Mrs. McKeon has been teaching ballet for nearly 30 years. She began her ballet training with Merrilee Smith at the Atlanta School of Ballet. At 17, she joined the Atlanta Ballet under the direction of Robert Barnett, a former soloist with New York City Ballet. Rising to the rank of soloist, Marthavan performed a number of roles including “Lilac Fairy” in “Sleeping Beauty”, four little swans in “Swan Lake” and “Dew Drop” in Balanchine’s “The Nutcracker”. Marthavan continued her career with other prominent companies including the Pennsylvania Ballet, Joffrey Ballet, and the Nurnberg Staats Oper in Germany.

Marthavan taught in a number of summer programs including at the l’Academie Americaine de Danse á Paris (AADP) in France, and as Artistic Director of the Milton Academy Summer Dance Program. She taught at Boston Ballet School for 10 years until opening her own school, South Shore Ballet Theatre, which has since relocated to a state-of-the-art facility in Hingham, MA.

Marthavan is an ABT® Certified Teacher, who has successfully completed the ABT® Teacher Training Intensive in Pre-Primary through Level 5 of the ABT® National Training Curriculum. She holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Business Management from Georgia State University. She also holds a University Certificate of Proficiency (Zertifikat Deutsch als Fremdsprache) in Business German from Friedrich Alexander Universitat in Erlangen, Germany.

Most recently, Mrs. McKeon was nominated to the Who’s Who in Dance by CID-UNESCO (International Council on Dance) based in Paris.

Haissan Booth is a performer, choreographer and entertainer. Haissan began his classical training at the Boston Arts Academy performing arts high school where his true passion for the dance evolved over the years. Haissan is trained in Ballet, Modern, Jazz, West African, and Hip-Hop genres. Upon graduating High school Haissan decided to further his dance training at University of Hartford Hartt School dance program majoring in Dance Performance Emphasis training in Ballet, modern, contemporaneous ry and improvisation. During his time there he became knowledgeable in music theory, choreographic composition, and Laban movement. Haissan later went on to working with various dance companies and programs such as BoSoma Dance Company, Anna Myers and Dancers, Mystique Illusions Dance Theater, and Deborah Abel dance company, Contemporarily Out of Order Dance Co.

Abby Bushnell is from Cohasset and started her ballet training at the Boston Ballet School. Her ballet career continued to Houston Ballet, the Joffrey Ballet in Chicago, Semperoper Ballett in Dresden, Germany, the Slovak National Ballet and she is currently in her fourth season with the Czech National Ballet in Prague, Czech Republic.

Abigail has performed repertoire including Swan Lake, Sleeping Beauty, La Bayadere, Le Corsaire, and repertoire from choreographers including Ohad Naharin, Jiri Kylian, and John Cranko. Abby is returning this summer to teach at South Shore Ballet Theater for her fifth summer. Despite the difficult circumstances lately, it is so important, and so fortunate that we are able to get back in the studio and continue our art form.

Melissa’s repertoire includes Zulma in Giselle, Emeralds, Rubies, and Diamonds in Balanchine’s Jewels, demi-soloists in George Balanchine’s Symphony in 3 Movements, Pas de Cinq in David Dawson’s Giselle, the 6 brides in Swan Lake, and Little Red Riding Hood in Sleeping Beauty. Melissa was also featured as ‘Emma’ in the movie High Strung: Free Dance and has done ad campaigns for Huawei Mobile, Nikon Europe, Discount Dance Supply, Capezio, and Russian Pointe. She is also currently working towards an undergraduate degree at Harvard University’s Extension school. 

Nilas Martins, born in Copenhagen, received his early dance training at the Royal Danish Ballet School. As a student he performed with the Royal Danish Ballet in such works as John Neumeier’s Romeo and Juliet, August Bournonville’s Konservatoriet, A Folk Tale, Napoli and Glen Tetleys’s Firebird. In 1984, he moved to New York and enrolled at the School of American Ballet. In September 1986 he became a member of New York City Ballet. In 1991, he was promoted to the rank of soloist and in 1993 to Principal dancer.

In New York City Ballet, Mr. Martins danced numerous featured roles and worked closely with choreographers: John Alleyne, Lynn Taylor Corbett, Boris Eifman, William Forsythe, Peter
Martins, Trey McIntyre, Kevin O’Day, Jerome Robbins, Susan Stroman, Richard Tanner among others.
Mr. Martins film credits include: “Live from Lincoln Center” broadcast of Ray Charles in Concert, “The Nutcracker” released in 1993 by Warner Brothers, “Dance in America” telecast of “Dinner with Balanchine” where he danced the role of Apollo with Paris Opera Etoile Isabel Guerin. “Lincoln Center Celebrates Balanchine 100” where he danced ‘The Man I Love’ from Who
Cares? featuring Wynton Marsalis.

Mr. Martins ‘ teaching resume’ include Armitage Gone Dance, BalletMet, Boston Ballet, Hamburg Ballet, Harvard University, Indiana University, Joffrey Ballet School, Miami City Ballet, National Ballet of China, NBA Ballet (Japan), New York City Ballet, Novosibirsk Ballet (Russia), NYSSA Summer Intensive, Princeton University, Royal Danish Ballet, School of American Ballet and Washington Ballet.

Mr. Martins was one of ten fellows selected from both domestic and international applicants, to study under Michael Kaiser as a Devos Institute for Arts Management fellow at the Kennedy Center from 2010-11.

Since 1996, Mr. Martins has been a Repetiteur for the George Balanchine Trust and stages ballets for companies and schools domestically as well as internationally. In addition to his work with the Balanchine Trust Mr. Martins stagings include works from the August Bournonville and Peter Martins repertoire.

