Dance Intensive Faculty

Gina Illingworth
Director, MNE Dance Institute
Trained at the San Francisco Ballet School in San Francisco, Calif., Ms Illingworth was a former principal dancer with the Cleveland Ballet, Oakland Ballet and National Ballet of Norway.

She was a permanent guest artist with the Tucson Ballet in Arizona and has been a guest dance teacher at various colleges and dance schools in the United States. She was employed as adjunct dance faculty at the University of Idaho, Brigham Young University, and Mercyhurst College.

Ms. Illingworth directed the Lake Erie Ballet in Erie, Pa. for three years, producing original choreography for ballets such as The Nutcracker, Cinderella, and Hansel and Gretel. She holds a B.A in dance from Mercyhurst College, and is currently working on an M.A. in organizational leadership.

Luis Montero
Flamenco Instructor
Luis Montero was born in Granada, Spain. Luis became a major figure in the Spanish dance field at an early age and travelled throughout the world as a soloist with Pilar Lopez, Mariermma, Maria Rosa, Jose Molina, and Jose Greco Companies.

His imaginative choreography was incorporated into many of their programs and he was soon in demand not only as a performer, but as a choreographer as well. Luis Montero is the recipient of five grants from the New York State Council on The Arts for choreographing "Espana," "Andaluza," "El Amor Brujo," "Asturias" and "For Whom The Bell Tolls."

Luis has performed with and created choreography for the New York City Opera, Nashville Ballet, Ballet Hispanico, Ballet Concerto, Flamenco Ole, Yamada To¬kyo Ballet, Arte Flamenco, Grand Rapids Ballet, Erie Ballet Theater and the Eugene Ballet.

Luis has recently finished choreographing and perform¬ing "El Puente and Ravel's "Bolero" for Copenhagen's Danseteatret Carmen, "Andalusian Suite" and "Encuentros" for Ballet Concerto, and the Opera "Carmen" for the Chautauqua Opera. Luis teaches flamenco on a regular basis as a guest teacher in various university dance departments.


Elaine Gardner
Modern Dance Instructor
Born in Glasgow, Scotland, Elaine Gardner studied ballet and modern dance in Syracuse, Phoenix, Los Angeles, Boston, London, and New York. She has performed in contemporary dances by Doris Humphrey, Charles Weidman, Bill Evans, Donald Byrd, Kei Takei, Margo Sappington, Laura Dean, Colin Connor, Marcus Schulkind, Nicholas Rodriguez, Peter Pucci, and Kun-YangLin.

Gardner has been directing Pick of the Crop Dance since 1980. She has been directing the Nichols dance program since 1986. Prior to her directing in Western New York Gardner was a member of the touring repertory companies Phoenix Metropolitan Dance Theater, Dance/L.A., and Donald Byrd and The Group. She has performed throughout the United States as well as in Scotland, Italy, and Latvia. Recently her work has been commissioned by SUNY Fredonia, Casa del Arte in Modena, Italy and Chautauqua Regional Youth Ballet.

Matthew Carter
Instructor
Matthew Carter received his dance training from Sharon Filone, Jeff Satinoff, and Robert Vickrey at the Lake Erie Ballet School in Erie, Pennsylvania. He was later a scholarship student at North Carolina School of the Arts, Miami City Ballet School, and Jean-Pierre Bonnefoux’s Chautauqua Festival Dancers.

Matthew has danced professionally as a member of the Ohio Ballet, Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo, Lake Erie Ballet, and the Omaha Theater Ballet. He has also appeared as a guest artist with Hawaii Ballet Theatre, Neglia Ballet Artists, and Ballet Tucson.

Matthew has performed in works by such legendary choreographers as George Balanchine, Merce Cunningham, Laura Dean, Heinz Poll, Donald Byrd, and Peter Martins in addition to original roles created for him by Kennet Oberly, Christina Maria, Mark Diamond, Luis Montero, and Robin Welch.

Mark Schneider
Ballet/Hip Hop Instructor
Born and raised in Denver, Colorado, Mark Schneider has a BFA in ballet from Texas Christian University and a MFA in Theater Arts with a specialization in design for dance and performance production from the University of Arizona.

He danced professionally for 11 years with the Pittsburgh Ballet Theater, American Festival Ballet and Ballet Met. He has been on the faculties of the Dance Theater of Harlem, National Academy of Arts, Virginia School of the Arts, Mercyhurst College, Idyllwild School and is currently resident faculty for Ballet Arts of Tucson teaching all levels of ballet, jazz and tap.

He has been a guest choreographer for Austin Contemporay Ballet, Ketchikan Ballet Theater, Festival Ballet of Rhode Island, North Star Dance Foundation, American Festival Ballet, and the Ohio Ballet. He has complied musical scores for his original one act version of "Dracula", and has designed costumes for "Opus", ""Stompin' at Riz-Bob-O's", "Joplin", and "Firebird".