The Artistic Director, teachers and staff take pleasure in guiding and directing young dancers in their pursuit of a career in the arts. The programs are designed to allow students to commit their energies to their art without distraction.

Ashley M. Calligan 

Ashley M. Calligan is from Denver, Colorado and has been teaching ballet for 23 years. Ms. Calligan trained at The Academy of Colorado Ballet, The Academy of Russian Ballet, and Burklyn Ballet Theatre. While dancing she performed numerous roles including; Lilac Fairy in The Sleeping Beauty, Soloist in Paquita, Spanish in The Nutcracker, and many original works by Elizabeth Shipiatsky, Robert Royce, Angela Whitehill, and Thom Clower. For the 2008-2009 season she was the Ballet Mistress with Western Arkansas Ballet of Fort Smith, Arkansas. She is currently in her 20th year as the Assistant to the Artistic Director and Ballet Mistress with Burklyn Ballet Theatre, under the direction of Joanne Whitehill. With Burklyn Ballet Theatre she has traveled numerous times to Scotland to perform in The Edinburgh Festival Fringe. Her students have gone on to dance professionally and to dance in college dance programs such as SUNY Purchase, AMDA, The University of Arizona, and The University of Oklahoma. Ms. Calligan and her husband are the owners of Vail Valley Academy of Dance in Edwards, Colorado. This is Ms. Calligan’s 30th summer with Burklyn Ballet Theatre, starting as a student in 1994.

Jared Mesa 

Jared Mesa, born in Yuma, Arizona, began his formal dance training with Dancer’s Workshop at the age of 17 in Yuma and joined Yuma Ballet Theatre as a member in 2000. He has studied on scholarship and danced at Burklyn Ballet Theatre for 10 summers dancing the lead roles: Le Corsaire Pas De Deux, Harlequinade Pas De Deux, Don Quixote, Graduation Ball and Giselle, as well as many contemporary works. He has now been on faculty with Burklyn for 11 years. Jared has also worked with the Dallas Cowboy Cheerleaders and Sheryl Crow.

As a Professional, Jared has danced with Ballet Quad Cities and Ruidoso Dance Ensemble. His roles in these companies include Tybalt from Romeo and Juliet, Birbanto and Conrad in Le Corsaire as well as Lead roles in Firebird, Rodeo, Sleeping Beauty and many roles in Nutcracker. His guest work includes Ballet Yuma: Hilarion in Giselle and James in La Sylphide, New England Ballet: Prince Ivan in Firebird and Prince Desire in Sleeping Beauty, Gliech Dances out of London, England Rouses Point Fete de Danse, Ketchikan Theatre Ballet in Alaska and Abilene Ballet Theatre and Patty Harper Dance in Abilene, Texas.

As an award winner for his choreography at Burklyn Ballet Theatre for his dance “Lucha con el Toro” in 2003, he has continued to choreograph for Burklyn Ballet since 2005. Jared has also been Honored with having his choreography chosen for Regional Dance America in ’21 & ‘22 as well as RDA National Festival two times (2017 & 2024). He has choreographed commissioned works for companies in all over the country. Jared has been Ballet Master for Ruidoso Dance Ensemble in Ruidoso, NM and Artistic Director of Yuma Ballet Theatre as well as Mentor and choreographic advisor to the Student Choreographers at Burklyn Ballet Theatre.

Jared has been with Western Arkansas Ballet in Fort Smith, Arkansas for years and is the new Artistic Director.

Brianna Mesa 

Brianna is originally from Minot, ND, where she began her training at the age of 10 under the instruction of Rinat Mouzafarov. She attended summer programs at The Kirov Ballet Academy, and The Pilobolus Institute. She graduated from The Boston Conservatory Cum Laude with a BFA in Dance Pedagogy and Performance. At Western Arkansas Ballet, in Fort Smith, AR, Brianna is the Associate Artistic Director where she teaches a range of classes from Ballet and Pointe to Modern and has developed the Modern program to four levels for ages 9 and up. During the summers, Brianna works for Burklyn Ballet Theatre, where she teaches Ballet and Pointe and has the privilege of setting many classical Ballets. Brianna has been the director of the Burklyn Ballet Intermediate program for 5 years. She has

performed the lead roles in classical ballets across the country such as Giselle, Le Corsaire, La Bayadere, Rodeo, Sleeping Beauty, Graduation Ball and The Nutcracker. She has also had the honor of performing classical works by Jose Limon, Alwin Nikolais and Ohad Naharin. Brianna’s teaching method has been influenced by many teachers including Rinat Mouzafarov, Donna Silva, Arthur Leeth, Helen Starr, Dylan Crossman and Thom Clower. She is certified in Progressing Ballet Technique. In 2018 and 2021, Brianna’s choreography was

chosen to be performed at RDA’s southwest festival. She believes that Ballet technique comes from the understanding of Ballet History and its vocabulary. If you know where ballet comes from, you can appreciate how the art is evolving.

