Vitacca Ballet Launches in Houston and The Woodlands, Texas

Vitacca Ballet Launches in Houston and The Woodlands, Texas

Vitacca Ballet is excited to share dynamic contemporary ballet performances that combine beauty and athleticism under Artistic Director Kelly Ann Vitacca. In pursuit of growth and support for the local arts community, Vitacca Ballet seeks to nurture appreciative, diverse audiences by contributing entertaining, thought-provoking dance works to Houston and The Woodlands, Texas arts scenes.

2020 brought many artists home to Houston. In our efforts to keep dancers employed, Ms. Vitacca began project-based work. This experience laid the framework for the launch of Vitacca Ballet.

Vitacca Ballet is proud to be a fiscally sponsored project through Fractured Atlas. This allows tax-deductible donations to be made toward Vitacca Ballet’s vision and artistic growth.

Vitacca Ballet’s professional company 2021-2022 season roster includes:

Maddie Medina (Houston, Texas) who trained at Vitacca Dance Project from 2015–2017. Medina then trained at The Juilliard School and graduated with a bachelor’s degree of Fine Arts.

Melanie Ridley (Houston, Texas) trained at Kennedy Dance Theatre from 2014-2019. She was inspired to pursue ballet after being educated by former prima ballerina Milena Leben. She then trained at Vitacca Vocational School for Dance from 2019-2021.

Coltin Snyder (Tooele, Utah) began his dance training at age seven. He then attended The Salt Lake School for the Performing Arts. After graduating, he attended the University of Arizona (UA) graduating in 2021 with a BFA in Dance and a BSBA in Accounting. While at UA, he also completed the Fletcher Pilates Foundational Program.

International Guest Artist Khen Kurulkar is a native of Israel. He studied in the Maslool Professional Dance Program, Thelma Yellin High School of the Arts Afternoon Professional Training, and the Hamisgeret Professional Dance Program. In 2018, Kurulkar was named the Ministry of Culture and Sport/IDF Excellent Dancer.

Guest Performing Artist Manish Chuahan was born and raised in Mumbai. He is self-taught in the urban street dance known as b-boying. In 2020, Chauhan played the leading role in the Netflix film, Yeh Ballet, a fictionalized version of his life about his struggle to pursue a dance career despite his family’s wishes.

Guest Performing Artist Dwayne Cook began dancing at the age of three at Houston Ballet Academy and J.C. Sanderson Elementary for the Performing Arts. Cook has also trained at the Ailey School, School of American Ballet, Dance Theatre of Harlem, Complexions, and received an apprenticeship for Complexions Contemporary Ballet. Cook is a graduate of the University of Oklahoma, where he received his degree in Modern Dance Performance.

Guest Performing Artist Sean Aaron Carmon is from Beaumont, TX. Sean graduated from the Ailey/Fordham BFA Program in Dance and performed with the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater for seven years. He has performed on Broadway in 2010’s La Cage aux Folles, The Phantom of The Opera and, most recently, Disney’s The Lion King. Mr. Carmon is a nationally recognized and award-winning teacher and choreographer and is currently on faculty with HEAT Convention and Competition, among other institutions.

Vitacca Ballet’s 2021-2022 season will include work by choreographers Tina Kay Bohnstedt, Andrea Dawn Shelley, and Garrett Smith.

The 2021-2022 season programming lineup includes a premiere on April 23 at 7 PM at the Charles Bender Performing Arts Center in Humble, TX. A Dance Soiree will take place on May 14 and 15. To learn more, please visit www.vitaccaballet.org