Kurt Putzig
Teacher, Ballet Master

Kurt Pudzig studied at the fort Lauderdale Atlantic Arts Foundation, then he became a soloist with Houston Ballet and American Ballet Theatre. He met his wife Donnaa Morgan when he danced with Milwaukee Ballet along with Donna.

Tracy Mozingo
Principle Dancer, Teacher, Ballet Master, Choreographer

Tracy Mozingo is the Artistic Director and Founder of Explore Dance Theater. He hopes to bring a wealth of knowledge and a vision that continually sets the standard for the dance world. The company’s broad repertory of dancers, musicians, and artists with extraordinary range and skill, will be the heart beat of Explore Dance Theater.
Mr. Mozingo graduated from North Carolina School of the Arts and trained at Pacific North West Ballet and Houston Ballet before joining Houston Ballet, where he performed a diverse repertoire. He then joined Ballet Florida where he danced for seventeen years. He loved the innovative new work, wide range of choreographers, and the extraordinary group of dancers that he has performed with. He has particularly enjoyed performing principal works by Vicente Nebrada, Peter Martins, Mauricio Wainrot, Danny Ezralow, Mark Godden, William Soleau, Norbert Vesak, Lar Lubovitch, Val Caniparoli, Alvin Ailey, Twyla Tharp, Kenneth McMillan, Glen Tetley, Thierry Mandalain, George Balanchine, William Forsythe, Sir Frederick Ashton, and Ben Stevensons.
Mr. Mozingo’s choreographic credits include With a Twist, More Distant Then Blue, Push and Go, Shambala, What I Am To You, Tango To Evora, and Thick as Thieves. Mr. Mozingo is also a teacher, choreographer and ballet master. He was one of the first choreographers and dancers in the founding production of Step Ahead. He is a faculty member of Palm Beach Ballet Center, Southern Dance Theatre, and The Dance Academy of Stuart. He has created numerous new works for his students, and instilled how important classical ballet, modern, jazz and contemporary movement as well as other art forms is to their dance training.
It has been important to Mr. Mozingo to try using his talent to raise awareness for many festivals and Private Foundations. Tracy has been involved with raising awareness with charities such as: “South Florida Dance for Life” (2004), Gilda’s Club--”Dancing from the Heart” (2000-2003), Alzheimer's Association--”A Love Affair”(2001-2009).

Lorena Jimenez
Principle Dancer, Teacher

Lorena Jimenez was born in Madrid,Spain and did most of her training in the Maria de Avila School. In 1996 she received a scholarship to the San Francisco Ballet School and had the opportunity to perform with the company. She then joined the Alberta Ballet in Canada where she performed a diverse repertory of principal and soloist roles. In 2002 she became a member of Ballet Florida where she danced for the past 7 years. Mrs. Jimenez has had the honor to work with such a wide variety of wonderful choreographers where she experienced a wealth of different dance styles. Some of her most challenging and inspiring roles are Marguerite in Val Caniparoli’s “Lady of the Camellias”, the Principal Roles in Ben Stevenson’s “Dracula” and “Cleopatra”, Lar Lubovitch’s Smile with my Heart and Elemental Brubeck among others.
Mrs. Jimenez has guested with the Santa Fe Festival Ballet, Gala for Feats Dance Festival, Jeune Ballet de France Gala and Chicago dancing Festival. Lorena has also being involved with raising awareness with charities such as: “Gilda’s Club--”Dancing from the Heart” (2003) and Alzheimer’s Association--”A Love Affair” (2003-2009). Mrs. Jimenez is a faculty member of Palm Beach Ballet Center. Her students inspire her to teach a wealth of knowledge that she has experienced from teachers and choreographers from around the world.

Palm Beach Ballet Center

Location: 736 Park Avenue, Lake Park, Fl 33403

Phone: 561.844.66.03

Email: palmbeachballetc@bellsouth.net

GUEST ARTISTS

Stacey Downs
Teacher

Stacey Downs is an established teacher and choreographer originally from Binghamton, New York. She has been on staff with Palm Beach Ballet Center since 1999. Stacey has trained with numerous teachers such as Robert Blankshine, Gus Giordano. Doug Caldwell, Debbi Roche, Desmond Richardson, Tony Catanzaro, Dennis Wayne, Jane Tyree and Christopher Fleming.
Stacey has choreographed countless works for concerts, conventions, master classes, competitions, music videos, fashion shows and performances. Her work has been shown in New York, Philadelphia, Orlando and all throughout south Florida. Her most recent works have been seen at STEP Ahead, Youth America Grand Prix NYC Finals and Boca Ballet Theatre's Concert in the Park.
Stacey remains grateful for all of the training she has received thus far and, while faithful to those traditions, has endeavored and succeeded in finding a style and movement that is very much her own. Stacey strives to find that which is unique and human in her work, and she hopes that many have the opportunity to share this experience, as her goal is to always effect and move both performer and audience.

