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2011-2012

Director - Ayako School of Ballet / Artistic Director - Peninsula Youth Ballet
Originally from Japan, Ayako was a principal dancer with the Tokyo City Ballet Company and the Matsuyama Ballet Company.  She has studied with Sulamith Messerer, Aleksei Varlamov and Mikiko Matsuyama.  Ayako has performed leading roles in Swan Lake, Cinderella, Nutcracker, Balanchine’s Serenade and many other works.  Ayako has been teaching in the United States since 1976, and was ballet mistress and choreographed with Peninsula Youth Ballet before becoming Artistic Director in the fall of 1986.  Ayako has choreographed full length Ballet Productions such as Giselle, Sleeping Beauty, Don Quixote, The Little Mermaid, The Little Humpback Horse, Paquita Coppelia and The Nutcracker.

Illustration above: Ayako performing Giselle when she was with the Tokyo City Ballet

Graciela Acedo

Ballet Instructor
Graciela Acedo started her dance training in Caracas, Venezuela. In 1982, she won a government scholarship to study at the Boston Ballet. In 1983, she was awarded a scholarship from Harkness Ballet to work with Eleonora Dantuono.

Her first ballet company was Ballet Teresa Carreño, directed by Enrique Martinez. Where Acedo performed the classical repertoire

In 1983, Graciela joined Ballet Nuevo Mundo de Caracas, a contemporary ballet company under the direction of Zhandra Rodriguez where she soon become a soloist and worked with choreographers such as Judith Jamison, Ulises Dove, John Butler, Gustavo Mallajoli, Elisa Monte, Paulo Denubila, Dennis Nahat, Choo San Goh, and Donald Mackayle among others. She traveled to Europe, Asia, South America and the Caribbean.

Acedo performed with Oakland Ballet from 1994 to 1996 and has been a guest artist with the Margaret Wingrove Dance Company, Pacific Dance Theater of SF, Western Ballet, Peninsula Ballet Theater and ODC SF, among others.

Her extensive teaching experience includes University of San Francisco, University of Nebraska, Oakland Ballet, San Francisco School of the Arts, Pacific Dance Theater of SF (Assistant director to the summer programs), Berkeley Ballet, and Diablo Ballet Summer program among others. Ms. Acedo was Associate Director of Western Ballet from 1998 to 2003 and she has guest taught at America’s Ballet in Florida and in Venezuela.

Ballet and Jazz Instructor and Choreographer
Mariko "Mari" Takahashi is a proud alumna of Ayako School of Ballet. She is currently a professional free-lance performing artist, choreographer and dance instructor. Having been contracted as a principal dancer with companies such as the Oakland Ballet ('05-'09), Peninsula Ballet Theatre ('05-'08), Menlowe Ballet ('11-current) and Moving Arts Dance ('08-current), Mari has toured, performed and taught internationally and throughout the United States. She has also performed with Diablo Ballet, Sierra Nevada Ballet and represented Smuin Ballet at student outreach programs throughout the Bay Area. Industrial credits include Siegfried & Roy's "The Voice of Magic", Fox TV's "So You Think You Can Dance", The Crucible's "Dracul" and shows for E*Trade, RSA, and AAD. Mari has worked with choreographers such as Nikolai & Viktor Kabaniaev, Robert Sund, Donald McKayle and Scott Rink. Repertoire includes Giselle (Giselle), Don Quixote (Kitri), The Nutcracker (Sugar Plum Fairy), Sleeping Beauty (Aurora), and works by Val Caniparoli, Vaslav Nijinsky and Eugene Loring, amongst others. Mari is also a signed model with CITY Model Management and well-recognized YouTube personality. She is a graduate of Saint Mary's College with a BFA in Performing Arts and Liberal Studies. When Mari is not pursuing dance and other artistic endeavors, she spends her time rock climbing, traveling and summitting 20,000 ft. mountain peaks around the world!

Modern Dance Instructor
A Bay Area native, Maria LaMance received her classical ballet training at the San Francisco Ballet School. As a dance major at San Francisco State University, she broadened her training in Modern Dance, anatomy, and kinesiology. Maria has performed professionally in numerous ballet, modern, and dance theater companies throughout the Bay Area for over a decade and currently dances with Peninsula Ballet Theatre, Dance Through Time, Huckabay McAllister Dance, and Moving Arts Dance, with whom she has recently performed principal roles on tours to Belarus, France, and Scotland. Maria has instructed children, teens, and adults in ballet, modern, drama, and character dance for seven years and has directed her staging of Act I of The Nutcracker for San Jose Dance Theatre, and now, for San Jose Youth Ballet. In her teaching, Maria respects the individual anatomical and developmental capacities of every student, and emphasizes the importance of musicality and self-expression in the goal of going beyond technique to connect with the hearts of the audience.

Ballet Instructor
David Fonnegra was born in Venezuela and became a principal dancer with Ballet Nacionál de Caracas where he performed the leads in the great romantic ballets including Raymonda, Swan Lake, Giselle, Romeo & Juliet and Don Quixote.  Edward Villela, after seeing Mr. Fonnegra on tour in 1995, invited him to join the Miami City Ballet where he danced many principal roles in their Balanchine repertory through the year of 2001.  From 2002-2004, Mr. Fonnegra danced with State Street Ballet as a guest artist.  He later joined Diablo Ballet, where he has been featured in The Legend of Taj Mahal, Petrushka, Who Cares?, Stars and Stripes, Once upon a Ballroom, Jazz Fever and more.  In 2007, the Ballet Nacionál de Caracas presented Mr. Fonnegra with National Culture Award in recognition of his success abroad in the field of classical ballet.
 

Ballet Instructor and Ballet Mistress for Peninsula Youth Ballet
Kirstie started dancing with Ayako when she was 10 years old. With Ayako School of Ballet and Peninsula Ballet she has performed many ballets such as The Little Humpback Horse, The Little Mermaid, Stars and Stripes, Coppelia, Paquita and Giselle. For 3 years she danced with Theater Ballet of San Francisco in their Nutcracker. In 2000 she graduated from San Francisco State University. That same year she started helping with rehersals for PYB's Nutcracker and in 2004 became Ballet Mistress. She has been teaching at Ayako School of Ballet for 4 years and loves to watch the children grow and develop into young beautiful dancers. This last year Kirstie took her first young group to competition where they placed 1st in the 5 to 6 year old group. She was so proud of them.
 

Michael Lowe

Ballet Instructor and Choreographer
Michael Lowe began his dance career in 1974 and since then has received acclaim, not only for his dancing, but also for his choreography. Michael has danced with the Los Angeles Chamber Ballet, Gilbert Reed Ballet, Pacific Ballet prior to joining Oakland Ballet in 1980. During his 20 years with Oakland Ballet, Lowe served as Assistant Artistic Director under Ronn Guidi, while he trained young dancers in classical ballet technique. For 8 years he was also Director of the Company's First Steps program until his retirement from Oakland Ballet in 2000. After being nominated for a prestigious Izzie Award in 1998 for his restaging of The Emperor and the Nightingale, he received the Izzie Award in 2003 for his choreography of Bamboo.