Our Faculty

 Georgi Rusafov is a graduate of the National Dance High School in Sofia, Bulgaria studying under Peter Koldamov. After graduation he joined the National Opera and Ballet Sofia Bulgaria. Mr.Rusafov received advanced Vaganova master education for teaching ballet and choreography at the Bulgarian National Music Conservatory (P.Vladigerov). Mr. Rusafov has won several ballet awards and has participated in the International Ballet Competitions – Varna, and Helsinki. Mr.Rusafov has performed as a soloist and principal dancer with the Bulgarian National Opera and Ballet, and Estonia National Ballet. He was a principal dancer with Milwaukee Ballet, Northern Plains Ballet and Omaha Ballet Theater and company member with Ballet Arizona. Toured in Spain, Greece, Egypt, Germany, Holland, Italy, and all over the United States as a star principal dancer. Mr.Rusafov also is Master Ballet Class teacher. He has taught Master Ballet Workshops at New Mexico, Washington DC, Florida, New York and many other places at USA and Europe.   

Miss Hartley was born in Bonn, Germany, and grew up in South Africa and Chile, where her parents danced for P.A.C.T. Ballet and Ballet de Santiago. She studied at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts with teachers such as Melissa Hayden, Duncan Noble, Gyula Pandi, Dianne Markham, and Trish Casey. 

In 1993 she joined Ballet de Santiago with Marcia Haydee as her director. In 1997 Ivan Nagy took over the company and Miss Hartley was promoted to soloist after performing the role of Myrtha in “Giselle” with guest artist Igor Zelensky. During her years with Ballet de Santiago, she worked with other guest artists such as Jose Manuel Carreño, Maximiliano Guerra, Carlos Acosta, and Lauren Anderson. She performed leading roles such as Olga in John Cranko’s “Eugene Onegin”, TheMad Lady in Ben Stevenson’s “Peer Gynt”, Mercedes in “Don Quijote”, The Countess in Ronal Hynd’s “The Devil to Pay” and Stella in Mauricio Wainrot’s World Premiere of “Streetcar Named Desire”. She had the opportunity to work with choreographers such as Ronald Hynd, Ben Stevenson, Trey Mc Intyre, David Parsons and Natalia Makarova.

In July of 1998 Miss Hartley was invited to join Ballet Arizona as a Principal Dancer, company now under the directorship of Ib Andersen since 2000. Since arriving, she has expanded her modern repertoire by working and performing pieces from Kevin O’Day (“Hellblondegroove”), Paul Taylor (“Company B”), Twyla Tharp (“Sinatra Suite” and “The Golden Section”), Julia Adams (“Before”), and world premieres by Moses Pendleton (“Opus Cactus”) and Dwight Rhoden (“Skinny Puzzle” and “Scarlet Symphony”). She performed with guest artists such as Marcelo Gomes (“La Fille mal Gardee “ pas de deux), Nikolaj Hubbe (“Napoli”) and Gael Lambiotte (“Swan Lake”). Her leading roles in full length productions include Aurora in “Sleeping Beauty”, Odette/Odile in “Swan Lake”, Giselle in “Giselle”, Juliet in “Romeo and Juliet”, Swanilda in “Coppelia”, The Sylph in “La Sylphide”, and Kitri in “Don Quijote”. She has premiered leading roles in Ib Andersen’s productions of “Midsummer Nights Dream”, “Play”, “Indigo Rhapsody”, “Amoroso”, “Mozaic”, and “Topia”. Her Balanchine repertoire includes principal roles in ballets such as “Theme and Variations”, “Allegro Brillante”, “Apollo”, “Serenade”, “Four Temperaments”, “Divertimento No 15”, “Duo Concertante”, “Concerto Barroco”, “Stravinsky Violin Concerto”and “Rubies”. She has received extensive coaching from stagers such as Olga Eivrenoff, Freddie Franklin, Sandra Jennings, Susan Hendl and Elaine Kudo.
During the summers of 2009 and 2008, Miss Hartley performed with local company Novaballet. She worked with upcoming choreographer Emery Le Crone in “Pulling to Break”, performed Vicente Nebrada’s “Our Waltzes”, and restaged David Palmer and Yanis Pikieris’ “Adiemus”. Miss Hartley has toured in Stuttgart, Buenos Aires, Budapest and New York. She performed with partner Astrit Zejnati at a Gala in Albania in 2005 and at the Miami International Dance Festival in 2006. She has been seen by millions performing as a guest artist in the Chilean TV talent show “Rojo Fama Contrafama”, where her father is a judge. In her spare time she has taught ballet at several dance academies of the valley, such as Tempe Dance Academy, Master Ballet Academy, and The School of Ballet Arizona.

