She has attended Boston Ballet Summer Dance program and two summers with State Street Ballet Summer Intensive. Last fall she danced with the professional company, State Street Ballet, in their performance of Swan Lake at the Granada. She has also received numerous dance scholarships from Santa Barbara Dance Alliance. Natalia greatly enjoys dancing and looks forward to many years to come.
	Bryana Schantz is fourteen years old and in the ninth grade at Laguna Blanca School in Santa Barbara. She has always had a passion for the arts, and along with dance, loves piano, painting, writing, and photography. Bryana has been studying ballet at Gustafson Dance for over ten years, and during that time has participated in many summer dance programs, including the State Street Ballet Summer Intensive. Bryana looks forward to another exciting year of dance with the State Street Ballet Young Dancers.
	Joel Sterken is a 14 year old at Dos Pueblos High School. He has been dancing for over seven years. He has appeared on stage as many characters including Fritz, in the annual holiday favorite, Nutcracker. Over the summer, Joel attended the State Street Ballet's Summer Intensive program and performed at UCSB. He has had two years of Gustafson's Junior Intensive and worked to choreograph "Reflections", a piece for the program. He was awarded second place in the 10th Santa Barbara Ballet Competition (Junior Gentlemen). Last year he was an apprentice with SSBYD and went for his second trip to Regional Dance America in Provo, Utah. This year he is a company member of SSBYD. He is excited about this year in dance. He is young Mowgli in SSB's The Jungle Book. Joel has received the Santa Barbara Foundation Scholarship in classical guitar. He loves his friends, music, computer games, sports, air soft guns, watersports, dirt bikes and being with his dad.
	Casey Venturelli has danced with Gustafson Dance for over 12 years. Since the age of three, she has been passionate about ballet, and hopes to never stop dancing. Casey is a junior at San Marcos High School in Santa Barbara, California. She has participated in the State Street Ballet Summer Intensive, the Joffrey Midwest Summer Intensive Workshop, the Regional Dance America Pacific Festival, and has performed the principal role in performances such as Clara in the Nutcracker.
	Lillian Walton-Masters is 16 years old attending her third year at Santa Barbara High School. She has been dancing with Gustafson Dance since age 3, but took a short break between ages 7-11. As a performing member of the State Street Ballet Young Dancers, Lillian performed in Regional Dance America Competition, May 2008. For the past two summers she attended the American Ballet Theatre Summer Intensive program. Last year she performed with State Street Ballet in Swan Lake and The Nutcracker. Lillian is going to pursue a career in dance and hopes to eventually own her own dance studio.
	Apprentices
	Olivia Avery is 12 years old and is currently a seventh grader at Crane Country Day School. She has been with Gustafson Dance since the age of two. This is her tenth year dancing with the school. She loves to dance and looks forward to dancing with SSBYD. She has participated in several summer dance programs and hopes to continue and pursue a professional career in ballet.
	Emily Clark is currently in the 8th grade at Goleta Valley Junior High. Although she is just 13, she has been dancing with Gustafson Dance for ten years. Over the summer she attended the Junior Intensive program at Gustafson Dance. This year she is looking forward to being an apprentice with SSBYD.
	Sophia Deroo is 12 years old and is currently a 7th grader at Laguna Blanca School. Sophia has done 3 years of Gustafson Dance Junior Intensive program. This is her first year of being a part of SSBYD. This summer she hopes to attend a summer intensive. Her dreams are to become a professional dancer and to perform around the world.
	Hannah Glodell is 13 and is currently home schooled at the Laurel Springs School. She started ballet at the age of three and took a break from dancing for several years. This past summer she danced in the State Street Ballet Summer Intensive program, and plans to keep dancing for many years to come.
	Tessa Grano is 12 and is currently a seventh grader at La Colina Junior High. She started dancing at the age of 3 at Gustafson Dance and has enjoyed it since. She has also attended the junior intensive program for three years and this next summer hopes to dance at State Street Ballet Summer Intensive program. This is Tessa's first year as an apprentice for SSBYD and is excited for this year.
	Jasmine John is currently 13 years old, and is an 8th grade Gate student at La Colina Junior High. She has been taking classes at Gustafson Dance for 8 years and has participated in many of the dance camps during the summer. She is very excited to be an apprentice with SSBYD.
	Cameron Quittner is 12 years old and is 7th grader at Santa Barbara Middle School. She started dancing at age 3 at Gustafson Dance School. She has attended the Junior Intensive Programs for 3 years. She would like to attend a summer intensive program next summer. This is her first year with SSBYD. She hopes to someday travel the world and dance.

Photography by Stephanie Baker