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At the age of thirteen, Ron Colton entered his first dance class in Detroit — that led him to a life long career in dance. Ron moved to New York City, dancing in musicals on Broadway, before joining the Slavenska-Franklin Company touring Japan and the United States. He joined the New York City Ballet in 1953 and toured Europe with the Company. In 1958, Ron taught his first dance class in Chicago and knew immediately that he had found his calling. Drawing from his own impeccable dance training, Ron’s move to Augusta in 1964 clearly changed the face of the arts in Augusta. Whether being in his class or watching his dancers perform, you knew you were in the presence of a master. As a Dance Magazine critic noted, “Whenever the director of a resident company complains that his community is too small to yield good material for him to train, I cannot help but think of Ron Colton…He doesn’t “find” material. He makes it.”

Ron is on the advisory panel for the Governor’s School for the Arts, South Carolina, and has served as a panelist for the South Carolina Arts Commission. He has been a consultant for the National Endowment for the Arts and, at the request of the Governor of Georgia, was for twelve years on the Dance Panel of the Georgia Council for the Arts. In 1981, he received the Governor’s Award for Achievement in the Arts. Ron has served with the Greater Augusta Arts Council and is currently on the Board of Directors of Regional Dance America/Southeastern Regional Ballet Association. On four occasions, Ron has been host director to the Regional Dance America/Southeastern Regional Ballet Association Festival in Augusta. He has twice served as Chairman of the Choreographer’s Conference.

With talent, insight, faith and good humor, Ron Colton has had an immense impact on dance in the Southeast as a teacher and director. He created and grew the Augusta Ballet for thirty years taking it from a fledgling civic troupe to a professional company. His legacy of dance in Augusta continues to flourish in the newly established Dance Augusta.

If one word characterizes Zanne Beaufort Colton, it is ”presence.“ She has that magical ability to compel our attention, on stage and off. What is the source of this presence? Her vitality? Her sense of total dedication? Whatever the source, it is no wonder she has achieved true stardom, not only in dancing, but in directing, teaching, administering, publicizing in all the many jobs she does so well.

A great performer is always a creator, not merely a mimic. Augusta audiences remember Zanne’s poignantly unforgettable Swan Queen, her uniquely flirtatious Swanilda and passionate Giselle. It is her uniqueness that has prompted the creation of ballets especially for her, such as Episode, Mandolina, and The Rookery. She is Augusta’s premier contribution to the world of dance. For Zanne, that’s the only world there is.

Beginning her studies at age six, her first instructors were Alexis Dolinoff and Sallie Carlson. Upon Ron Colton’s arrival, she was immediately recognized as an outstanding student, and after four years of intensive study with Colton, she received a full Ford Foundation scholarship with Balanchine’s School of American Ballet. Notable instructors throughout the years have included Vera Volkova, Muriel Stuart, Robert Barnett, Duncan Noble, Stanley Zompakos and Stanley Williams. She appeared with the Charleston Ballet Company and as a principal soloist with the Atlanta Ballet. She was also one of the original members of the Atlanta Ballet’s professional touring ensemble.

An experienced teacher/ballet mistress, she has set ballets throughout the Southeast and was selected to perform professionally at several nationally sponsored choreographers’ conferences. She has served as a panelist for the Artists-in-the-Schools and the Artist Initiated Programs of the Georgia Council for the Arts. Zanne is currently serving as a Dance Panelist for the Georgia Council for the Arts.

Peter Powlus has had a broad range of dance experience. He has developed a rare versatility and a unique style which he now brings to the Augusta Ballet. Peter has worked in television, film, opera, dinner theatre, theme parks, historical drama, mime theatre, children’s theatre, fashion shows, industrials, and repertory dance. He recently served as choreographer for the 1999 Georgia Games Opening Ceremonies which were hailed as “the best” in the Games history. Peter has danced with the Augusta Ballet since 1985 and assisted with the re-staging of several works (including Beauty and the Beast and Guys and Dolls among others.)

