Youth Company and Ensemble dancers
Photo by Rich Colwell

Faculty

Lorita Travaglia, Pre-Professional Ballet
  Lorita is originally from New Zealand. She was trained in both the Royal Academy of Dancing syllabus and the Russian Vaganova system. In her 20-year professional stage career, she danced with the Berlin Ballet, Boston Ballet, Atlanta Ballet and International Ballet Rotaru and has been a guest dancer with many companies. She has danced principal roles in a wide repertoire ranging from classical to contemporary. Lorita has been teaching since 1986. She established a pre-professional, full-time training program in New Zealand and directed Canyon Concert Ballet in Fort Collins for three years. In September 1999, she joined Colorado Ballet as repetiteur and director of the Apprentice Program; in 2006 she was promoted to Ballet Mistress under the direction of Artistic Director Gil Boggs. Her choreography includes The Nutcracker for Canyon Concert Ballet and Aspects, Equilibrium, and Pictures at an Exhibition for Colorado Ballet II. Lorita graduated from the Colorado School of Traditional Chinese Medicine and practices acupuncture in Denver. Lorita had a beautiful young daughter named Li Li. She teaches the Ballet VI students at the LDA

Debra Mercer, Pre-Professional Ballet
Debra has been teaching and performing in Colorado for thirty years. She has a B.A. with honors in Dance from York University in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. She has been a principal dancer with the Jackson Ballet, Colorado Ballet, David Taylor Dance Theatre, and other local companies around the state. She is currently teaching ballet at Colorado College and is a member and Ballet Mistress of the Ormao Contemporary Dance Company, both in Colorado Springs. She is also teaching for the Boulder Ballet, Boulder Ballet School, and taught at Miller's Dance Studio for fifteen years. She is fortunate enough to have studied with some of the best ballet teachers in the world, including Antony Tudor, Enrique Martinez, Milenko Banovic, James Clouser, Marjorie Tallchief, and George Skibine to name a few. She has studied from master teachers in the Bournonville, Vaganova, Cecchetti, and Royal Academy of Dance's syllabus' and travels to Taos, New Mexico every summer to study the Balanchine repertory with Jillana, a former principal dancer with the New York City Ballet. Debbie teaches the Ballet V and Ballet VI, and Adult students at LDA.

Larry Southall, Hip Hop
  Larry holds a MFA in Performance and Choreography from the University of Colorado. A native of the Bronx, NY, he began dancing hip hop forms in the early eighties. He has worked with many companies including: Boulder Ballet, Harambee African Dance Ensemble, Blue Moon, Motion Underground, Longmont Symphony and Dance Theatre, and Steamboat Springs Dance Theatre. Larry has worked as a master teacher at Dance Place in Washington, D.C., at Slippery Rock University, and for the American College Dance Festival. He has choreographed for the native Tongue Dance Theatre, Skeleton Dance Project, the Black College Dance Exchange, and the Legacies concert of the American College Dance festival in Boulder. Larry teaches traditional hip-hop and is an established and well respected teacher. He has served as adjunct faculty at the University of Colorado, for Longmont Dance Theatre, Cleo Parker Robinson Dance Ensemble, and for LDA.

Jennifer Gonzalez, Jazz
Jenn exhibited her love of dance as a two year old when she took her first dance class in Southern California. Her dance education has included jazz, modern, hip hop, tap, ballet, pointe, Mexican folk, Tahitian, and African. Her passion for the art motivated her to achieve a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in dance from University of Colorado Boulder where she was a three time recipient of the University Dance Award. Jennifer's dance experiences include a scholarship to Perry-Mansfield Performing Arts School and Cleo Parker Robinson Dance School, performing with Wide Awake Dance Theater, the Damsels Dance Company, and at the 1999 Opening Ceremonies for the World Ski Championships in Vail. She also co-directed and choreographed GOE Productions 360 of Dance, in Boulder in 2001; Dance Feast in New York in 2004; and KTCU's Disco Ball in New York in 2007. Recently she has created the choreography for the musical Working and Once On This Island for Alameda High School. Jennifer also takes her distinctive talent in jazz dance into high schools where she teaches technique and choreographs competitive routines for dance and pom squads. She has been a teacher and choreographer for over 16 years in California, Colorado, and New York. Last year Jenn brought her dance experience and talent back to the Denver metropolitan area where she now resides.

Christopher Grider, Pas de Deux