+ Rachel gates
Rachel Gates is delighted to return to the Magic City Nutcracker! A native of Columbus, Georgia and a graduate of the University of Utah, she has been fortunate enough to enjoy the arts community in Birmingham through dance. During her time in Birmingham, she has worn many costumes - as a dancer, teacher, administrator, and more. Her interests have led her to complete trainings in Zena Rommett Floor-Barre Technique®, Revolutionary Principles of Movement, Dance for Parkinson’s Disease, and she has been lucky enough to work for the Alabama Dance Council, Alabama Ballet, NS Dance Studio, Beverly's Dance Unlimited, and AROVA Contemporary Ballet. Rachel holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Ballet and a Bachelor of Science in Human Development and Family Studies. She and her husband have forged adventures as parents to pets, plants, and now a wild human baby.
+ Jamie Kilgore Foust
Jamie Kilgore Foust is a founding company member and ballet mistress of the AROVA Contemporary Ballet. Jamie has been featured in works by international choreographers, such as Thor Sutowski and Jorden Morris, in AROVA productions of Pointe / Counterpointe, Signature Blend, and Star-Crossed. She began her ballet training under the guidance of Margaret Galloway. Later she continued to train at the Alabama School of Fine Arts (ASFA) under Dame Sonia Arova, Thor Sutowski and Therese Laeger. As a student, Jamie had the opportunity to work professionally with the Alabama Ballet in productions of the Nutcracker, Swan Lake and Romeo and Juliet. She also performed with the Alabama Dance Theatre as a soloist in La Bayadere, Cinderella, and Crystal Edge. She graduated from ASFA with the Prix D’Excellence de Danse Award in 1998 and immediately joined the San Diego Ballet. There she was best known for her role as lead Arabian in the Nutcracker and as a soloist in many of Javier Velasco’s contemporary works. Jamie is an adjunct faculty member of the ASFA Dance Department, and she teaches for ASFA’s Preparatory Dance Program. Photo by Fred Jemison.
+ Lisa Gibbs
Lisa Gibbs has a diverse background in administration, dance education and performance, and financial services. She holds a Doctorate in Higher Education Administration and was awarded the 2018 Doug Risner Prize for Emerging Dance Researchers for her empirical research study “Dance Education Certification in Alabama: Issues Related to Undergraduate Degree Programming.” Between 2003 and 2018, Dr. Gibbs was on faculty at Samford University and Shelton State Community College as Instructor of Dance. From 1995 to 2011, Dr. Gibbs performed in the Birmingham area with Southern Danceworks, Sanspointe, and Arova Contemporary Dance Ballet. She also spent several years in the mid 2010s as Administrative Assistant for the Alabama Dance Council. She teaches ballet at The Pointe Dance Arts in Hoover and continues to study and practice the craft of teaching dance. While contemplating a “second career,” she discovered she enjoyed financial education. Her newest passion is helping dancers and other artists learn to become financially secure through conversation and action steps regarding mindset and behavior about money.
+ Jamie Grimes
Jamie Zarrilli Grimes started her dancing at the age of three in Huntsville, AL and has been teaching and choreographing for over fifteen years throughout Alabama. In August 2004, she received a Bachelor of Arts degree with a major in Dance and a minor in Theatre from the University of Alabama. At UA, she was a member of the Alabama Repertory Dance Theatre and Dance Alabama where she performed soloist roles in the ballets Paquita and Raymonda among many others. She also earned scholarships for five American Ballet Theatre Summer Intensives, the SFA Dance/Theatre Gift Scholarship, and the Dancer Award for excellence. In 2004, Jamie had the honor of performing at the "Sharing the Legacy" concert held at Hunter College in New York City where she performed original choreography by Isadora Duncan and Anna Sokolow. Her theatre studies led to roles in Jesus Christ Superstar, West Side Story, and Ragtime. In Birmingham, she has performed and choreographed with CenterStage Productions including dancing the lead role in 42nd Street. In 2006, Jamie's choreography for Exclusively Ballet and Dance was selected for the Panoply Choreography Competition finals. From 2007-2009, Jamie served as the Director of Dance for the Shades Valley Theatre Academy at Shades Valley High School where she created numerous pieces of award winning original choreography for their theatre department under the direction of Roy Hudson. Her choreography was presented internationally at the Fringe Festival in Edinburg, Scotland in the summer of 2009. In 2015, Jamie furthered her study of anatomy, human movement, and injury prevention by completing training to become a certified instructor of the Bar Method in Vestavia where she currently teaches bar fitness classes. Jamie has lived in Vestavia Hills for the past 10 years with her husband Charley and their two young boys. She loves sharing the art of dance with her students, and is thrilled to be a part of the Vestavia Dance family.