He was given the opportunity in 1993 to choreograph his first full-length ballet, Carmen, which was re-staged to critical acclaim in 1996 and again last season. Since his first effort as Resident Choreographer in 1993, he has been prolific with his creative contributions, including full-length versions of Dracula, Romeo and Juliet, The Bittersweet Saga of Sugar Cane and Sweetie Pie (with the Wynton Marsalis Septet), Marsalis Encore, and The Three Musketeers. Many of his shorter works have been recognized by Regional Dance America. Two have been placed on the prestigious RDA Choreography Plan, and several others have been presented at regional festivals. In the spring of 2000, Peter offered his interpretation of the children’s classic, Peter and the Wolf and in the spring of 2001, his adaptation of The Legend of the Hatfields & McCoys featuring Sam Bush. The response was overwhelmingly enthusiastic, prompting an encore presentation in the spring of 2002. Another of Peter’s choreographic efforts was the collaborative dance noir Casablanca. Last season in celebration of the 40th anniversary of the Company, several of Peter’s classic works were presented including Carmen, Romeo & Juliet and Peter & the Wolf. This season will highlight the presentation of Peter’s ever-popular The Three Musketeers with live local musicians and the premiere of a new work, Under a Cajun Moon, featuring musicians Wycliffe Gordon and Ted Nash from Jazz at Lincoln Center.

Peter’s teaching experience is equally diverse and extensive. He is currently a faculty member of the Augusta Ballet School and is much in demand throughout the southeast as an instructor of Master Classes. He has served the Georgia community as a member of the Georgia Council for the Arts Dance Panel for Organizational Grants. Peter and his wife, Debra, are the proud parents of Callaway Melissa.

Bon Ellis began her dance training with Sallie Carlson, founder of the Augusta Civic Ballet, as one of the Company’s youngest members. Continuing her studies with Ron Colton, she became a soloist with the Augusta troupe. While attending the North Carolina School of the Arts as a merit scholarship student, Bon spent her summers studying with the School of American Ballet, the Joffrey School, the Atlanta Ballet and the Twyla Tharp Workshop. After graduating with a bachelor’s degree in philosophy from the State University of New York at Stony Brook, Bon opened her own dance studio in Albany, NY and performed with a theater/jazz group there. From 1985–2001 Bon was a soloist and Ballet Mistress with the Augusta Ballet as well as a teacher and business administrator of the Augusta Ballet School. Retired from the Company, Bon continues to teach and oversee the management of the Augusta Ballet School.

Carlee Snyder began her ballet training at the age of five with Ron Jones Academy of Ballet. At the age of thirteen she joined Jones’ Augusta Dance Theatre as a principal dancer, performing lead roles in Copellia, Paquita, Nutcracker, and Etudes. Carlee attended summer training programs with Central Pennsylvania Youth Ballet, American Ballet Theatre in Alabama, Joffrey South, and the Burklyn Ballet as a scholarship student. At age fourteen Carlee joined the Augusta Ballet School as a trainee under the direction of Zanne Colton. She appeared in Dracula, Swan Lake, and Nutcracker. Carlee has performed as a guest artist in the role of the Sugarplum Fairy with the Augusta Dance Theatre. She dances now with Dance Augusta under the direction of Zanne Colton and teaches primary level classes at the Evans branch of the Augusta Ballet School. When Carlee is not dancing or teaching, she is a student at Augusta State University.

Tammy Adams Westafer began studies at the Augusta Ballet School at the age of fifteen. She became an apprentice at sixteen and a Company member the following year. Tammy attended Brenau University (The Women’s College), graduating cum laude with a B.A. in Ballet Pedagogy. While there, she performed as a soloist with the Gainesville Ballet. She has also appeared with North Carolina Dance Theatre in their production of The Nutcracker and with the Center Dance Ensemble in Phoenix, Arizona. Tammy has attended summer workshops at the Alvin Ailey American Dance Center, the Atlanta Ballet School, SC Governor’s School for the Arts, and on scholarship at the Pennsylvania Academy of Ballet and the Ririe-Woodbury Modern Dance Workshop. Tammy has received an individual artist grant from the Georgia Council for the Arts as well as the Monticello award for emerging choreographers from Regional Dance America (SERBA). This award sent her to the National Choreographers Conference in Salt Lake City, Utah. Since then, Tammy has had many works commissioned by regional ballet companies all over the southeast, including the Atlanta Ballet Centre for Dance Education.

