Contact: Stephanie Heston Phone: 785-383-7918 Email: [email protected]

Presents Summer Showcase 2020 Kansas Ballet’s 8th Annual Summer Showcase will be presented at 6:30 p.m. at Topeka Performing Arts Center on Friday, July 24, 2020. Audience members can view the live performance via Zoom. Tickets for the link are $20.00 per household and available at KansasBallet.com. All proceeds benefit the non-profit’s 2020 programming. The program features the Carnival of the Animals Ballet as well as a special presentaon of ‘All Human Beings’ performed by guest dancers Whitney Huell and Joshua Bodden of the Kansas City Ballet. The program will also debut an original contemporary ballet created for Kansas Ballet dancers by vising choreographer Marcus Oas. As part of Kansas Ballet’s Vising Arst program, the guest arsts will lead master classes with the students of Kansas Ballet Academy as well as students from the Boys and Girls Clubs of Topeka. The Vising Arst program is funded in part by the Kansas Creave Arts Industries Commission (KCAIC), which receives support from the Naonal Endowment for the Arts.

Whitney Huell, Kansas City Ballet

Whitney Huell trained at the South Carolina Governor’s School for the Arts and Humanies under the tutelage of Stanislav Issaev and Robert Barne. She then aended Indiana University earning a B.S. in Ballet and Psychology before joining Ballet West. With Ballet West, Huell performed featured roles in Paquita, Sleeping Beauty, Cinderella, Pete Mort, and Jewels. In January 2011 she was one of Dance Magazine’s Top 25 to Watch and was also featured in the September 2012 issue of Pointe Magazine. With Kansas City Ballet, Huell has performed works by Amy Seiwert, Monique Meunier, Stanton Welch, Edward Liang, Val Caniparoli and Jerome Robbins and has been featured as The Lead Woman in James Kudelka’s The Man in Black, Caterpillar in Alice (in wonderland), 3rd Theme in The Four Temperaments and Jeté Woman in Forsythe’s In the Middle Somewhat Elevated. In 2018 she was featured as the Sugar Plum Fairy in Devon Carney’s producon of The Nutcracker becoming the first African American in KCB history to perform the role. Joshua Bodden, Kansas City Ballet

Joshua Bodden began his ballet training at the age of 10 at the Miami City Ballet School under the direcon of Edward and Linda Villella, he also aended The Harid Conservatory and Pisburgh Ballet Theater’s year-round program on a full scholarship. He spent his summers training at the School of American Ballet, Pacific Northwest Ballet, and North Carolina School of the Arts. Upon graduang from the Miami City Ballet School program Mr. Bodden was invited to join the Miami City Ballet dancing various ballets such as Stars and Stripes, Jewels, Scotch Symphony, Square Dance, Slaughter on 10th Avenue and Giselle. Mr. Bodden also danced with Dance Theatre of Harlem. He was a member of Cincinna Ballet expanding his repertoire of classical and contemporary works and having the presgious honor of being the first African American male to perform a ballet boy in Twyla Tharp’s In the Upper Room. With Kansas City Ballet, he has performed in Alice (in wonderland), Giselle, Swan Lake, The Sleeping Beauty, Theme and Variaons, Sepme Webre’s The Wizard Of Oz, Melancholic in Balanchine’s The Four Temperaments, Puck in Bruce Well’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Gaston in Val Caniparoli’s Lady of the Camellias and works by Edwaard Liang, Amy Sewiert, Yuri Possokhov, Adam Hougland, Jennifer Archibald, Stephanie Marnez, Gabrielle Lamb, Haley Kostas, Andi Abernathy and Stephanie Ruch.

Marcus Oas, Choreographer

Mr. Oas began his dance educaon with the summer program Ailey Camp and his music educaon under the tutelage of his grandfather Sylvester Heath. These experiences afforded Mr. Oas the opportunity to study at addional programs to include Smith Sisters Dance Studio, The Center Dance, Kansas City Ballet, the Ailey School, and Paseo Academy of the Fine and Performing Arts. Mr. Oas would later graduate from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln as a scholarship student with a degree in Music Performance.

In 2008, Mr. Oas joined the Kansas City Ballet as a professional ballet dancer under the direcon of William Whitener. Mr. Oas was able to perform works by esteemed choreographers such as Val Caniparoli, Bruce Marks, Peter Marns, Robert Hill, Ib Anderson, George Balanchine, Twyla Tharp, and Yuri Possokhov. Mr. Oas’ most notable roles were as the Russian in Todd Bolender’s The Nutcracker, Jessica Lang’s Splendid Isolaons III, the Moor in Jose Limon’s The Moor’s Pavane, Jerome Robbins Aernoon of a Faun, and Balanchine’s Serenade. Mr. Oas has also performed with the Owen/Cox Dance Group, Arcanium Dance Project, and Central Dance Theatre.