Jennifer Grace
Colorado Ballet Artist-in-Residence
Jennifer Grace is currently a Principal Dancer with the Colorado Ballet. She was born in Bozeman, Montana and trained at The Dance Center in Bozeman, The Bolshoi Ballet Academy in Moscow, Russia and Dmitri Kulev Classical Ballet Academy in Southern California. Jennifer was hired by Tulsa Ballet’s Second Company in 2013 and was promoted to Corps de Ballet in November of that same year. By 2017 she was a Soloist with the company and had performed many Principal and Soloist roles. She has had the opportunity to perform works by choreographers such as Christopher Wheeldon, Derek Deane, Ben Stevenson, William Forsythe, Nacho Duato, Wayne McGregor and Alejandro Cerrudo. Jennifer was Pointe Magazine's August/September 2018 Cover Star.
Ms. Jennifer teaches a Variations class for ESB's most advanced dancers.
Danielle Faller
Miss Danielle completed her BA in dance at Southern Illinois University of Edwardsville, where she studied and trained in various techniques. Throughout her college career, she trained in ballet, modern, musical theater, jazz, and counter-technique. She performed and choreographed for her student and faculty dance concerts each year, and was a part of the SIUE Dance Company. She was also a cast member in Chicago the Musical. Danielle received a scholarship to the Backhaus Summer Dance Intensive 2019 at Chapman University where she participated in a wide variety of classes, and trained and performed with their dance company at the end of the intensive. She has also attended the American College Dance Association conference, where she performed at the final gala. Danielle has years of experience teaching ballet, modern, improvisation, and musical theater to ages kindergarten-adult. She has also taught a summer musical theater/dance workshop over Zoom. Aside from teaching and performing, she has also organized a fundraiser event where she gathered local musicians and dancers to perform and raise money for the Amazon rainforest. Danielle loves to perform, teach students, has a passion for singing, songwriting, playing guitar, and caring for animals!
Gabby Giles
Gabby Giles is from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and began her training with Philadelphia Dance Theater under the direction of Joy Delaney Capponi. She’s had the opportunity to perform at Regional Dance America for numerous years and received a scholarship to the RDA National Choreographic Intensive (CRAFT) in 2016. Gabby continued her dance training at the University of Cincinnati College Conservatory of Music where she received a BFA in ballet and an English minor. While in college, she also danced with the Richmond Ballet for two years as a trainee. She performed classics such as Serenade, The Nutcracker, and Swan Lake at Richmond Ballet. She has worked with artists such as Pablo Francisco Ruvalcaba, Colin Connor, Gary Jeter II, Robert Gosnell, Wayne St. David, Gary Taylor, Malcolm Burn, Jerri Kumery, Jasmine Grace and Deirdre Carberry. She has participated in the BalletX summer intensive and the Richmond Ballet summer intensive. Gabby was also a company member of Kim Robards Dance. Miss Gabby teaches Ballet, Modern, and Jazz/Contemporary and co-teaches Hip-hop at the Evergreen School of Ballet.
Brieanna Olson
Brieanna Mary Olson was raised in Colorado Springs, Colorado and trained under the direction of German and Valentina Zamuel and Mark and Sandra Carlson. Brieanna Mary has been awarded numerous scholarships including The Denver Ballet Guild Young Dancers Competition, Esther Geoffery Young Dancers Scholarship Competition twice and Youth America Grand Prix (YAGP). Brieanna won the Grand Prix Award at the regional competition in Denver, Colorado, and continued on to the YAGP New York finals where she was an accomplished two-time top twelve finalist. Brieanna Mary has also received numerous scholarships with The Washington Ballet School and had the privilege to perform in Septime Weber’s The Nutcracker. Brieanna was the Cricket in Debbie Allen’s Pepito’s Story.
