PETRA CONTI
Artistic Director of Hollywood Ballet, Petra is an International Principal Dancer, and the Ambassador of the Italian Ballet around the World since 2014.
She has been a Principal Dancer with La Scala Ballet, Boston Ballet, Los Angeles Ballet, and a Guest Principal Dancer with Arena di Verona, the Great Russian Ballet, the National Opera of Ukraine, the Ballet Opera of Istanbul, Tirana and more.
More about Petra Conti here .
TIGRAN SARGSYAN
Tigran Sargsyan began his dance studies at the Yerevan Choreographic Dance College in Armenia. In 2011 Tigran was offered a scholarship under “TheRudolF Nureyev Foundation” to continue his education at Dance Academy of Zurich in Switzerland where he was trained and coached by Oliver Matz. In 2013 Tigran competed at the international ballet competition "Prix de Lausanne", and was awarded a full- scholarship to attend "San Francisco Ballet School" Summer Program.
In 2014 Tigran joined Dortmund Ballet Theater in Germany, where he danced for two seasons.
He then moved to Los Angeles to dance with Los Angeles Ballet as a Principal Dancer. He has danced many lead roles such as: Prince in “The Nutcracker”, Prince Siegfried in “Swan Lake”, Prince Desire in “Sleeping Beauty”, Principal Man in George Balanchine’s “Who Cares” and many more.
Tigran has worked with many known choreographers such as W. Forsythe, A. Ekman, J. Kylian, C. Spuck, J. Bubenicek, Alejandro Cerrudo, Azure Barton, Patricia Neary, Colleen Neary and Thordal Christensen.
Tigran is also a freelance Principal Dancer, Ballet Coach and Choreographer.
He is also a Resident Choreographer for Hollywood Ballet.
Principal Dancers
First Soloists
Originally from Pasadena, CA, Emily Van Citters began her ballet training at Pasadena Civic Ballet where highlights included: Cinderella (Cinderella), The Wizard of Oz (Dorothy), Alice in Wonderland (Cheshire Cat), and The Nutcracker (Clara). During her fourteen years at PCB, she trained with Craig Williams, Valeria Gortchakova, Hasmik Amirian, Jackie Kopcsak, Melissa Barak, Yelena Zerk, and Edgar Nikolyan. In 2020, she began training under Petra Conti and Eris Nezha and performed the role of Giselle alongside Eris in 2021. After graduating in 2022, Emily danced with Ballet Idaho as a trainee, performing in The Nutcracker and Swan Lake. Emily has attended summer intensives with Nashville Ballet, The Rock School for Dance Education, and City Ballet of San Diego.
EMILY VAN CITTERS
Second Soloists
CAMILLE GOLDSBOROUGH
Camille Goldsborough is a professional ballerina based in Los Angeles.
Recently, Camille has been dancing with the International Ballet of Ukraine, performing as a soloist in Swan Lake and Nutcracker, touring Switzerland France and Germany.
Previously, she danced and trained with The Los Angeles Ballet.
Camille grew up dancing in schools such as
Central Pennsylvania Youth Ballet, Ballet Academy East, Pacific Northwest Ballet, San Francisco Ballet, and the Vaganova Academy, in Saint Petersburg.
Since moving to LA, Camille has been working as a model, dancing in films, commercials and music videos. She also has a deep love for music and is a singer and songwriter.
In 2017, Camille founded www.DanceDominican.com, a foundation that supports teaching ballet throughout orphanages in the Dominican Republic.
NATALIE PALMGREN
Natalie Palmgren was born and raised in Sonoma Valley. She started dancing at the age of four at Sonoma Conservatory of Dance. In 2016, she began attending Marin Dance Theater where she studied under Margaret Swarthout, and Joanna Berman. After several years dancing in Marin, Natalie entered UC Irvine as a dance major. During her time at UCI, she studied with many distinct professors including Lar Lubivitch and Tong Wang. Natalie also performed and choreographed for numerous department shows before graduating in 2022 with two BFA degrees in Dance Performance and Dance Choreography. Natalie is a freelance dancer performing with various ballet companies including Ballet Red, Oakland Ballet and West Coast Ballet.
Company Members
Born and raised in Pasadena, as well as being a company member, Milla Popovic is the Artistic Coordinator of Hollywood Ballet. Milla began her dance journey at Pasadena Civic Ballet at the age of three and half, where she trained with Craig Williams, Tania Grafos, Zoe Vidalakis, Dianne Browne, Petra Conti and Eris Nezha. She danced numerous roles with PCB’s productions, one of her most memorable being the Jester in Cinderella. She also has a particular love for the ballet Giselle, as she performed with Petra and Eris in ‘Giselle under the stars’, and has performed the first act variation for two of PCB’s solo fete performances. A recent highlight of hers was the portrayal of Beth, in Little Woman Ballet. She has attended multiple summer intensives including American Ballet Theater and The Rock School for Dance Education in Philadelphia. Also an accomplished pianist, Milla studied at the Colburn School under the tutelage of Micah Yui where she participated in chamber music and Friday Night Recitals. In 2023 she graduated from Los Angeles County High School for the Arts as a dance major, where she studied Horton and Graham techniques.
MILLA POPOVIC
LENA HARRIS
Lena Harris is a student at Pasadena City College going into her 2nd year as a natural science and theater major. She works at Los Angeles Ballet Academy where she teaches ballet fundamentals to kids, and coaches students on their competition pieces. Lena was born and raised here in LA where she began dancing at the age of 4. It was by the age of 7 that she decided to get serious about her dancing, with her primary focus being ballet. Straight out of high school Lena moved to Salt Lake City to be a trainee with Ballet West, where she performed in ballets such as: The Nutcracker, Sleeping Beauty, Giselle, and Cinderella. Since moving back to LA, Lena has been in a couple short films, the dance captain in the world premiere of “SHH!...The Library Musical”, and a guest artist in a production of The Sleeping Beauty.