Carol Roderick recently retired as Director of Dance of the Hartt School Community Division at the University of Hartford, CT. She was an assistant professor of ballet and pedagogy at Colorado State University (Fort Collins) previous to coming to Connecticut. She has taught, coached, and trained students and teachers for professional companies, universities, and prestigious schools in the United States, Canada, Japan and and Europe.

She received her early training in Boston, and later at Butler and Indiana Universities. Her formal pedagogical training was with the late Jürgen Schneider (Bolshoi Ballet, Stuttgart Ballet, American Ballet Theatre) and Gabriela Komleva (Kirov/Mariinski Ballet).

She was a member of the professional division faculties of Boston Ballet School, The Royal Winnipeg Ballet School and The Harid Conservatory. She directed the Colorado Ballet School, Tulsa Ballet School, and Academy of Ballet Idaho. She was principal teacher of AIS Ballet in Kobe, Japan for two years. She was the Program Manager for the Bolshoi Ballet at Vail, and also served as ballet mistress for the Cleo Parker Robinson New Dance Ensemble in Denver, Colorado. For many years, she ran her own pre-professional training program in Denver – Classical Ballet Ensemble.

Ms. Roderick has also developed her own Teacher Training Program, which she presents annually at the Hartt Community Division and as a guest lecturer in other locations.

She has coached and prepared students for the Prix de Lausanne, Japan Grand Prix, New York International Ballet Competition and the USA International Ballet Competition, (Jackson), as well as local and regional scholarship competitions throughout the USA. She has been a guest teacher for many schools and companies, including The Harid Conservatory, Kansas City Ballet School, Boston Ballet, St. Paul City Ballet, Kumamoto Ballet (Japan), City of Osaka (Japan), and University of Utah.

She is known as a meticulous, skilled and inspirational teacher. She is also a knowledgeable and precise coach and stager of classical repertoire. Her students are known for their clarity and strength of technique, musical expressiveness, and beautiful movement quality. Many of her students have gone on to professional performance, choreographic, and teaching careers.

Donna Silva was born in New York.  Her initial training was under the direction of former dancer of Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo, Lila Crabtree.  Ms. Silva experienced extensive, diversified training with Margaret Craske, Alfredo Corvino, and Anthony Tudor at the Metropolitan Opera Ballet School; Valentina Pereyaslavec and Yurek Lazowski at American Ballet Theatre; and Robert Joffrey, Perry Brunson, Hector Zaraspe at the American Ballet Center/Joffrey Ballet.

Ms. Silva has danced throughout America and Europe with the Joffrey Ballet Company including a performance for President Johnson at The White House.  Following Joffrey Ballet, she served as principal artist (and taught) with First Chamber Dance Company of New York and Bern State Theater, Switzerland.  Boston Ballet invited Ms. Silva to appear in character roles in: Lady of Camellias (2004) and Cinderella (2005).  Her earlier performing experiences were with Manhattan Festival Ballet, Radio City Music Hall Ballet Company, and Carnegie Hall as a young dancer.  While in Europe (Bern State Theater) she appeared in West Side Story and On The Town.  She served on the Jury for the Prix D’Aarau Competition.

Ms. Silva’s comprehensive and considerable teaching experiences in Switzerland include Zurich State Theatre Ballet (Ballet Mistress, under Uwe Scholtz).  She was also invited to teach with the Mark Morris Dance Group in Brussels, Belgium.

Dance Academy Silva was founded and directed by Ms. Silva in 1985.  Her teaching and choreographed pieces continued to be in evident through 2014 even though she returned to the USA in 1993.  Her legacy has continued to provide excellent teaching/training with First Chamber Dance Company of New York, Cornish College (Seattle), Portland Ballet Company/School (Maine), and Boston Ballet School under the direction of Bruce Marks, Anne Marie Holmes, and Mikko Nissinen (1994-2007).  During this time, she recruited dancers and taught for the Boston Ballet Summer Dance Programs, recruited dancers for the Dance Program of Boston Conservatory (1995-2005), and choreographed several works for students at both programs.  Ms. Silva has also been a guest teacher for Robert Joffrey’s NY School Summer Program.  Following 22 years as Professor of Dance and four Most Outstanding Faculty awards, she retired from Boston Conservatory (1994-2016).

Currently, Ms. Silva is a certified Pilates instructor and part of the South Shore Ballet Theatre faculty.  Ms. Silva has highly contributed to the art of dance in America and Europe, continuing to be a driving force to this day.

Rachel Smith was born and raised in Plymouth, MA. She began her training at Boston Ballet School, from there she advanced her training at South Shore Ballet Theatre and The Brookline Ballet School. Once graduating high school Rachel joined Pittsburgh Ballet Theater in their Graduate Program. There she had the opportunity to perform professionally with the company in their production of ‘The Nutcracker.’ From there Rachel joined Nashville Ballet as a trainee. She continued training in various styles of dance and gaining more professional experience. Through the trainee program she was given the opportunity to perform the role Zulma in ‘Giselle’ and Fairy of Generosity in ‘The Sleeping Beauty.’

Rachel then moved to Omaha, Nebraska to be an apprentice at American Midwest Ballet and their sister company Ballet Vero Beach. After 2 seasons Rachel was promoted to Company Artist. Rachel has danced in countless professional productions and has toured through various states with American Midwest Ballet. Notable roles include Emerald Demi-soloist in Erin Alarcon’s ‘Wizard of Oz’, Soloist in Adam Schnell’s ‘Friends and Lover’s’ and Soloist in Samuel Kurkjian’s ‘Debussy Suite.’ Rachel also had the pleasure of working with guest choreographers; she performed in Mariana Oliveria’s ‘Death and the Maiden’ and
Frank Chavez’s ‘Habaneras: The Music of Cuba.’