About Our Staff and Instructors
Elizabeth Bergmann, Dance Director
(Movement for Life, DA14a Group Choreography)
Ms. Bergmann joined the Office for the Arts at Harvard following many years as a distinguished choreographer, teacher, performer, and administrator. She has been a tenured full professor at Florida International University following eight years at Shenandoah University where she held the Christina Halpin Endowed Chair of Dance. A graduate of the Juilliard School, Ms. Bergmann danced professionally and taught in New York City for José Limón. She developed the Dance Department at the University of Michigan where she also received her Master’s Degree. In 2000, she was honored by the University of Michigan’s Alumni Association with a Citation of Merit for Lifetime Achievement. Having received three Choreography Fellowship Grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, a three-year grant from the California Arts Council, and a Virginia Commission for the Arts choreography grant, her work has been shown both nationally and internationally. In 1995 she was a Fulbright Scholar to Trinidad, West Indies. Working in the field of creativity, she has given workshops for the Smithsonian, the Bunting Institute, the Harvard Coop, The University of Michigan, and Borders Books. Her book, Connecting To Creativity: Ten Keys to Unlocking Your Creative Potential, co-authored with Elizabeth Colton, was published by Capital Books.
Brenda Divelbliss, Artistic Associate
Ms. Divelbliss holds a BFA in dance from Ohio State University and an MFA in dance from Smith College. She teaches modern technique and composition at the Cambridge Rindge & Latin School and has taught and choreographed for the Harvard-Radcliffe Modern Dance Company. Her work has been supported by grants from the Northampton and Somerville Arts Councils as well as Dance Umbrella and CrashArts. In 2006, she was a Massachusetts Cultural Council finalist in choreography.
Kristin Ing Aune, Assistant Dance Director
Ms. Aune has performed extensively across the continental U.S. and Hawai’i, appearing in the national tour of Carousel, choreographed by Sir Kenneth MacMillan, and productions of Sweet Charity, The King and I, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, West Side Story, Peter Pan, Diamonds, and Cabaret. She has been a soloist and principal dancer with Hawai’i Ballet Theatre and Hawai’i Opera Theatre. At Harvard, she originated a leading role for choreographer Trey McIntyre, and will participate in his company’s White Oak residency this summer. Kristin has taught at Punahou School and 24-VII Danceforce in Hawai’i, and the Community School for Music and Arts in California. She has also taught for Boston Ballet’s Citydance and Summer Dance Workshops. Her choreography includes work for Honolulu Theatre for Youth, St. Louis Players, Punahou School, Diamond Head Theatre, CSMA, and Yale University. Kristin holds a B.A. in English from Yale University and an Ed.M from Harvard University.
Julia Boynton (Tap)
Ms. Boynton performed with Brian Jones’s All-Tap Revue, Heather Cornell’s Manhattan Tap and co-founded Stop Time, a jazz-tap quartet. She has conducted workshops and residencies in Brazil, Mexico and Venezuela, and in the US has taught at Jacob’s Pillow, New Orleans Center for the Creative Arts, Florida Dance Association, Harvard Summer Dance Center, MIT, Emerson College, the Leon Collins Studio and the Jeannette Neill Dance Studio. A regular faculty member of the Boston Conservatory Summer Dance Program, Ms. Boynton also hosts monthly tap jams and produces the annual Boston summer tap festival, Beantown Tapfest.
Sidi Mohamed “Joh” Camara (West African Dance)
Mr. Camara was born in Bamako, Mali, and is one of the leading dancers and drummers in West Africa. As Chief Choreographer of Troupe Mande and Troupe Sewa in Mali, he helped establish the companies as the most renowned and competitive troupes in West African dance. Since moving to the US in 1995, Mr. Camara continues to teach and share his knowledge of traditional Mande society. In addition to teaching at Harvard, he has taught at Brown University, Princeton University, the University of Pennsylvania and Washington University.
