Teachers & Coaches


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Wim Vanlessen

Principal Dancer & Ballet Teacher

Born in Belgium and trained at the Royal Ballet School of Antwerp. At age of 17, Wim Vanlessen wins the silver medal at the “Concours International de Danse” in Houlgate and the "Prix Professionnel" at the “Prix de Lausanne”. Joining The Royal Ballet of Flanders, he quickly ascended through the ranks, dancing the leading roles in the diverse repertoire of the company.


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Ardyn Flynt

Dance Teacher & Coach for Forsythe ballets

In the last four years, Flynt has put hours upon hours into social dance practices, engaging with house and hip-hop communities in LA and fusing her conservatory training with vernacular movement. She has taught her methods at the “Art Of” ballet intensive in Zurich, Switzerland with William Forsythe’s approval, and will teach there again this summer. Flynt will also teach at the Paul Taylor Intensive in Los Angeles, as well as at the Laguna Dance Festival. She aims to continue to explore the synthesis between each of the styles in her arsenal and contribute her research in higher education.


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Antonio Carmena

Ballet Teacher

Antonio Carmena was born and raised in Madrid, Spain. He began his dance training at age seven with the Royal Conservatory of Professional Dance in Madrid. While at the Conservatory, he studied with Virginia Valero and Antonio Almenara. In addition, he studied with Maria de Avila, Aurora Bosch, Ricardo Franco, Lazaro Carreno and Stanley Williams. After winning a Prix de Lausanne Scholarship, he came to New York City in 1997 to study at the School of American Ballet (SAB), the official school of New York City Ballet. He was invited to become an apprentice with New York City Ballet in October 1998 and joined the Company as a member of the corps de ballet in October 1999. In March of 2006 he was promoted to soloist. Mr. Carmena retired from dancing with the New York City Ballet in July of 2017


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Megan Yamashita

Coach for William Forsythe ballets

While at USC Kaufman, Yamashita studied dance in tandem with the pre-medical track. Along with completing all pre-med courses, she designed a senior project around volunteering at the Children’s Hospital of Los Angeles. There, she worked with young patients and introduced concepts of movement for a range of ages and abilities. Yamashita hopes to continue combining dance and science in higher education once she has retired from the stage. She is currently a dancer with Complexions Contemporary Ballet.


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Luis Gadea Mateos

Coach & Body Awareness

Head of Physiotherapist, Personal Coach-Body Awareness of the NATIONAL DANCE COMPANY OF SPAIN (CND)since 2001 under the direction of Nacho Duato, Hervé Palito and José Carlos Martínez.
Since 2013 also serves as PROFESSOR AT THE CONSERVATORY OF DANCE IN MADRID MARÍA DE ÁVILA teaching the subjects of Anatomy and Physiology applied to dance, Technical Body, Physical Fitness, Physical Preparation for dance and Pilates and Rehabilitation.
Teacher /Tutor of the Autonomous University of Madrid in practice physiotherapy students at the National Dance Company of Spain. He has collaborated with various companies like; Staatstheater Nürnberg, Dresden / Frankfurt Dance Company, Cloud Gate Taiwan, Marta Graham Dance Company, Staatsballett Berlin, National Ballet of Spain and Catalonia Youth Ballet.


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Mary Puart

Dance Teacher

A highly accomplished professional dancer and choreographer, Mary is also an experienced dance and stretching teacher. A graduate of Vaganova Academy of Russian Ballet, class of 2015, a top-level world-renowned ballet school. In 2015-2016, she worked with Estonian National Opera as a ballet artist. She has also attended and successfully completed many international stretching and dance programs and courses, including Summer Intensive at Opera National de Paris (2013) in Paris, France, Russian Masters Ballet Camp in Alicante, Spain (2014), Art of Ballet in Berlin, Germany (2014), Netherlands Dans Theater (NDT) Summer Intensive in The Hague, Netherlands (2016).

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