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Artistic Director, Patricia Tomlinson
Patricia Tomlinson has enjoyed a successful ballet career. Her formal training began with Elizabeth Carroll and Melissa Hayden in Saratoga, New York. She continued her studies in New York City at the School of American Ballet where she was coached by George Balanchine, Alexandra Danilova, Peter Martins, and Helgi Tomasson. While studying, Ms. Tomlinson was chosen by Natalia Makarova to perform in her ballet company, Makarova and Company, in New York City. She continued her dance career as a Soloist and Principal with Houston Ballet Company, Pennsylvania Ballet, and Diablo Ballet, working with choreographers and coaches Ben Stevenson, Kenneth MacMillan, Anton Dolin, Glen Tetley, Margot Fonteyn, and Ivan Nagy, to name a few. She represented the United States in the "Masaka Ohya Japan World Ballet Competition" in Osaka, placing fourth among a group of competitors from 32 countries. She has guest performed, taught and set ballets throughout the United States. Her wide ranging repertoire includes principle roles in "The Nutcracker," "Stars and Stripes," "Serenade," "Carmina Burana,” "The Firebird," "Swan Lake," "Sleeping Beauty," "Les Sylphides," "Coppelia," "Esmeralda," "Apollo," and "A Midsummer Night's Dream." Ms. Tomlinson also performed in the contemporary works of Glen Tetley, Choo San Goh, John Butler, Lynn Taylor-Corbet, Jerome Robbins, Christopher D'Amboise, Lar Lubovitch, Paul Taylor, K.T. Nelson, and many other celebrated choreographers. Ms. Tomlinson has been teaching, ballet mistressing and choreographing in the Easy Bay for over 25 years. She founded the Orinda Ballet Academy and Company in April of 2009, and thoroughly enjoys working with students in the Lamorinda community. From the on-set of Orinda Ballet Academy in 2009, she has choreographed for the Academy's bi-annual productions, including, "A Sweet Dream Nutcracker", a 2 act story ballet that is performed annually in the winter term by the student youth company. Spring term productions, choreographed by Ms Tomlinson include, "Raymonda Variations", "Coppelia", "Sleeping Beauty", "Cinderella's Ball", "Swan Lake", Alice in Wonderland", "Peter Pan and "Firebird" . Ms Tomlinson is a certified Pilates instructor and earned a BA in the Performing Arts through Saint Mary's LEAP program for professional dancers. Ms Tomlinson also has enjoyed teaching company class to professional dance troupes. |