Tai Jimenez (Int/Adv. Ballet and Int/Adv. Ballet and Pointe)
Ms. Jimenez, a native of New York City, began her dance training with Joan Millen Mesh and went on to study at the School of American Ballet, the Alvin Ailey American Dance Center and with Madame Gabriella Darvash. She was a member of the Dance Theatre of Harlem School Ensemble before joining DTH, where she became a Principal Dancer. Her repertory includes the title roles of Giselle and Firebird as well as numerous works by George Balanchine, and ballets by Glen Tetley, Sir Kenneth MacMillan, Sir Frederick Ashton, Bronislava Nijinska, Alvin Ailey, Robert Garland, John Alleyne, Lar Lubovitch, among many others. Later, Ms. Jimenez joined Boston Ballet as a Principal. There she originated a role in Mark Morris' Up and Down, and was also seen in Val Caniparoli's Lambarena, Jorma Elo's Carmen, Balanchine's Serenade and A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Nijinska's Les Noces and Asaf Messerer's Spring Waters. She has appeared as a guest artist with the New York City Ballet and companies across the United States. She made her Broadway debut as Ivy Smith (Miss Turnstiles) in the 1998 revival of On the Town, directed by George C. Wolfe. She was a featured dancer on the Academy Awards and in pop superstar Prince's Rave Unto the Year 2000. The versatile Jimenez is also a teacher and choreographer. She has been featured on the cover of Pointe Magazine, and her writing has appeared in both Pointe and Dance Magazine.
Tommy Neblett (Int/Adv Contemporary)
Tommy Neblett is co-Artistic Director of Prometheus Dance. He (along with his partner Diane Arvanites-Noya) has received numerous awards including a Creativity Grant from the National Endowment for the Arts and three Artists Grants for Choreography from the Massachusetts Cultural Council. He has taught and performed throughout New England and in Spain, France, Denmark, Venezuela, and Ecuador. He has choreographed concerts, theatre, opera and video for Prometheus Dance. Mr. Neblett is a full-time dance faculty member at The Boston Conservatory and teaches at The Dance Complex.
Henry Kasdon (Hip-Hop)
Mr. Kasdon began his dance career in 1998 at Tufts University. While there, he was president of TURBO, Tuft’s break dancing crew, as well as a dancer/choreographer for the hip-hop/jazz dance troupe Spirit of Color (SoC). Although not technically trained, Henry possesses a natural ability for dance and is a devout BBoy and hip-hop DJ (a.k.a Kid Spin). He currently instructs D.A.R.E.® Dance at the James M. Curley Elementary School in Jamaica Plain, hip-hop at Boston University’s FLEXD (Fitness, Lifestyle, Exercise & Dance) Program and break dancing at The Brookline Academy of Dance as well as Shad Hall at Harvard Business School. Mr. Kasdon has been a member of the Rainbow Tribe since 2002.
Margot Parsons (Bg. Ballet)
Ms. Parson trained with Richard Ellis and Christine DuBoulay, Richard Thomas, Barbara Fallis, Maggie Black, the Harkness School and the Martha Graham Studio. Along with being invited to dance with the American Ballet Theatre, Agnes deMille and Pearl Lang, she performed with Yuriko, The Ballet Ensemble of New York, in the Broadway production of The King and I, with Ken Pierce Baroque Dance Company and the Boston Liturgical Dance Ensemble. She teaches at Boston University, Boston College and the Dance Complex and is a choreographer and producer. She holds a BS from the University of Wisconsin and an MA from the University of Utah.
Catherine Ulissey (Bg. and Int. Ballet)
At 17, Ms. Ulissey joined the Eliot Feld Ballet Co. in NYC, becoming a soloist and principal performer. Additionally, Ms. Ulissey performed leading roles in works by David Parsons and Pilobolus. In 1986, she joined the original cast of Rags. Following consecutively came The Mystery of Edwin Drood, the original cast of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s The Phantom of the Opera, and the original cast of The Red Shoes. Ms. Ulissey has performed and choreographed off-Broadway, supervised and performed with the world touring production of The Phantom of the Opera, and taught master classes across the United States. She holds a B.A. summa cum laude in Visual and Media Arts from Emerson College in Boston.
Leslie Woodies (Broadway Dance, and Pilates)
A former soloist with the Boston Ballet Company, Ms. Woodies toured the US and Europe with Dennis Wayne’s DANCERS, and was a Guest Artist with New York Dance Theater at Lincoln Center. Her musical theater credits include: “Cassie” in A Chorus Line directed by Michael Bennett; principal cover in On Your Toes directed by George Abbott; “Flo” in The Mystery of Edwin Drood with author/composer Rupert Holmes; and created the role of “Kathleen” in Drumwright with John Cullum. As a choreographer and director: California Music Theater, Lifetime, Disney, Paramount, Brown University, Eastern Nazarene College and Walnut Hill. Ms. Woodies has received DramaLogue, Robby and IRNE Awards, and is on the faculty of the Boston Conservatory and Boston Ballet School. Ms. Woodies is also a Pilates instructor.