+ KATHRYN GEBLER SPITZER
Originally from Vestal, New York, was a principal dancer with the Alabama Ballet from 1999-2011. She joined the Alabama Ballet, under the artistic direction of Wes Chapman, after graduating from the Boston Ballet School in 1999. She received her early training from Tina Christina-Price in Binghamton, New York; Central Pennsylvania Youth Ballet and San Francisco Ballet. Kathryn’s featured roles include the principal roles of Kitri in Don Quixote, Swanhilda in Coppelia, Lucy in Dracula as well as Le Corsaire, Spring Waters, Flames of Paris, and Twyla Tharp’s Nine Sinatra Songs. She has also performed many principal roles in George Balanchine’s The Nutcracker, Tarantella, Donizetti Variations, Stars and Stripes, and Serenade. Kathryn was a member of the Gotham’s Bluff Residency and on faculty of the Alabama Ballet School from 2006-2011. She was a guest artist with the Tuscaloosa Community Dancers from 2006-2011 and served as Co-Artistic Director from 2012-2016.
Kathryn has certifications from the Royal Academy of Dancing (RAD) and Revolutionary Principles of Movement (RPM). She is also a Certified Medical Assistant at Agile Physical Therapy.
Kathryn and her husband, Mikey, live in Greystone with their 3 daughters and goldendoodle, Piper. In their free time they love to travel and eat at local restaurants.
+ Claire Kendrick
Claire Kendrick is a Birmingham, AL native that has spent the last four years in New York City studying and professionally dancing. In May of this year, she will receive her BFA from Marymount Manhattan College’s Conservatory Dance Program in New York, New York. Claire has trained in ballet, contemporary, modern, lyrical, jazz, pointe, tap, acro, and many other styles for the past twenty years. Some of her honors and awards include being named Dance Masters of America Miss Dance Chapter 33 in 2017 and Dance Masters of America National Miss Dance 1st Runner-up in 2017, as well as Dance Makers Inc. Regional Solo Star Maker Winner and National Solo Star Maker Top 5. Claire was also named Shelby County’s Distinguished Young Woman in 2017 and went on to be named Alabama’s Distinguished Young Woman in 2017. Claire is actively apart of Stacey Tookey’s Protege Program, and has assisted on convention for many years under choreographers such as Robert Roldan, Kathryn McCormick, Erica Sobol, Channing Cooke, Jason Parsons, Hayden Frederick, Emily Greenwell, Tommy Alexander, Keith Clifton, Melissa Emrico, Barry Youngblood, and many more. Claire has won numerous solo awards, honors, and scholarships both regionally and nationally, with her recent performance credits including an array of New York debuts with numerous choreographers at the Theresa Lang Theater, Arts on Site, The Peridance Gala, Alchemical Theater Lab, The Peridance Apex Showcase, Broadway Dance Center, InKubate Dance Festival, Steps on Broadway, and the Capezio Ace Awards.
Claire has since returned to Birmingham to pursue medicine, and is excited to give-back and share her knowledge and love of dance with young dancers and aspiring professionals.
+ Emily Tincher
Emily Tincher spent the majority of her young dance career in Central Pennsylvania with Movement Laboratory. It was here that she was introduced to a wide range of dance styles, including Ballet, Jazz, Horton, and Graham technique. In 2011, Emily graduated with a double major in Dance Performance and Business management from Point Park University. In 2012, Emily began her professional career with AROVA Contemporary Ballet in Birmingham, AL. In 2016, she became a freelance artist throughout the Southeast, performing roles such as the Sugar Plum Fairy in Birmingham Ballet’s The Nutcracker and Tarentella in Swan Lake. Most recently, Emily has performed with Formations Dance Co, the leading contemporary dance company in Birmingham, AL. Emily has been teaching Pilates for over 10 years and loves how the movement and structure of Pilates compliments her dancing.