Dancers

IAN DEBONO

Ian Debono is a native of San Francisco and currently attends the Juilliard School working towards a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Dance. In his three years there, Ian has been fortunate enough to perform new works and repertoire of Ohad Naharin, Trisha Brown, Paul Taylor, Donald McKayle, Andrea Miller, Sonya Tayeh, Amy Hall Garner, and Norbert De La Cruz III. In his hometown, he trained in ballet and contemporary dance at San Francisco Academy of Ballet and Ruth Asawa School of the Arts, working with Alonzo King LINES Ballet faculty Arturo Fernandez and Gregory Dawson. In 2016, he performed in the Oakland Ballet Company’s 2016 production of The Nutcracker, and in 2021, he performed in West Edge Opera’s production of Eliogabalo. This is his second season with Chamber Dance Project.

Photo by Eduardo Patino.NYC.

Iris Dávila

Dancer  

Born in Vega Alta, Puerto Rico, Iris Rocío Dávila began her training at  La Escuela Especializada en Ballet Julian E. Blanco and Ballet Concierto de Puerto Rico. Iris received a scholarship to the San Francisco Ballet School in 2018 where she trained for two and a half years and performed in ballets with the San Francisco Ballet such as Balanchine’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Tomasson’s The Nutcracker, Sleeping Beauty, and Tomasson/Possokhov’s Don Quixote. After graduation Iris joined Tulsa Ballet II for the 2020-2021 then joined BalletMet
2 in Columbus, Ohio. Iris became a company member the following season where she has performed soloist and principal roles in works by choreographers including Edwaard Liang, Twyla Tharp, Justin Peck, David Nixon, Amy Seiwert, Dana Genshaft and Leiland Charles.

JULIA ERICKSON

Dancer and Rehearsal Director 

Julia Erickson received her training on scholarship with Pacific Northwest Ballet School and San Francisco Ballet School. She toured to Europe and Asia with PNB and danced with Texas Ballet Theater for two seasons prior to joining Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre in 2001. She was promoted to soloist in 2004 and to principal in 2009. Julia has performed principal roles in Swan Lake La Bayadère, The Sleeping Beauty, La Sylphide Le Corsaire  Balanchine’s Theme and Variations,  Western Symphony, Who Cares?, Prodigal Son, Sylvia Pas de Deux, Agon, and Serenade; and Jerome Robbins’ West Side Story Suite In the Night, and Fancy Free among many others. Her contemporary repertory includes Paul Taylor’s Company B; Twyla Tharp’s In the Upper Room, Nine Sinatra Songs, and Octet; William Forsythe’s In the Middle, Somewhat Elevated, and Jiří Kylián’s Petite Mort and Sinfonietta. Julia also dances for Santa Monica-based Barak Ballet, received Pittsburgh’s 2014 BRAZZY Award for outstanding female dancer and is an entrepreneur and writer. This is Julia’s fourth season with Chamber Dance Project.

Photo by Rebecca Huffman

Davit Hovhannisyan

Rehearsal Director

DAVIT HOVHANNISYAN began dancing in his native Armenia at the age of six and attended the National Ballet School of Armenia on full scholarship. At 16 he began his career with the National Ballet of Armenia. He joined Milwaukee Ballet in 2004, where he is in his 11th season as a principal. His repertory includes leading roles in Romeo and Juliet, Don Quixote, Dracula, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Peter Pan, La Bayadère, Swan Lake and Coppélia. This is his fifth season with Chamber Dance Project

Sophie Miklosovic

Sophie Miklosovic, Michigan native, is currently a Company Artist with BalletMet.

Her pre-professional training was under Magaly Suarez, The Art of Classical Ballet, Pompano Beach, FL. Her early ballet training was developed in Michigan by Valentina Barsukova, Valentina’s Ballet and Meg Paul, Complexions Ballet Associate Artistic Director. Her early contemporary training was with Liz Schmidt-Mazurkiewicz, Spotlight Dance Works. 

Since joining BalletMet in 2017, at age 17, she has performed leading roles in Cinderella, Romeo and Juliet, The Nutcracker, Giselle, Don Quixote, among others. She has also performed works by George Balanchine, Jerome Robbins, Edwaard Liang, David Nixon, Christopher Wheeldon, Gustavo Ramirez Sansano, Ulysses Dove, Amy Siewert, Andrea Schermoly, Annabelle Lopez Ochoa, Alexander Ekman. As a professional guest artist, she has performed principal roles from Swan Lake, La Bayadere, Don Quixote, Le Corsaire, Flames of Paris, The Nutcracker. 

