Home About us Employment Location Programs Calendar Pre Ballet Tuition
North Atlanta Dance Academy
Faculty
Michael Garrison
Founder / Director
Mr. Garrison is a native of Atlanta. In 1976 he began his training with the Ruth Mitchell studio in Buckhead and entered the North Carolina school of the Arts in Winston -Salem in 1977.
He began his professional career in 1980 with the Tampa Ballet returning to Atlanta in 1981. Michael performed with Ballet Rotaru, Carl Ratcliff Dance Theatre and Ruth Mitchell Dance Company. He danced principal and soloist roles in “The Nutcracker”, “Don Quixote”, “Swan Lake”, “Romeo and Juliet”, “Carmen” and “Giselle.” Throughout his career he distinguished himself as a gifted character dancer - receiving acclaim for his powerful dramatic portrayal of “Poe” in Ruth Mitchell’s “Tales of Edgar Allen Poe”, Ginger Prince's "Lifeline" as well as his characterization of “Sancho Panza” in Rotaru’s “Don Quixote.” During his three-year tenure with Carl Ratcliff Michael performed in many original Ratcliff choreographies.
Michael most recently created his own version of Carmen on North Atlanta Dance Theatre. He also staged Aurora's wedding from Sleeping Beauty. He performed in NADT’s “Paquita,” his contemporary version of “Afternoon of a Faun,” “Fire~Water~Passion,” as well as the roles of Cavalier and Heir Drosselmeyer in his “Nutcracker.”
Michael has been teaching for twenty-six years and is a master teacher in ballet and modern. From 1985 until 1991 he taught for the Rotaru Ballet School. During this time he also conducted company classes. In 1991 he embarked on a successful freelance career. In 1997 he founded the North Atlanta Dance Academy in partnership with his wife Kitty. In 1998 they founded North Atlanta Dance Theatre.
Mr. Garrison's teaching style is perfectly suited for American dance students who are culturally attuned to fast paced learning. Classical ballet can be tedious for many young students which may cause them to stop studying before they experience the joys of movement. Mr. Garrison's ability to comprehensively break down technical elements while getting young students moving quickly instills a love of dance as well as sound technique.
Tatiana Dubois
Ballet, Character, Pointe
Tatiana Dubois has been an integral part of our faculty at North Atlanta Dance Academy since its inception in 1997. In 1983 Tatiana graduated from the National School of Ukraine in Kiev. After graduating Tatiana performed from 1983 to 1989 with the Professional Ballet Theatre Company in Kiev. She toured Russia, Ukraine and many other locations in Eastern Europe. From 1989 to 1995 she danced with the Virsky, the Ukranian National Dance Company, under the direction of Pavlo Virsky. The company performed demi-classical and folk dance works. During her tenure the company toured France, Monaco, Switzerland, Egypt, Israel, Germany and Austria. Tatiana has choreographed numerous works for our North Atlanta Dance Theatre Spring Concerts and Nutcracker. For the Dance Theatre’s first season in 1998 she choreographed Narada, which was also performed in Spring Concert 2005 Latin Nights. Her choreographic skills and extensive knowledge of traditional European folk dancing, classical ballet, and pointe are invaluable artistic resources for our school and Dance Theatre.
Susan Davern
Pre-Ballet, Modern
Susan's dance training began with the Washington Ballet, Joffrey Ballet and the Boston Ballet. After receiving her dance degree she studied and performed with modern innovator Eleo Pomare. She later moved back to Washington, D.C. to pursue other avenues. Susan began performing with Arlington Dance Theatre and the Kathy Harty Grey Company, a Martha Graham company. During this period she also studied with renowned modern pioneer Eric Hawkins. Despite this hectic schedule and working full time in the building industry, Susan found time to teach in Northern Virginia at several dance studios. She performed annually with a political satire group called Hexagon, raising money for charities by giving performances in Washington, D.C. Susan also began choreographing for ADT and local as well as state Junior Miss programs and high school pageants. She found performing on television and cable TV enriching as well. Her family transfrerred to Georgia, and Susan finally found her home here in Alpharetta.
Ellen d`Hemecourt
Ballet, Pointe
Ellen began dancing at the age of four and entered professional training at age 9 with Alexandra Zaharias at which time she was also chosen to demonstrate for children's classes. At age 12 she brought 7 young children under her wing and taught them classes on her own for a year. She continued intense ballet training under Vladimir Marek, and at age 15 was invited tojoin the junior company of the San Antonio Ballet and to teach for their school. Including Zaharias and Marek some of her most memorable training has been from Mayra Worthen-Vance, Kathy Thibodeaux, David Howard, Paul Mejia, and Lauri Worril-Biggs. Ellen has taught all levels of ballet, and most recently concentrating on advanced levels and private classes. Ellen is known for her enthusiasm for the dance in the classroom and on the stagewith an encouraging, motivating, and charismatic persona. She has danced professionally for 10 years with Ballet San Antonio, Ballet Magnificat, and as a guest artist. She is principal dancer and has been a resident artist with North Atlanta Dance Theatre for four years. Ellen and her husband Brian have two children, Mathew and Mollye.
Jessica Norwood
Jazz
Jessica began her teaching career at the Edge Performing Arts in Hollywood, California. Upon moving to Atlanta with her husband David and their two children she has taught at the Atlanta Ballet Center and Dance 101 in Atlanta.
