Teachers |
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- Founder and Co-Director |
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- Founder and Co-Director |
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- Assistant Director |
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- Teacher and Accompanist |
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- Teacher and Ballet Master |
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- Teacher |
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- Teacher |
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- Teacher |
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Teacher Biographies
JOHN WHITE – Mr. White grew up in Southern California. As a nationally ranked track star he began his study of classical ballet to enhance his athletic skills. His teachers, Oleg Tupine and Michel Panaieff, encouraged him to pursue a career as a professional dancer. He was chosen by Cuban ballerina Alicia Alonso to dance in productions of Giselle and Coppelia that used both Cuban and American dancers. After continuing his studies in New York with Antony Tudor and William Dollar, Ms. Alonso invited Mr. White to go to Cuba to help create the new Ballet Nacional de Cuba. During his years in Cuba the company toured extensively in Latin America, Europe and Asia. Mr. White danced leading roles for the company until he ended his stage career. As a new Ballet Master he began to teach the company men’s class and also conduct rehearsals. After marrying Cuban ballerina Margarita de Saá they left Cuba with their son and returned to Southern California where Mr. White continued teaching and Ms. de Saá danced in movies. After several guest teaching assignments the Whites were invited by Barbara Weisberger to join the Pennsylvania Ballet Company. Five years later they opened their own school, the PENNSYLVANIA ACADEMY OF BALLET, in 1974. As an authority on the Vaganova teaching method, Mr. White has given teacher training seminars to hundreds of novice and experienced teachers on this syllabus. In 1996 Mr. White wrote TEACHING CLASSICAL BALLET, which has received enthusiastic international acclaim as an important book for serious teachers of classical dance.
MARGARITA DE SAÁ – Ms. de Saá was born in Havana, Cuba. Together with her twin sister, Ramona, Fernando and Alicia Alonso gave her a scholarship. A few years later she was touring Latin America and the United States. Shortly after the Cuban Revolution ended a new national ballet company was created. Ms. de Saá grew through the ranks to attain the title, Prima Ballerina. During her years in the company she danced many principal roles while touring Latin America, Europe and Asia. Ms. de Saá married American dancer John White, and the following year their son was born. Along with several other leading dancers Ms. de Saá was chosen to form the faculty of Cuba’s new national ballet school. The new teachers received instruction on teaching the Vaganova syllabus by visiting Soviet ballet masters. The Whites eventually decided to leave Cuba, and return to Southern California, where Ms. de Saá continued teaching and dancing with local companies, at the Hollywood Bowl, and also in two movies, IN LIKE FLINT, with James Coburn, and FUNNY GIRL, with Barbra Streisand. The Whites were invited by Barbara Weisberger to join the faculty of the Pennsylvania Ballet Company, where they remained for five years until founding their own school, the PENNSYLVANIA ACADEMY OF BALLET. Ms. de Saá is a recognized authority on classical dance and has been instrumental in helping many dancers achieve their goal of becoming professional artists.
In 2001 Ms. de Saá joined with Tatyana Featherman and Melinda Pendleton to form Whitefeather Productions. Their company produces high quality CD musical accompaniment for ballet teachers and students at all levels. Their CD's have received high praise from teachers across the country.
MELINDA PENDLETON – Ms. Pendleton began her ballet training at age eight. After a short time it was evident that she had professional aspirations and talents. As a teenager Ms. Pendleton won first prize in a national ballet competition and was also a finalist in the prestigious Mississippi International Ballet Competition. A few years later she was dancing professionally in companies in the United States and in France. Before her decision to retire from the stage Ms. Pendleton danced in Japan for nearly a year. Upon her return to the U.S. she got married, and a year later her first of two children was born. She took John White’s teaching seminar and decided to pursue a teaching career. Her serious approach, experience and insights made it evident that Ms. Pendleton would be a welcome asset to the PENNSYLVANIA ACADEMY OF BALLET organization. After a few years as a faculty member she was offered the position of Assistant Director. In this capacity she oversees the curriculum of the other teaching staff, conducts rehearsals as a Ballet Mistress, and helps Margarita de Saá with the overall duties of running the affairs of the Academy.
In 2001 Ms. Pendleton joined with Tatyana Featherman and Margarita de Saá to form Whitefeather Productions. Their company produces high quality CD musical accompaniment for ballet teachers and students at all levels. Their CD's have received high praise from teachers across the country.