With the Augusta Ballet, Tammy has been seen as the Sugar Plum Fairy, the Dewdrop Fairy, and the Arabian in The Nutcracker, a soloist in many repertory pieces, a featured dancer in the Wynton Marsalis collaboration, as the Rose in Beauty and the Beast, and the Queen in Three Musketeers. Tammy was on the faculty of the Augusta Ballet School for five years. She has also performed in the Augusta Opera's productions of West Side Story, The Merry Widow, and Carmen. Recent accomplishments include teaching for Dance Place, official school of the North Carolina Dance Theatre, serving as Executive Director of the Gainesville Ballet Company, and creating a dance program at Enka High School in Asheville, NC. This past year, Tammy was honored with the “Teacher of the Month” award from Enka High School students and the Asheville Rotary Club.

Sharon Skepple Mayfield was born in Antigua, West Indies and raised in St.Croix US Virgin Island where she began her studies in dance with the Caribbean Dance Company. Skepple studied as a scholarship recipient and graduated from the North Carolina School of the Arts in 1989 under the guidance of Dianne Markham, Mabel Robinson, Richard Kuch and Richard Gain. She became a member of Garth Fagan Dance in 1988 followed by a promotion to a principal soloist in 1990. Fagan has created major roles for her, including Telling a Story, Moth Dreams, Two Pieces of One: Green, which won Skepple a New York Dance and Performance Award ABessie© in 1999. As a principal soloist with Garth Fagan Dance, Skepple has performed with Don Pullen, Keith Jarrett, D.D. Jackson, Carlos Ward, Billy Bang and appeared on PBS Great Performances: Griot New York with the Wynton Marsalis Septet.

In addition to her many roles in the company, Skepple taught company classes on tour and at home at the Garth Fagan Dance School in Rochester, New York. She taught master class workshops for Garth Fagan at the University of North Carolina, North Carolina School of the Arts, Winthrop College, Skidmore College, Wayne State University, Maui Fine Arts Center, George Mason University, and other schools and universities throughout the United States and abroad.

Cammy was trained at the Augusta Ballet School with Ron and Zanne Colton and has over twenty years experience as a professional dancer with the Augusta Ballet, Augusta Opera and various dance companies in California including Theater Ballet of San Francisco. Cammy has also been on the dance faculty of the Augusta Ballet School, Davidson Fine Arts Magnet School, Charleston County School of the Performing Arts, The Art Factory and the Jesse Norman School of Arts after school program.

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Jessica Claire Cohen began her training at the age of four with the Augusta Ballet School. She attended summer training programs with North Carolina Dance Theatre, American Ballet Theatre and under scholarship with the Atlanta Ballet. Jessica was a member of Augusta Ballet II and has appeared in Dracula, The Three Musketeers, Carmen, The Legend of the Hatfields & McCoys, Duncan Noble’s Symphony 13 and The Nutcracker. At the age of 17, Jessica moved to Charlotte, NC at the invitation of the North Carolina Dance Theatre as a Trainee. She went on to continue her training with the Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre. While there, she performed in The Nutcracker and La Bayadere. As an apprentice last year with the Alabama Ballet, she performed in Swan Lake as well as George Balanchine’s Stars and Stripes and The Nutcracker. She was a guest artist with the Tulsa Ballet performing in Balanchine’s Western Symphony. Jessica has recently returned home and is currently teaching Primary Division classes for the Augusta Ballet School and coordinating Dance Augusta’s outreach program. She is very excited to be joining Dance Augusta for this wonderful holiday tradition.

Jessica King, a native of Portland, Oregon began dancing at the age of eight at the Mt. Hood Ballet Academy in Gresham, Oregon. Upon entering high school Jessica studied with Patricia Brewer Jones at the Northwest Academy. She continued her training at the Pacific Artists Center in Portland, Oregon, at the Jillana School in New Mexico, the Burklyn Ballet Theatre in Vermont and the Dance Theatre of Harlem in New York City. She began dancing professionally in 2002 here in Augusta dancing for Zanne Colton and Peter Powlus. Some of her roles include the Cat in Peter Powlus’ Peter and the Wolf, Jill Bahr’s Hearth of Embers, and the Spy in Powlus’ The Three Musketeers. After dancing here for three seasons, she spent a year in Annapolis dancing with Ballet Theatre of Maryland. Jessica is happy to be “home” again in Augusta and once more dancing under Zanne Colton’s direction.