Jessica has been a jazz performer for over sixteen years. She was one of the youngest dancers to be accepted as a Laker’s Girl. Jessica has performed extensively on the stage, screen and television. She performed with the touring company of The King and I, A Chorus Line, Can-Can and South Pacific. Her television credits include an ABC television movie of the week starring Nicollette Sheridan as well as specials in Toronto, Paris and Asia. She has performed for companies such as Nike, Reebok, Ford, Volvo and Apple Computers.
Kathryn Cloninger
Pre Ballet, Ballet
Ms. Traylor began her training in Atlanta under the direction of Catherine McBeth at Capital city ballet and continued training with Ballet Memphis where she danced alongside the company in numerous productions such as Cinderella, and Sleeping Beauty. She has also studied with Ballet West, Ballet Met, Ballet Magnificot, Burklyn Ballet, University of South Carolina/Columbia City Ballet, University of Utah, and Mercyhurst College. She is currently an artist in residence for her second season with the North Atlanta Dance Theater.
After Graduating from Mercyhurst College with a degree in dance and a concentration in performance, Ms. Tryalor began her teaching career with The First Step; teaching creative ballet, pre-ballet, beginning-ballet, tap and ballet stories.She has also taught basic jazz/creative movement classes for the Allstar Gymnasium's summer camps which included weekly themed performances. Last season Kathryn apprenticed with NADA. She began teaching for NADA this past summer working with the Level 1 students.
Stacey Slichter
Ballet / Pointe
Stacey has been teaching children of all levels for ten years. She joins our NADA faculty this season. She has performed the Grand Pas de Deux with Wei DongSheng in Sleeping Beauty and Fate in Carmen. She has also performed Michael Garrison’s Echa Pa’Lante solo in NADT’s Spring Concert 2005, Snow Queen and Russian in NADT’s Nutcracker 2005 and Snow Queen and Arabian in NADT’s Nutcracker 2006 and 2007. Most recently, she gave a strong and beautiful performance as Myrtha in the 2008 performance of “Giselle”and Sugar Plum Fairy in the 2008 Nutcracker. Stacey began training in Miami, Florida under the direction of Lynne Dresson, Gloria Gaither and Victoria Leigh. She spent her summers training at The Houston Ballet Academy. After attending and graduating from The Harid Conservatory, Stacey joined The Sarasota Ballet of Florida as a company member. She has also danced with Ballet Eddy Toussaint USA, Ballet Memphis, and Atlanta Ballet, in addition to performing with The Sarasota Opera.. Stacey is enjoying her 22 month old daughter, Maren.
Rikki Smith
Pre-Ballet
Rikki is entering her second season with us. She is from Greensboro, NC and trained at the Greensboro Ballet. She attended Mercyhurst College in Erie, PA, graduating with a BA in Dance Performance, and performed with the Mercyhurst Dancers in productions of Swan Lake, La Sylphide, La Bayadere, and many other contemporary works. Rikki then performed for two seasons with Atlanta Festival Ballet in Stockbridge, GA, dancing the leading roles of Wendy’s brother John in Peter Pan, and Chinese and Spanish in The Nutcracker, as well as dancing in productions of Alice in Wonderland and Carmina Burana. Rikki is also a resident artist with North Atlanta Dance Theatre.
Trishia Batterson
Pre-Ballet and Jazz
Trishia, “Miss Trish”, began her dance training at the age of five at Carol Walker Dance Studio in Snellville, GA, studying in the areas of tap, ballet, jazz, modern, lyrical and hip-hop. Joining the competitive performing arts company at the age of 8, Trishia made her way to be a principal member of the company and has won many awards and National Championships and also was led to many opportunities to learn from a wide range of dance styles and chorographers, including Wade Robson from So You Think You Can Dance. Beginning with her teachers assisting at 10 allowed her to start teaching on her own at the age of 16 to children ages 3 and up. Trishia enjoys being able to teach children her life’s passion and to love the art of dance and hopes with her help, they can grow to love dance as much as she has. Trishia lives in Buford and when not teaching, she is playing with her one year old son, Zachary.
Kimmy Keck
Modern / Pilates
A Florida native, Kimmy has been working in the arts, specifically in choreography and visual arts creation/education for the past 6 years, and is excited about her transition to Atlanta where she plans on digging deeper into her passion – movement. The base of Kimmy’s movement fusion includes modern, jazz, improvisation, contact improv, Afro-Brazilian, & percussive movement. She served as an advocate in the Fine Arts Leadership Summit for OCPS to better the arts education in public schools. Here she established a public school based dance & Pilates studio, including performance company, the National Honor Society for Dance Arts, an athletics movement program, as well as create student-led movement classes for the physically & mentally impaired. For her work she earned nomination for Teacher of the Year & received the Grand Bohemian Excellence in Fine Arts Education Award in 2007. In addition to her vibrant career in education, Kimmy has also been driven to create art that breaks the typical mold, which has earned her choreography & design recognition, and the opportunity to train & perform in Italy during the summer of 2007. Kimmy has studied under great names such as: Ric Rose, Judy Skinner, Staci Eubanks-Scatturro, Rusty Brandman, Kip Watson, Eliza Harwood-Watson,Monica Baroni, Chuck Davis, David Capps, Amy Chavasse, & Mohammad DeCosta. Other performance and choreographic credits include: Soul Play Modern Dance Fusion, Paradigm Independent, ProDanza Italiana, Pofhals Studios/DanceAlive, & the Phoenix Dance Company.
10960 State Bridge Road ~ Johns Creek, Ga ~ 30022 ~ 770-772-8000
northatlantad658@bellsouth.net
