The Dance Hub Adult Ballet Summer 2023 Intensives

Carrie Diamond

Ballet and Collaboration

Carrie Diamond, Executive and Artistic Director of The Dance Hub is a 2019 Recipient of the Apogee Award for Excellence in Education and the 2019 Indy Award for founding The Dance Hub. Her lifelong interest in dance developed early on by the mentorship of three individuals: Don Hewitt (ballet), Marilyn Allen Suleiman (choreography), and Virginia Storie-Crawford (modern dance). She later trained with Cecchetti master teacher, Margaret Craske, and such luminaries as Lawrence Rhodes, David Howard, and Benjamin Harkarvy. She danced professionally in New York City for over fifteen years and holds an M.F.A from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts. After graduating, she founded New American Ballet Ensemble, a New York City company that promoted new music and choreography. She was an instructor for the Alvin Ailey School, the 92nd Street YM/YWHA, Peridance, and Marymount Manhattan College. In Santa Barbara, Ms. Diamond co-founded American Dance and Music in 2006 with Eric Valinsky, where she directed the AD&M Studio, AD&M Performance Group, and Moving To Learn, a curricular dance program for elementary school children. Carrie is dedicated to bringing as many people as possible into and back to dance at The Dance Hub, whether they are 18 months or 84 years old.

Suzi Winson

Point, Variations, Jazz

Suzi Winson has been a professional ballet dancer, a Broadway performer, street clown, trapeze flyer, editor, publisher of literary magazines, political writer, educator, business leader, and arts champion. Her dance life began with ballet taskmaster Irine Fokine, continued with a theatre dance education from Lee Theodore at The American Dance Machine of NY, and included training with Bobby Blankshine, Melissa Hayden, Doug Wassell, Patricia Wilde, and Barbara Cole. This framework lead to dancing (and singing) on Broadway with the 1980 revival of “Brigadoon” with Agnes deMille, Annie w Peter Gennaro, My One and Only w Tommy Tune, and the original NY cast of Nunsense, creating the role of the ballerina nun.

From 2010 to 2020, Suzi co-founded and directed Circus Warehouse, the premier professional center for circus arts and dance in NYC and the only such training program with a ballet-based syllabus as an integral part of circus training. Suzi developed Ballet for the End of the World/ Renaissance, dance class refitted for Zoom, to keep her longtime students from losing their practice during the pandemic. She has been a director/trustee of Dzul Dance (an acrobatic indigenous dance co) , The Forsythe Foundation (for German-based American choreographer, William Forsythe) , and a founding member of The American Circus Alliance.

Susan Alexander

Modern Dance

Susan Alexander moved to Santa Barbara in 2008 after having lived in France for over 20 years, teaching Modern Dance for the Paris Opera Ballet for 23 years, and at the Paris Conservatory of Music and Dance for 18 years. Prior to living in Paris, she taught at the Merce Cunningham Dance Studio in New York, and choreographed and produced her own work during the 7 years she lived there. Having grown up in Southern California, Susan graduated from UCSB with degrees in Dance and English and from Mills College with an M.A. in Dance. She has been a guest instructor for many professional companies and schools both in Europe and the US, and returns to France twice a year as a guest teacher at various schools and institutions there.