Oliver Greene-Cramer  

Oliver Greene-Cramer was raised in southern Vermont where he received his early training at the Brattleboro School of Dance and Burklyn Ballet Theatre. He obtained his BFA in 2013 from the SUNY Purchase Conservatory of Dance. Currently with Twyla Tharp Dance, Oliver has previously been a member of Lar Lubovitch Dance Company, Ballet Austin, and Los Angeles Dance Project. In his career Oliver has performed works by Twyla Tharp, Pam Tanowitz, Annabelle Lopez Ochoa, Lar Lubovitch, Pontus Lidberg, Christopher Wheeldon, George Balanchine, Merce Cunningham, Anthony Tudor, Stephen Mills, Benjamin Millepied, Septime Webre, Salia Sanou, Thang Dao, Janie Taylor, Dimitri Chamblas, and others. Additionally, he has had the privilege of performing in such festivals as Jacob’s Pillow (2019), Danza in Arte a Pietrasanta (2017), and Vail Dance Festival (2023). Oliver has also performed in works by artists Rodney McMillian (2018 – Against a Civic Death), Jack Ferver (2019 – Mon Ma Mes), and Madeline Hollander (2023 – Devotion).

Lauren O’Leary 

Lauren O’Leary began her formal dance instruction in Syracuse, New York. In her early training years, she was a featured Guest Artist with companies such as, The Moscow Ballet, Lake Erie Ballet, Key West Ballet and Ballet Met. In the summer months, Lauren received additional training with Central Pennsylvania Youth Ballet, New York State School of the Arts, The Rock School and Burklyn Ballet Theatre. In 2013, Lauren had the opportunity to travel to Edinburgh, Scotland for The Edinburg Fringe Festival, where she performed one of the leading roles in Burklyn’s own version of  Cinderella.  Still to this day, Lauren maintains a professional working relationship with Burklyn Ballet Theatre, as the company’s Office Manager. 

Lauren chose to further her pre-professional studies at Point Park University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. In 2014, she graduated with her Bachelor of Arts in Dance, with a minor in Business Management. After graduation, Lauren danced as a soloist with the Winston Salem Festival Ballet in Winter Salem, North Carolina. During her time with the company, she performed in productions of Dracula and Angels in our Midst. In 2014 Lauren moved her roots to New York City where she performed a small role in Le Corsaire with American Ballet Theatre. Concurrently, earning her Pilates certification at renowned school of Ellie Herman Pilates. Lauren specializes in pre and post-natal care, senior and group training, and injury rehabilitation and recovery. 

Lauren has gone on to be a Senior Pilates Instructor at Equinox, where two years in a row earned a spot on the company’s, “Top 50 Pilates Instructors,” worldwide. Today, she is Barre Method certified, has Personal Training accreditation with the National Academy of Sports Medicine, and authorization with Progressing Ballet Technique. Lauren founded LO Impact, her own fitness company in 2021. LO Impact’s mission is to empower both the elite mover and the everyday body by focusing on balance, strength, and recovery.  Lauren built this community with the intention of helping all types live a happy and healthy life that feels centered. 

Clayton Cunningham

Clayton just recently moved from Boston, Massachusettes where he was coaching and teaching at Jose Mateo Ballet Theatre. He began his training at the English National Ballet School in London, under the direction of Kathryn Wade, of the Royal Ballet. He then joined English National Ballet, under the direction of Matz Skoog. In the summers of 2002/2004 he was accepted in the Chautauqua Ballet, in New York, under the direction of Jean-Pierre Bonnefoux, Patricia McBride, and Violette Verdy, of New York City Ballet and Paris Opera Ballet. Clayton also danced with San Francisco Ballet in 2003. While he was dancing with other companies throughout the summers he was employed as a soloist with St. Louis Ballet under the direction of Gen Horiuchi, of the New York City Ballet, from 2001-2005. Clayton went on to dance with Omaha Ballet Theatre, under the direction of Robyn Welch, and then to Metropolitan Ballet of Minneapolis in 2009-2011, under the direction of Tatiana Berenova of the Bolshoi Ballet. In 2011 Clayton temporarily retired from dancing due to knee injuries and took a temporary position as Assistant Artistic Director and Ballet Master of Ohio Dance Theatre. He then went on to become the Ballet Master at Forever Dance Alaska, in Soldotna, Alaska, for nearly 10 years. He did take a year off to return to dance again with the St. Louis Ballet, but officially retired due to a recurring knee injury. Clayton is very excited to be joining the staff of Vail Valley Academy of Dance, and working with the students, faculty, and the community to keep the love and tradition of dance alive!

