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Diana Byer: Artistic Director

Company Bios


Directors

Diana Byer (founder, president & artistic director of New York Theatre Ballet and Ballet School NY) has performed as a soloist with Les Grandes Ballets Canadians, Manhattan Festival Ballet, New York City Opera, and the Juilliard Ensemble. She received her principal dance training from Margaret Craske and Antony Tudor. She teaches adult professional ballet and pointe technique and is director of ballet instruction in BSNY’s children’s division.  She has taught at Manhattan School of Dance, Compagnie de Michel Hallet (Lyon, France), and Cascina Bella (Milan, Italy). She has been guest instructor at the Cecchetti Society of America, Cornell and New York Universities, SUNY at Purchase, the Martha Graham School, and the Cecchetti Society of Canada (Toronto). Ms. Byer received extensive media attention for her ongoing work with homeless and at-risk children, winning special citations from President George Bush, First Lady Hillary Clinton, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the President’s Committee on the Arts & the Humanities. Ms. Byer coached the principals in the Columbia Pictures film, Center Stage. In the summer of 2003, she gave master classes in the Ballet School of Pecs, Hungary and she regularly provides master classes in schools and performance settings across the U.S. She was a member of the Antony Tudor Centennial Celebration Committee and staged Antony Tudor’s Judgment of Paris for the May 19, 2008 American Ballet Theatre Gala at the Metropolitan Opera House. She is a répétiteur for the Antony Tudor Ballet Trust and a member of the Board of Directors of the Dance Notation Bureau. In November, she will stage Agnes de Mille’s Three Virgins and A Devil for Alabama Ballet.

Christina PaolucciChristina Paolucci (executive director/associate artistic director) trained at Boston Ballet School from 1981-1991 and began her professional performing career while still in high school, with Boston Ballet. She graduated from The Juilliard School in 1995, earning a BFA in dance. Upon graduation, she assisted in the coordination of Juilliard’s first national summer dance program and was rehearsal assistant to choreographer Lila York. In 1996, Ms. Paolucci joined New York Theatre Ballet and remained with the company for seven years, dancing principal roles. She studied exclusively with Diana Byer and Sallie Wilson. She was one of two dancers chosen to represent the Cecchetti style at the First World Congress of Classical and Contemporary Ballet in Monterrey, Mexico and danced as a guest artist in regional companies. From 2004-2006, Ms. Paolucci held the position of Artistic Associate of The Tallahassee Ballet in Florida. She was a director of Florida State University’s Friends of Dance Board and has served as a grant panelist on the New Jersey State Arts Council. Ms. Paolucci is a 2010 Access Dance USA Scholarship recipient and a member of Dance USA.


Artistic Staff

  • Lance Westergard
    Ballet Master
  • Michael Scales
    Music Director

The Dancers

  • Joshua Andino-Nieto
  • Manuel Barriga
  • Tanya Chumak
  • Amanda Garrett
  • Carmella Imrie
  • Mitchell Kilby
  • Philip King
  • Amanda Lynch
  • Steven Melendez
  • Rie Ogura
  • Dan Renkin
  • Danielle Shupe
  • Elena Zahlmann


Costume & Scenic Design

Sylvia Taalsohn Nolan (costume designer) is the Resident Costume Designer of The Metropolitan Opera. In addition to opera, she has a special interest in dance design. For NYTB, she has designed costumes for classical ballet as well as original repertoire by: Nicolo Fonte, Martha Connerton, Clove Galilee, Christopher Gillis, Edward Henkel, Matthew Nash, Matthew Neenan, Keith Michael, Marco Pelle, James Sutton, and Benoit Swan-Pouffer. She also designed new costumes for NYTB’s reconstructions of Fandango and Les Mains Gauches (Tudor), Designs with Strings (Taras) and the A. De Mille Celebration.

Gillian Bradshaw-Smith (set & property design, scenic painting) was born in India, educated in England, moved to Dallas in 1963 and then New York in 1967. As a fine artist, she showed her work in art galleries and museums, including the prestigious Cordier & Ekstrom Gallery. Her work in scenic design, principally for the ballet, started in 1990. Since then she designed over twenty productions, including work for NYTB: Sleeping Beauty, The Nutcracker, The Alice-in-Wonderland Follies, Carnival of the Animals, and Jardin aux Lilas. Her done scenic work for Dance Patrelle, St. Louis Ballet, and Central Pennsylvania Youth Ballet.