Brieanna's professional career was with Ballet San Jose where she danced under the direction of Dennis Nahat, Wes Chapman, and José Manuel Carreño – all former principals with American Ballet Theatre. Brieanna has performed in many soloist and principal roles including Maria in Nahat’s The Nutcracker and Swan Lake. Bruch Violin Concerto No. 1 choreographed by Clark Tippet and Paquita. Including works by George Balanchine’s Square Dance, Allegro Brilliante, Serenade and Who Cares?. As well as Anthony Tudor’s Continuo, Ben Stevenson’s Cinderella, Jerome Robbins Interplay and Dwight Rhoden’s Evermore.
Courtney Dagayev
Courtney (Eierman) Dagayev is a member of the faculty of the Colorado Ballet Academy. She is a native of Atlanta who has been dancing since the age of three. She grew up dancing competitively and went on to receive her Bachelors in Business Management and a Dance Minor from the University of Central Florida in 2013. Courtney founded The Knights and Damsels Dance Company – the first technique-based dance organization at the University of Central Florida. Courtney has choreographed for some of the country’s top talent. Her students have won multiple awards and top scores at ballet competitions in addition to commercial competitions. She also travels as an adjudicator for various competitions and guest instructor for dance studios around the country. Courtney is Pilates and Acrobatic Arts certified. She equips her students to be physically and emotionally prepared to be world-class performers. Courtney recently relocated to Denver, CO with her husband and golden retriever.
Autumn Jones
Autumn began teaching at ESB in 2022 and has always loved expressing themselves through dance and sharing their love of dance with their students. Autumn also teaches at the Peak Academy of Dance. They have studied ballet, tap, jazz, modern, lyrical, and aerial, and are an active member of NHSDA. Autumn teaches Beginner Ballet and co-teaches Ballet 1 at the Evergreen School of Ballet. Autumn is excited to spend the Summer of 2023 as a Student Supervisor at the Bolshoi Ballet Summer Intensive.
Tara Rynders
Tara Rynders has a Masters in Fine Arts in Dance with a specialization in Movement and Somatic Practices. She is extremely honored to have received the following awards: Colorado Business for the Arts 2022 EY Next Wave Leader Award, 2019 Blade of Grass Fellowship, 2019 Colorado Regional Nightingale Luminary award, and the 2019 National Organization for Arts in Health Hamilton Award for Arts in Resiliency. Rynders most recently returned from a Fulbright in the
Netherlands conducting research and sharing best practices around arts-based interventions
around wellness and resilience/
Tara believes her work as a nurse, artist, and performer are symbiotically intertwined and are not as different as one would think. Drawing from the intimacy and vulnerability found in her work as a registered nurse, Rynders creates authentic connections through performance that allow guests to feel seen, heard and inspired to create alongside her.
Tara will teach Modern Dance at ESB.
Carrie Woodson
Carrie Woodson earned her MA degree in dance from CSU Long Beach and her BA degree in dance from CSU Fullerton. Carrie has a vocational education credential in visual and performing arts. Her performance credits include Disneyland Resort, Glory of Christmas and Easter Productions, and His Grace Dance Ministry. She has toured internationally with CSU Fullerton’s Dance Repertory Theatre and with His Grace Dance Ministry. Carrie’s modern influence comes from master teachers, Robin Johnson (Ririe Woodbury Dance Company), Colin Connor (Jose Limon Dance Company), Sharon Kinney (Paul Taylor Dance Company), Susan McLain (Martha Graham Dance Company) and Loretta Livingston of Livingston and Dancers (Bella Lewitzky). She has also trained with Christine Baltes and Janell Burgess of Jazz Spectrum Dance Company, Linda Amaral, Barbara Arms, and Beth Eisleben. Over the last 30 years,
Her passion encompasses her love for movement in ballet, modern, jazz, and worship dance. Carrie is currently teaching hip hop and co teaching ballet for Evergreen School of Ballet.
She values this quote…
“Great dancers are not great because of their technique; they are great because of their passion.”
~Martha Graham
Jon & Hillary Nash
Jon & Hillary teach Capoeira at the Evergreen School of Ballet and Hillary co-teaches Beginning Jazz/Contemporary.