Lori Preiss

Lori Preiss is a native Vermonter who started with Burklyn Ballet Theatre as the parent and aunt of Burklyn dancers back in 2011. She has a degree in Accounting and has spent many years backstage and helping at her daughter’s dance performances at her home studio Fusion 802. Lori volunteered and worked with Albany Berkshire Ballet and Stowe Dance Academy on their annual Nutcracker performances in Burlington Vermont for the years 2006 – 2019. 

Lori and her daughter Madi went to Scotland as part of the Edinburgh Connection program in 2017 which started her love of travel. Lori and Madi starting volunteering in the Box office in 2021 and Lori joined the Burklyn staff in 2023.  She likes to say that her daughter’s passion for dance became her new career. 

Jared Oaks

Jared Oaks, one of the leading young ballet conductors in the United States, is Music Director of Ballet West. Since joining the company in 2008, Jared has maintained a rigorous conducting schedule, in addition to playing for rehearsals and classes. He has conducted performances for Houston Ballet and The Sarasota Ballet; and he has worked with the Anchorage Symphony Orchestra, the Chicago Sinfonietta, the Kennedy Center Opera House Orchestra, among others. 

Jared’s numerous compositions include an oratorio about Joan of Arc, with poems by Suzanne Lundquist, and chamber ballets for Ballet West, Charlotte Ballet, and Mid-Columbia Ballet. He recently completed the premiere recording of a new oratorio by Deon Nielsen Price, which will be available through Naxos. Jared is also a fellow of the American-Scandinavian Foundation and co-founder of the Composer Discovery Initiative. 

Kevin Carpenter

Kevin Carpenter is a full-time staff accompanist at the School of American Ballet. He also accompanies classes at Ballet Academy East, and The Julliard School and the Company of American Ballet Theater and the New York City Ballet. He spends as much of his summers as possible working with dancers at Burklyn Ballet Theater in Vermont under the direction of Joanne Whitehill.  

Born in Dallas and raised in Brazoria, Texas, Kevin studied piano with Marjorie Fix, Lee Rickaway, and Rachel Woods. During junior high, he also played trombone, baritone, and tuba. In high school he began to pursue his passion for musical theater, after being cast as Charlie Davenport in “Annie Get Your Gun” under the direction of Marilyn Foreman Ocker. After his freshman year, he studied voice with Catherine Wafford, competing for and earning a place in three Texas All State Choirs.  

At the University of Houston, Kevin studied voice, opera, and composition. During this time, he performed extensively as a soloist with many performing arts organizations. His interpretations of Bach, Britten, Mendelssohn, and Rorem were highly regarded.  

After moving to Austin, Texas, Kevin worked as an assistant to the Director of Music at First United Methodist Church and studied dance music with the incomparable Marietta Drummond. Here he discovered his love for dance and his affinity for accompanying dancers, especially in classical ballet. After seven years as a staff accompanist at Ballet Austin, and playing several summer intensives for American Ballet Theatre, Kevin set his sights on a career in ballet in New York City.  

In addition to playing dance classes, he arranges music for his husband’s choreography, as well as teaching voice.  

Llitsia Moreno Pereira (Lily Moreno)

The beginning :

I am, Llitsia Moreno Pereira (Lily Moreno ) I was born in Havana-Cuba, daughter of a diplomatic father and statesman mother, I began my Piano studies in pré – adolescence, considered late for the Cuban study system, which is recommended to start from a initial age, being better, the childhood. The contact music awakened my vocation and the interest in the curricular complexity that makes up its study led me to spend 4 years of intensive theoretical and practical studies in order to achieve some result enroll in the national school of arts (ENA) In the national school of arts (ENA) I managed to be approved in the entry program competitión by meeting all the requirements, I had the honor of studying the Piano at a style level with the great cuban teacher and pianist such as Zenaida Romeu, Alicia Perea, Jorge Luis Prats, Ileana Bautista. At the national schools of arts you have the opportunity to experience all the artistic languages and also coexist with dance, the visual arts, the circus and the theater. I loved the relationship that exists between music and dance. Conclude this stage interested in the concept of the human body and bodily expression .