ISABELLA GRANQVIST
Isabella Granqvist, originally from San Jose, California, began her dance training at the New Ballet (previously Ballet San Jose). There, she joined the Studio Company under Dalia Rawson and performed leading roles in full-length ballets Cinderella and The San Jose Nutcracker. She also worked with San Jose Opera in their production of Idomeneo.
While briefly living in Stockholm, Sweden, Isabella trained at BASE23 under Mia Stagh, where she was able to perform for Queen Silvia of Sweden in a gala at Stockholm’s city hall. She also trained at the Royal Swedish Ballet School’s summer intensive and was accepted into their year-long program for the 2012-2013 year.
In 2023, Isabella earned her B.F.A. in Dance Performance from the University of California, Irvine. During her time at UC Irvine, she performed in large-scale excerpts from classical ballets such as Paquita and La Sylphide, as well as many original works featuring contemporary ballet, modern, and classical Indian dance (Odissi). She was fortunate enough to work closely with teachers and choreographers Tong Wang, Vitor Luiz, Molly Lynch, and Diane Diefenderfer, among many others. In 2022, Isabella earned the William J. Gillespie Dance Scholarship, awarded to outstanding Dance majors with an emphasis in ballet.
CARMEN CALLAHAN
From Seattle, Washington, Carmen Callahan studied at Pacific Northwest Ballet School under the direction of Peter Boal. While at PNB school, she attended summer programs at San Francisco Ballet, Boston Ballet, Oklahoma City Ballet, and Miami City Ballet on full scholarship. She also studied under Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre as a member of their graduate program from 2015-2018. In 2018 she moved to Los Angeles, joining American Contemporary Ballet as an apprentice, and was promoted to the main company in 2019. While at ACB, Carmen had the opportunity to originate many corps and soloist roles in original works, as well as perform many neoclassical masterpieces by George Balanchine, including Concerto Barocco and Who Cares. She danced with ACB for 5 seasons before departing in 2023 to explore other opportunities. Carmen has also worked as a guest principal artist with San Pedro City Ballet, and as a guest artist with Contempo Arts Productions, where she was fortunate enough to be a part of the original cast for three new works by choreographer Marine de Vachon. Since moving to LA, she also takes great pride in her work as a ballet instructor, teaching advanced ballet to talented students all across Los Angeles.
BRYN GRAHAM MCREE
Bryn Graham McRee is excited to return to Los Angeles to dance after performing in the Bay Area with New Ballet since 2019. While at New Ballet, she enjoyed performing soloist roles in ballets such as Paquita and La Boutique Fantasque. She also originated roles in several new works and served as Outreach Coordinator and ABT Affiliate Faculty at the New Ballet School. Bryn received her early training in her hometown of Lawrence, Kansas from former Joffrey dancers Jerel and Krystyna Hilding before attending Kansas City Ballet School, Canada's National Ballet School, and The Portland Ballet, where she performed works by Balanchine, Bournonville, and Tom Gold. In 2017 she earned her BA in Theatre from the USC School of Dramatic Arts.
SARAH ALFINO
Sarah Alfino is a professional dancer based in Southern California. She is trained in ballet, tap, ballroom, modern, jazz, and contemporary. Sarah attended California School of the Arts- San Gabriel Valley, summer intensives at Bolshoi NYC, The Rock School, Master Ballet Academy, and State Street Ballet. At age 16 she was accepted a trainee position with Los Angeles Ballet and has since accepted a position with Hollywood Ballet as a member of the Corps de Ballet.
KATHERINE THOMAS
Katherine Thomas was raised in Mountain View, California where she trained at Western Ballet until 2019 when she was accepted to train at City Ballet- San Francisco. At City Ballet she trained in the Vaganova technique and performed roles such as: Arabian soloist from the Nutcracker and the Teresina variation from Napoli. After graduating from City Ballet in 2022, Katherine moved to Santa Barbara, California for State Street Ballet's trainee program where she performed in The Nutcracker, A Midsummer Night's Dream, and Giselle.
AIMANA TAZHIBAEVA
Originally from Kyrgyzstan, Aimana started dancing ballet at the Bishkek Choreographic School. Under the guidance of teacher Natalia Alexandrovna, she danced such pas de deux at school as: “Diana and Actaeon”, “Harlequinade”, “Black Swan”, “Nutcracker”, “Don Quixote”.
After graduating, she was accepted into the Astana Opera, where she danced in “La Bayadère”, “Scheherizade”, “Don Quixote”, “Giselle”, “The Nutcracker”, “Swan Lake”. She toured with Swan Lake and The Nutcracker in Italy at the Teatro Carlo Felice and in Spain at the Reina Sofia Palace of Arts.
After moving to New York, she competed in the American Youth Grand Prix competition, where she was nominated as one of the top 12 dancers, and received a scholarship to study in Canada at the Alberta Ballet School, but decided to pursue a ballet career in Los Angeles.
Trainees
Hollywood Ballet Talent Program
Lilia Costantino
Kenadie Daniels
Kristen Der
Talia Grafos
Julianna Hatton
Mai Ishiyama
Madison Marsh
John Paszkiewicz
Joshua Tyebkhan
Kate Seales
Charlotte Vukojevich