TATYANA FEATHERMAN – Ms. Featherman was born in Odessa, in the former Soviet Republic of the Ukraine. Her schooling and training were as a musician, where she worked as an accompanist for a rhythmic gymnastics coach. After emigrating to the U.S. with her parents she immediately found work at the PENNSYLVANIA ACADEMY OF BALLET as an accompanist. In order to better understand the intricacies of playing appropriate music for ballet classes, Ms. Featherman began to take classes in the Academy’s Adult Division. Later she took John White’s teaching seminar to learn how to teach the art. A short time later she was offered an opportunity to teach some classes for young children. At the present time she divides her work at the Academy between teaching and accompanying. In 2001 Ms. Featherman joined with Margarita de Saá and Melinda Pendleton to form Whitefeather Productions. Their company produces high quality CD musical accompaniment for ballet teachers and students at all levels. Their CD's have received high praise from teachers across the country.
BRYAN KOULMAN – Mr. Koulman, a graduate of Swarthmore College, began his study of classical ballet late. However, he immediately demonstrated that he possessed the necessary talent to embark on a career as a professional dancer. After dancing with the Milwaukee Ballet and North Carolina Dance Theatre, Mr. Koulman began trying his hand at choreography. When he expressed an interest in teaching he attended John White’s seminars. Upon completion of the seminar Mr. Koulman was offered a position as an Academy faculty member. Very shortly after, he began choreographing new ballets for the Academy dance ensemble and also conducting rehearsals. He was given the title, Ballet Master, and continues with his outstanding work to the present time. Several years ago Mr. Koulman received his Masters degree in dance from the New York University.
TATIANA KUDRJAVCEV, MD – Tatiana Kudrjavcev was born in Prague, Czechoslovakia. In face of an intense interest in dance, opportunities for study were few. Serious study in Europe was interrupted by emigration to the United States. Within a year of returning to full-time study of ballet at the San Francisco Ballet School, it became clear that too much time was lost to stand up to competition. She left ballet at age 18 to return to college. After obtaining a B.A. in Bacteriology at University of California in Berkeley, and a M.D. at University of Southern California she completed residencies in pediatrics and then in neurology. She worked for ten years at the National Institutes of Health conducting epidemiologic research in child neurology. For the ten years prior to her retirement in 1995, she returned to clinical practice. In 1984 she organized a children's dance group in Washington, D.C. This group performed in amateur settings at the Wolftrap, the National Theater and in a number of folk festivals. Concurrently Tatiana began pedagogic studies of ballet. She has attended John White's Seminars annually for the past ten years. She visited St. Petersburg repeatedly where she attended seminars for foreign visitors and took private lessons in the pedagogy of character dance. Since 1996 she has been teaching ballet and character dance at the Pennsylvania Academy of Ballet. More recently, a desire to combine her medical education with her passion for dance emerged as a study of anatomy as it pertains to movement.
LINDA KARASH MINTZER – Linda Karash Mintzer attended the School of the Pennsylvania Ballet, where she trained under Barbara Weisberger, Robert Rodham, Richard Thomas, John White and Margarita de Saa. While still a young student, she performed with New York City Ballet (Harlequinade), the Bolshoi Ballet (Ballet Class), and Pennsylvania Ballet (Sleeping Beauty). She made her professional debut with Pennsylvania Ballet at age 13 in Balanchine's Symphony in C and joined that company in 1971 at age 17. Ms. Mintzer interrupted her dance career to attend Harvard University as an English and American literature major, returning to Pennsylvania Ballet in 1974, where she danced until 1982. Favorite principal roles included the Snow Queen in The Nutcracker (Balanchine/Rodham), Four Men Waiting (Harkarvy), Casella 1,3,4 (Goh), Divertimento #15 (Balanchine), and Eakin's View (Griffin). She completed her undergraduate degree at the Gallatin Division of New York University in 1984 and later attended Drexel University's Nesbitt school of Design. She worked again for Pennsylvania Ballet in 1984, serving as Special Projects Coordinator. Ms. Mintzer is a graduate of John White's Vaganova Seminar, and has been teaching at the Pennsylvania Academy of Ballet since 1988. She was invited to join the faculty of Bryn Mawr College's Dance Program in 1996 and also teaches at other Philadelphia area ballet schools. Ms. Mintzer is married and has two children.
SUZAN WESCOTT – Ms. Wescott began her experience at the Academy by taking classes in the Adult Division. Later she took John White’s teaching seminars and was subsequently asked to join the Academy faculty teaching the youngest students. In addition to her teaching work and being a wife and mother, Ms. Wescott occupies the important position of President of the Board of Directors of the Pennsylvania Academy of Ballet Society, where she currently provides outstanding leadership in helping the Society achieve its goals.