The Accompaniment :

Participate in the preparatory workshop for accompanying pianists of contemporary dance and Ballet offered by the team of Ballet professionals of Cuba Television . As traditional established in the school of artistic styles in school ballet Cuba, you must necessarily go through the stages established for both pianists and dancer, this is how it should be for musical accompanist that depending on the participation between ballet and music in the school Alejo Carpentier accompany class , the points and graduations in teacher Silvia Rodriguez class, at the National Arts School and with the classes of teacher Ramona de Sá, Clara Carranco, Lazaro Careño. I accompanied the technique class ballet cuban style and Pas de Deux, the repertory classic of Ballet, also music for character dancers and the mens (boy) class. In continuing in the ascension of the process. I was invited to play accompanying two companies simultaneously the Pró-Danza director (Laura lonzo ) and the Spanish dancer Company of Cuba director (Olga Bustamante ) while based in the grand theater of Havana Garcia Lorca in this company i had a opportunity to perform great classic of the piano like playing compositer Alveniz and Falla . In Pró – Danza company I had the joy of being able to play a pointe class for Alicia Alonzo as well as participating in the multiplex events in the Cuballet International Festival class . At this stage I lean toward musicology and sound expression of nature and how the musical symbiosis between humans and nature and how the musical symbiosis between humans and nature is treated and this stage. I presented a research project to the Brazilian Embaixate in consulate – culture in Cuba and traveled to the Amazon región

In the Amazon – Brazil :

Especifically in Rondonia I was received directly be National Fundatión Indigenous (FUNAI) developing voluntary music teaching, humans and nature, hire I developed an experience of twenty-six years of my life, this radical change of life would surely enrich my musical vision and the essence of humanite of arts. I did not stop my research and my passion for discovering other world sounds encouraged me to continue, meanings led to expand my research from the Brazilian Amazonic and intensifying those discovered the ethnic musical world of Brazilian introduced musical work the small Karitiana village and making music with bamboo flutes and body sounds. In this phase I began to be interested in the primitive musical culture throughout the study of the methodology of compositor music Brazilian H. Villa Lobos and began to attend classes at the Brazilian Conservatory Music in Rio de Janeiro, making constant trips with the full support of Amazon India Foundation (FUNAI ) specializing in the Brazilian musical methodology for musical education and the new pianistic musical currents in style

The Amplitude:

Even being in the Amazon musically assisting the childrens of the Karitian Village with bamboo flutes natural sounds and the Piano support , she traveled to Santa Catarina city and the new project together with the secretary of culture of Joenville and the Bolshoi Ballet School of Brazil, she participated as guest Pianist the Russian dancer teacher Denis Neviddomyy. Continuous in breadth and we present the indigenous dancer of the childrens of Karitian culture music in Village small in Rondonia -Amazonic in the festivals in regions . Later I traveled to two contries to London England and Lauseanne Switerland to share new ideas whit two great profissionals from the Cuban ballets, Carlos Acosta and Catherine Zuasnabar visiting the Royal Ballet and the Bejart Ballet Returning to Amazon in the musical service with new support, we decided to incorporate computer music into the primitive musical system, só the music from video games installed on cell phones became part of the new -musical work in the village. The village Karitiane received support from satellite internet and music technology arrived and became present of the children’s daily lives. Motivated by the excitement of the new project, the primitive music sonically nuanced with new timbres (bells) the electronics, the digital of the technological process, the new study in progress inspired me to take my PhD proposed to the Faculty of Fine Arts in Lisbon – Portugal. Where I managed to be selected as an accompanist Pianist at the dance conservatory and also obtained the recognition of the profession for the European having the maximum approved to work in the European Community.

While in Portugal in my PhD, I seriously decided to migrate to the United States of America because it is a country that presents one country that present with characteristic as well as the intercultural society that coexists people the towns communities people of different cultures with some harmony . The city of Boston motivates me because there is in artistic dynamic where the Ballet sees the fruit of serious work. In this way. I attended an interview at the United States Embassy in Lisbon-Portugal presenting my musical credential and was granted a visa to traveling and carry other cultural projects here which is truly my greatest joy .I would like to say in closing, currently in the city Boston I work for the José Mateo school ballet theater in Cambridge and also guest for city Boston Ballet and appreciate this invitation for Burklyn ballet theater and I want to say that not believe in glory! We know that have achieve everything with effort and a lot discipline

Thanks everyone and the children of the tribe!

Sincerely : Llitsia Moreno Pereira (Lily Moreno)