Company Bios
Artistic Staff
Diana Byer (founder, president & artistic director) 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, pointe technique, and advanced children’s classes at Ballet School NY, which she founded in 1978. 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. Ms. Byer staged Antony Tudor’s Judgment of Paris for the May 19, 2008 American Ballet Theatre Gala at the Metropolitan Opera House.
Christina 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, sparking her interest in artistic and administrative work. 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 the companies of American Repertory Ballet, Dance As Ever, North Star Ballet and South Georgia Ballet. From 2004-2006, Ms. Paolucci held the position of Artistic Associate of The Tallahassee Ballet in Florida. She commissioned guest choreographers, teachers, and artists to work with the company; assisted in fundraising and grant writing; taught classes and oversaw the training curriculum of dancers ages 8 through adult. She initiated a summer workshop series and directed a community outreach program. Ms. Paolucci also served as ballet mistress for the Company as well as staff choreographer, presenting her work at several venues in Tallahassee including the Ruby Diamond Auditorium. She is a member of Dance USA.
Sylvia Taalsohn Nolan (costume designer) is the Resident Costume Designer of The Metropolitan Opera, where she designed Doug Varone’s Le Sacre du Printemps. In addition to opera, she has a special interest in designing for dance. Her affiliation with NYTB spans their traditional classical repertory, including The Nutcracker, The Two Pigeons, The Firebird, Cinderella, and Le Carnaval, to their original ballets, The Magic Rose by Edward Henkel, Ghost Stories by Christopher Gillis, Trouble on the Line and The Elements of Style by Matthew Nash, Orbiting and In These Shoes by Danielle Genest. She designed both The Alice-in-Wonderland Follies and Mother GOOSE! by Keith Michael. Ms. Nolan re-created costumes for NYTB’s revivals of La Cachucha (Elssler), Annabel Lee (Skibine), La Malinche (Limón), An Eccentric Beauty Revisited, Terpsichore Explained (Waring), Le Spectre de la Rose (Fokine), and Judgment of Paris (Tudor). She designed new costumes for the reconstructions of Fandango (Tudor), Les Mains Gauches (Tudor), Carnival of the Animals (Diamond), Design for Strings (Taras) and the DeMille Celebration. Ms. Nolan has also designed for the choreographers H.T.Chen, Martha Connerton, Adrienne Dellas, Lou Fancher, Nicolo Fonte, Clove Gallilee, Patricia Nanon, Matthew Neenan, Marco Pelle, James Sutton, Benoit-Swan Pouffer, and Roy Tobias.
Gillian Bradshaw-Smith (set & property design, scenic painting) was born and spent her youth in India. She completed Fine Arts studies at the University of Reading in England. She has lived in the U.S. since 1963 and became a citizen in 1976. Her paintings and sculptures have been exhibited in America and Europe. Her work is in the permanent collections of the Newark Museum of Fine Art, The Mint Museum of Art (NC), and the Worchester Art Museum (MA). Her design and painting for NYTB include Keith Michael’s The Nutcracker and The Alice-In-Wonderland Follies, Edward Henkel’s The Magic Rose, Donald Mahler’s Cinderella, and the production of Carnival of the Animals. She has also recreated the original designs for several NYTB reconstructions including Antony Tudor’s Jardin aux Lilas and she recreated the André Delfau backdrop for the revival of George Skibine’s Annabel Lee. Ms. Bradshaw-Smith has designed and painted productions for Dances Patrelle, The St. Louis Ballet, and The Central Pennsylvania Youth Ballet. She has also painted many decorative murals and designs for private clients.
The Dancers
Amanda Garrett is a 2008 graduate of Florida State University. She has performed with The Tallahassee Ballet and danced in Balanchine’s In the Inn, staged by Suzanne Farrell at F.S.U.
Mitchell Kilby is a native of Newcastle, Australia. He began his training at the Marie Walton Mahon Dance Academy at age 16. After two years, he was accepted and received a full scholarship to T he Joffrey Ballet School in New York. He was a 2007 Byer Fellowship Recipient.
Carmella Lauer is originally from Flagstaff, AZ. She trained at Virginia School of the Arts and performed Ashton’s Les Patineurs and Bud Kerwin’s Ellington. Before joining NYTB, Ms. Lauer danced with Nashville Ballet, Ballet Tucson, and Saeko Ichinohe Dance Company.
Young Wha Lim is from South Korea. She was a member of the Korean National Ballet and the Roxey Ballet before joining NYTB.
Rie Ogura is from Tokyo is and trained at the School of Alberta Ballet under Murray and Nancy Kilgour. She received honors for the Advanced, Intermediate, and Elementary Cecchetti exams. She was a member of the Alberta Ballet Company in Calgary, Canada.
Dan Renkin appears in his eleventh NYTB season. New York: Inverse Theatre, Soho Think Tank, Carmen and Otello (Metropolitan Opera). Regional: Tartuffe (Lost Nation Theater), School for Scandal (McCarter, dir. Mark Lamos), Much Ado About Nothing (Hamptons Shakespeare Festival), Bottom and Touchstone (Bridgeport Free Shakespeare). Stunts/Faculty: As The World Turns, Circle in the Square, AADA, NYFA.
Elena Zahlmann trained with Elisabeth Carroll at Princeton Ballet, and on scholarship at the New Jersey Governor’s School of the Arts. Before joining NYTB, she was a member of American Repertory Ballet’s junior company. Ms. Zahlmann has earned recognition for roles in ballets by Tudor, including Jardin aux Lilas and Romeo & Juliet. She also received acclaim for roles in The King & I, Oklahoma!, and 90 Years of MUNY Magic at the MUNY in St. Louis and the Reagle Players’ production of The King & I in Massachusetts. This past summer, she was an assistant to the choreographer, Gemze de Lappe, with Theater of the Stars in Atlanta, Georgia. Ms. Zahlmann was the 2006 Byer Fellowship Recipient. The 2009-10 season marks Ms. Zahlmann’s 10th year with NYTB.