Her awards include the Gold Medal at the World Ballet Competition in Orlando, the Morning Star Foundation Award at the Beijing IBC in China, 1st Place, Gold Medal at the Cuban IBC & festival in Havana, she also received the Director’s Legacy Award at the Universal Ballet Competition and was a Top 3 Scholarship winner, at the National Society of Arts & Letters, En Pointe Classical Ballet Competition. In 2019, Sophie was named as one of Dance Magazine’s Top 25 to Watch. 

Photo by Eduardo Patino.NYC

PATRIC PALKENS

Dancer and Rehearsal Director

Patric Palkens is in his first season with Atlanta Ballet after having been a Soloist for Boston Ballet, with over a decade of experience performing both classical and contemporary repertoire for ballet companies around the world. Patric is known for his charming stage presence, dynamic jumps and athletic partnering. He has performed leading roles by choreographic greats such as Jerome Robbins, George Balanchine, William Forsythe, Annabelle Lopez Ochoa, Victoria Morgan and Val Caniparoli. Patric Is excited and grateful to return to Chamber Dance Project this summer for his fifth season to be a part of creating new work and revisiting some old favorites.

Photo by Eduardo Nile Scott Photography

LUZ SAN MIGUEL

Dancer and Rehearsal Director 

LUZ SAN MIGUEL (Ballet Master) was born in Madrid and trained at Carmina Ocana Ballet School and the Municipal Institute of Ballet in Antwerp. Before joining Milwaukee Ballet in 2005, she danced with BalletMet Columbus, Charleston Ballet Theater, Tulsa Ballet, Dresden Ballet, and Germany’s Leipziger Ballet. At Milwaukee Ballet, she has performed in Dracula, Swan Lake, Don Quixote, Peter Pan, Coppélia, Cinderella, Esmeralda, Romeo and Juliet, and La Bohème. This is her sixth season with Chamber Dance Project.

Minori Sakita

Born in Washington, D.C., Minori grew up in Bethesda, MD where her parents owned a sushi shop, and began her training at the Maryland Youth Ballet. She continued her training at the Houston Ballet Academy. In 2014, she joined Tulsa Ballet and was promoted to demi-soloist in 2018. She joined Cincinnati Ballet as soloist in 2019 and was promoted to First Soloist the following year. She has danced principal and soloist roles in the classics and by many contemporary choreographers.

Fuki Takahashi

Fuki Takahashi was born Yokohoma, Japan, and began training at age 3 at Yuzue Ballet Academy. She moved to the United States in 2010, and trained at Princeton Ballet and Hariyama Ballet in New York. Ms Takahashi competed in the International Ballet Competion in Jackson, Mississippi. In 2014 she earned silver in the Tanzolymp International Dance Festival. Through American Dance Competition Fuki joined Orlando Ballet’s second company. She joined Atlanta Ballet in 2018. She’s had the opportunity to perform works by renowned choreographers such as George Balanchine, Liam Scarlet, Justin Peck, Yuri Possokhov, Lar Lubovitch, Dwight Rhodes and Claudia Schreier.

APPRENTICE DANCERS

Michael Cherry
Senior Apprentice

Michael Cherry was born and raised in Springfield, Virginia. He is currently a senior at George Mason University and is working towards receiving a BFA in Dance and Choreography as well as a minor in Arts Management. Michael has had the opportunity to dance in works created/set by Camille A Brown, Alejandro Cerrudo, Doug Varone, Manuel Vignoulle, Rafael Bonachela, Rena Butler, Fiona Jopp, Susan Shields, Shaun Boyle-Darcy, and Christopher d’Amboise. During past summers he has had the opportunity to attend the Juilliard summer dance intensive in 2018 and 2019, the Complexions Summer Intensive and winter intensive, as well as the LINES Summer dance intensive. He has had the opportunity to create works on dancers in the DMV area and is beyond excited to continue creating works in the future.

Odin Brock
Junior Apprentice

Odin, was a high school scholar athlete, started dancing at 17 and is a senior at George Mason University’s School of Dance. He has worked with choreographers Rena Butler, David Parsons, Kate Skarpetowska, Ronald K. Brown, and among others. He also plays the cello and piano. This is his first
season with Chamber Dance Project.

 

 

 

 

BECOME AN ARTIST SPONSOR

Header Photo: Silhouettes of our dancers in Songs by Cole
Photo by Eduardo Patino.NYC