Joseph J. Bucheck III

Joseph J. Bucheck III, formerly of Ballet Florida, now a Director at Dance Florida Academy, has been performing on stages in cities in over half of the United States and in Europe since 1973. Combining his keen musicality with mime, he has created well over 40 vivid and memorable characters. Joseph brings a believable and outstanding dimension to every role. Having appeared with Ballet Florida, Masterworks Chorus, Palm Beach Opera, Palm Beach Ballet Center and Madison Square Gardens Productions, he has worked with choreographers such as Ben Stevenson, Vicente Nebrada, Val Caniparoli, Sean Lavery, Marie Hale and Jerry Opdenaker.
His favorite roles include Drosselmeyer in Marie Hale’s The Nutcracker, Prudence in Lady of the Camellias, Juliet’s Nurse in Romeo and Juliet, The Wicked Stepmother in Cinderella, The Director in On the Air, The Priest in Dracula, Dr. Coppelius in Coppelia, Poseidon in Ondine, Crassus in Spartacus, The Shopkeeper in Le Boutique Fantasque, Grandfather in Peter and the Wolf.
Mr. Bucheck is very honored and proud of his long association with Ms. Joan Miller and Palm Beach Ballet Center. Some of his favorite roles (of many)with Palm Beach Ballet Center include Mother Simone in Le File Mal Garde, The General in Graduation Ball, The Wizard in Oz, The Wicked Gypsy Queen in The Fortunate Gypsy, The Evil Sorcerer in The Magic Feather
…And of course the title role in Scrooge.

Martha Purl Satinoff
Teacher

Ms. Satinoff’s classes are influenced by her work with great teachers and choreographers such as Victoria Leigh, David Howard, Robert Denvers, Elizabeth Carroll, and Edward Villella along with the repertory she danced with American Ballet Theatre, Maryland Ballet, Eglevsky Ballet, and the Metropolitan Opera Ballet. Her ballet classes emphasize the tradition and customs of ballet while using imagery, dynamics, and joy of movement. She enables her students to develop strong technique with musicality, a sense of line, and pride in being a part of dance as an art form.
She directed the Charleston Civic Ballet School while dancing with her husband’s company, DanceSouth. While teaching for the Lake Erie Ballet School, Ms. Satinoff earned her degree in education from Edinboro University. Combining her experience as a performer, ballet teacher, and general educator, Ms. Satinoff is currently the head of the dance department at Bak Middle School of the Arts. She continues to further her studies by attending workshops at IADMS, FDA, and FDEO. Martha Purl Satinoff is an ABT® Certified Teacher, who has successfully completed the ABT® Teacher Training Intensive in Primary through Level 7 of the ABT® National Training Curriculum.

Kenneth Easter

Born in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, Kenneth Easter began his training in 1984 at Palm Beach Center in Florida. He continued his studies at summer programs for Eglevsky Ballet, American Theatre Dance Workshop, Houston Ballet, The Joffrey Ballet, San Francisco Ballet and Boston Ballet.
In 1994, he joined Boston Ballet where he performed in The Nutcracker, Coppélia, Giselle and Merce Cunningham’s Breakers.
Easter was a soloist with Miami City Ballet from 1995 to 2002. His repertory with the company included Grand Pas Classique, the Black Swan pas de deux from Swan Lake, Frederick Ashton’s Les Patineurs, George Balanchine’s Divertimento No. 15, Agon, Who Cares?, Rubies, Theme and Variations and Allegro Brilliante, Paul Taylor’s Company B, Arden Court and Funny Papers, and Edward Villella’s Neighborhood Ballroom and Mambo No. 2:00 A.M. He also performed with Pomofunk, a contemporary dance company in Miami, from 1999 to 2000.
Easter joined American Ballet Theatre as a member of the corps de ballet in 2003. His repertory with the Company include the Young Soldier in The Green Table and leading roles in Drink to Me Only With Thine Eyes, Sechs Tänze, Siinfonietta, Within You Without You: A Tribute to George Harrison and workwinthinwork.

Violet Blakely
Teacher

Violet, a painting major in college, began studying ballet at the Sarasota Ballet. Then studied modern at FAU, followed by ballet with Benedicte Chamby at the Norton when they still had a ballet program (Tracy, they had the loveliest old studio with windows and a wooden floor and you could look out onto that center courtyard which was lovelier before their big expansion). More modern at FSU and then ballet with Joan Miller. Teacher training with Joan and performing with her for 10 years. There has been additional teacher training with Brenda Gooden (and my natural ability to teach of course is the secret). She taught all ages from babies to adults for many years and now concentrates on Adults only who are the quintessential amateurs: dancing for the love of it.

Gena Costello
Teacher

Gena has been teaching young children for over 20 years. Her dance experience started at a very young age with a family owned dance studio. She later continued her study of dance at Southwest Texas State University. Once moving to florida, Gena became involved with many Preschool and Early Development Programs as well as received her Childhood Development Associate. Gena spent the past several years studing under master teachers; Holly Humphrey’s and Eugenia Smith. Gena is a member of the Professional Dance Teachers Association.