Guest Teachers

Laszlo Berdo

Laszlo Berdo was born in Grand Rapids, Michigan, where he began dancing at the age of five. Berdo later intensified his studies at the National Academy of Arts in Champaign, Illinois. Upon graduation he joined Ballet Austin and then the Louisville Ballet under Alun Jones and Helen Starr. Berdo was later hired by Ivan Nagy first as a guest artist to perform La Syllphide then later to be a soloist with the Cincinnati Ballet. He then joined the Boston Ballet in 1990 as a corps de ballet member under Bruce Marks. Berdo was promoted to soloist in 1993 and to principal in 1995. He has danced numerous principal roles in ballets by Cranko, McMillan, Balanchine, Bournonville, Hynd and Stevenson. Berdo also excelled in contemporary works by Tharp, Taylor, Feld, Butler and York. He is honored to be the first to perform the lead role in Cranko’s Eugene Onegin in the United States.

Berdo began choreographing in 1993, creating the pas de deux Eternal Being, which was later performed at a Boston Ballet gala. In 1997, he was commissioned to create a new work for Boston Ballet, Four Hands, which premiered in March of 1998 and was performed in many venues such as the International Ballet Competition in Jackson, Mississippi and at a summer festival in Biarritz, France. In 1999, Berdo created Below Down Under which premiered at the Schubert Theatre in February 1999. In March of 2001, he created Sanctuary for the Norwegian National Ballet in Oslo. Berdo choreographed Bass Elements for The Boston Conservatory and participated in Choreoplan 2001 in which he created Concertante for CPYB. Berdo staged Four Hands for the Finnish National Ballet in Helsinki which premiered in October of 2002. Berdo’s pas de deux’s have been performed in galas in Helsinki, St. Petersburg and Budapest. He also choreographed multiple solos for contestants at the Jackson International Ballet Competition, the Helsinki International Ballet Competition, as well as the Youth American Grand Prix and Regional Ballet Festivals.

Berdo guest teaches in the United States and Europe for ballet companies, summer intensives and colleges. From 2000 to 2003 Berdo was a faculty member for The Boston Conservatory and Harvard University. Berdo has been teaching at CPYB since 2000.

William DeGregory

A native of New Hampshire, William DeGregory joined Pennsylvania Ballet at the age of 18. He was promoted to Principal Dancer in 1979 and has danced male principal roles in most of the major classical ballets. His favorite roles include Albrecht in Giselle, Siegfried in Swan Lake, Apollo in Balanchine's masterpiece, a leading dancer in Carmina Burana, Franz in Coppelia, and the title role in Dracula. He was featured in legendary modern dance choreographer Merce Cunningham's world premiere of his acclaimed Arcade. Bill resides in New Jersey with his wife, former Pennsylvania Ballet Principal Dancer and current Ballet Mistress, Tamara Hadley.

Rafael Grigorian

Rafael Grigorian trained at the Baku Choreographic Institute and at the Kirov Ballet School in Leningrad under the instruction of A. I. Pushkin. For twenty years he was the principal dancer with the Baku theater of opera and ballet where several ballets were created expressly for him. In 1980, Mr. Grigorian was awarded Laureate of the state of the USSR and received the title of The People's Artist of Azerbaijan, SSR in 1982. He has toured extensively in Europe and Asia with the Stars of the Kirov and Bolshoi Ballet Theaters and served as instructor of the Moscow Ballet Festival under the leadership of Bolshoi Ballet soloist S. Radchenko.

Mr. Grigorian arrived in the United States as choreographer of the Russian Stars Ensemble. In 1991 he opened the Rafael Grigorian School of Classical Ballet in Corning and Elmira, New York, and added a branch of his school in Binghamton, New York in 1998 and in Mansfield, Pennsylvania in 2000. Mr. Grigorian is also the Founder and Artistic Director of the Rafael Grigorian Ballet Theater. Originally established in 1994 as the Rainbow Dance Arts Company, Rafael Grigorian Ballet Theater was renamed in 2000 to reflect its founder and choreographer. He currently teaches master classes at Central Pennsylvania Youth Ballet, Ballet Academy East (New York City), Ithaca Ballet, Alfred Ballet Academy, New York Ballet Academy, SUNY Binghamton and other schools and companies in the mid-Atlantic states.

Rhodie Jorgenson

After receiving her training in New York at the School of American Ballet and the American Ballet Theatre School, Rhodie Jorgenson danced professionally with American Ballet Theatre, as well as the Metropolitan Opera Ballet Company, performing on stage, TV, and in movies throughout the United States, Europe and the Far East. She has worked with renowned choreographers Balanchine, Robbins, Tudor, Ailey, de Mille, Smuin, and Feld, among many others.

Ms. Jorgenson has rehearsed many children's roles for the Joffrey Ballet of Chicago (where she remains the Washington, D.C., Children's Ballet Mistress), American Ballet Theatre and the Universal Ballet of Korea for their preformances at the Kennedy Center.

She is a full-time faculty member of the well-known Maryland Youth Ballet, and is a frequent master teacher, including for Maryland Council for Dance, Dance Masters of America, Towson University, and many local studios. In the summer of 2002, she was on the faculty for the International Ballet School at the International Ballet Competition in Jackson, MS.

As a coach, Ms. Jorgenson has successfully prepared several candidates for national and international competitions, including the International Ballet Competitions in Varna, Bulgaria in July 2000, where her candidate won the Junior Women's Silver Medal; in Jackson, MS, in July 2002, where her candidates won the Junior Men's Silver Medal and the Junior Women's Merit Award; and in Jackson, MS, in July 1998, where they won the Senior Men's and Junior Women's Gold Medals.

N. Scott Robinson

N. Scott Robinson, world percussionist, scholar and teacher, brings an enormous breadth of diverse experience in world percussion traditions to the stage and the classroom. Currently teaching World Music as well as American and popular music at Towson University in MD, he has performed with a long list of instrumentalists, composers, vocal artists and ensembles, ranging from the Benny Carter Big Band to the Cleveland Orchestra and from Glen Velez to Marilyn Horne. Since 1993, Mr. Robinson has worked in dance as a musician and music teacher at the Princeton Ballet School (NJ), University of Akron (OH) and Cleveland State University (OH), among others, and this August 8-20, in partnership with Peabody Dance Artistic Director, Carol Bartlett and other faculty and guest artists, he will share his unique skills and approaches with the participants of the first Peabody Summer Dance Choreography Workshop.

Barbara Sandonato

Barbara Sandonato, the celebrated leading dancer now nationally esteemed master teacher, performed with extraordinary verve and dramatic flair, and her roles ranged from the traditional bravura showpieces to the Romantic realm, and from the exquisite but often relentless demands of a Balanchine ballet to the works of modernists like Limon and Butler. Ms. Sandonato was the first dancer to join Barbara Weisberger at the Pennsylvania Ballet as it formed in 1962. She remained Principal Dancer with that company until 1977, except for a one-year stint with the National Ballet of Canada where, as a principal, she performed with Rudolf Nureyev. Most recently, in great demand as a teacher, Ms. Sandonato served as Artist-in-Residence and adjunct professor of Ballet at Barnard College of Columbia University in New York City.

Bonnie Scheibman

Bonnie Scheibman began her dance training at the School of the Pennsylvania Ballet and received an MFA in dance from Sarah Lawrence College. She participated in several Carlisle Project Workshop residencies and showcases. Her dances have been performed by Atlanta Ballet, Boston Ballet, and Lone Star Ballet. Ms. Scheibman is a three-time recipient of the NEA Choreographer's Fellowship. Her work was featured in Ballet Builders 2005 in New York City.

Marcia Dale Weary

Marcia Dale Weary has become a legend among the great teachers of classical ballet in our country and beyond. Fifty years ago, in a renovated barn at the end of country lane in Carlisle, PA, she began her school, then the Marcia Dale Weary School of Dance, now the widely renowned and universally admired Central Pennsylvania Youth Ballet School and Company (CPYB). She and her personally trained faculty are at the heart of CPYB, and they have produced an incredible number of professional dancers who are currently performing or have danced with many of the top companies in the world.

In August 2001, The New York Timesdance critic Joseph Carman said "London, Paris, St. Petersburg and New York are well known for their first-rate ballet academies, training meny of the best dancers in the classical form. Add to that list Carlisle, Pa.,a town with fewer thatn 20,000 people and a modest economy driven by state government jobs and the defense industry. Marcia Dale Weary and her Central Pennsylvania Youth Ballet have produced dancers well known in the ballet world". Ms. Weary was also featured on the cover of the January 2004 issue of Dance Teacher. In an article entitled Marcia's Magic, writer Kristin Lewis said, "She produces students who have he whole package- attention to detail, early technical development and a broad socialization into the arts. It seems a given that companies nationwide will continue to be stacked with her dancers for many years to come."