In the summer of 2011 and 2012, Miss Hartley was invited as a guest faculty member at the Goh Ballet Academy in Vancouver, Canada.
In 2013, Miss Hartley joined The Suzanne Farrell Ballet as a Soloist, where she performed the leading roles in George Balanchine’s “Pas de Dix”, “Tempo di Valse”, “Episodes” (Symphony and Concerto), “Agon” (2nd Pas de Trois), “Swan Lake”,”Allegro Brillante”, the role of Juliet in Paul Mejia’s “Romeo and Juliet”, and the Butch Girl in Jerome Robbins’ “The. Concert”. In 2015, Miss Hartley retired from Ballet Arizona and has become one mother of a beautiful boy while also continuing her career as a guest artist and teacher.

Sabina Valic began dancing at the age of 5 in her native Pula, Croatia. She pursued her love and passion for ballet and was later accepted to attend the formal School for Classical Ballet in Zagreb, Croatia.

Her dance education continued after moving to Arizona and her dance experience today spans from classical, contemporary, and character, to modern dance.

Some of her classical dancing roles include: Les Cygnets (“Swan Lake”), Sugar Plum (“Nutcracker”), Prelude (“Les Sylphides”, coached by Mr.George Zorich, principal dancer with Les Ballets Russes de Monte Carlo), “Leaves Are Fading”, as well as a variety of contemporary and modern pieces.

Ms. Valic had the joy and privilege to perform, among others, with the Croatian National Ballet Theater of Croatia, Arizona Opera, Fun House Movement Dance Company, Balalaika Orchestra, Flor de Liz Dance Ensemble, and the University of Arizona’s Dance Department.

Katherine is a graduate of Georgi’s Rusafov’s pre-professional ballet program. During her time at the Youth American Ballet Company, she performed multiple lead roles at the YABC, including Aurora, Lilac Fairy, Snow Queen, Dew Drop, and Sugar Plum. At the age of 16 and 18, she was invited to perform as a guest artist in New Mexico and Mississippi to dance the Sugar Plum Pas de Deux. Throughout her training, she competed in multiple ballet competitions around the world including ADC IBC, World Ballet Competition, and the Youth America Grand Prix. She was awarded full scholarships to Sarasota Ballet Summer Intensive, Milwaukee Ballet Summer Intensive, Alberta Ballet School, and Danceworks Ballet Academy in London, UK. In 2019, Katherine was awarded first place in the senior women’s classical division and was one of 130 competitors to be selected to perform at the Youth America Grand Finals in New York City. Katherine is grateful to be a part of Premier Ballet Conservatory and is excited to teach the next generation of aspiring ballerinas. 

Naomi Spektor, with her dance partner, Nikita Grygorchuk, are a top amateur ballroom dance couple, representing the United States. They started dancing together in January of 2019 and became United States National Champions in the Youth Latin division just six weeks later. Naomi and Nikita went on to win all major North American competitions in the Youth Latin American division. Based on these outstanding results, they were selected to represent USA at the 2019 WDC AL World Championships in Dublin, Ireland. A week later they traveled to Naples, Italy for the WDO World Championship where they became World Champions in the Youth U19 Division. 

In the summer of 2021 Naomi and Nikita became bronze medalists at the prestigious and world-renowned Blackpool Dance Festivalin the Under 21 and Amateur Rising Star Division. A few months later, they also became bronze medalists at the International and World Championships in Brentwood, UK in the Under 21 Latin Category. In January of 2022, they became bronze medalists at the United Kingdom Open Championships in the Under 21 Latin division. 

With her previous partner, Naomi is a 4x United States National Champion. She represented USA in multiple World Championships across the World. She won all major USA competitions in the Junior and Youth Divisions between 2014 and 2018 and became the 2017 World Youth 10 Dance Bronze medalist. 

Brenna was born and raised in Gilbert, Arizona. She started dancing when she was three years old and has been hooked ever since. She grew up training and competing in all styles such as Jazz, Ballet, Tap, Contemporary, Modern, Hip-Hop, etc. This later led her to The University of Arizona where she received a BFA degree in Dance. 

While in Tucson she had the opportunity to train and perform several different styles on stage. During her sophomore year of college she experienced a spinal fracture during a show. Although fracturing her spine wasn’t a fun experience, it was because of this that she discovered a new found passion for Pilates . Through the UA Dance program she was able to receive Fletcher Pilates training to help rehab her spine and get her back on stage quicker. During her senior year of college she was given the opportunity to go through the Foundational Training program to become a Fletcher Pilates Teacher. By the end of 2021 Brenna will have finished the Fletcher Professional Training Program, helping her to better understand the body and be the best teacher she can be.

Since 2016, she has been dancing with the LA dance company MusEffect, which has allowed her to live and work in both LA and AZ. Through MusEffect Brenna is able to use her artform of dance to help give back to the community. 

In 2018 she was apart of the NBA Phoenix Suns Dancers for the 2018-2019 NBA season. With the Suns she was given the opportunity to dance and work with several choreographers including Tyce Diorio, Lacey Schwimmer, Matt Stephanina, Anthony Garza, Tribe 99, Ade Obayomi, Heather Morris and many more. With the Suns she performed with artists Coolio and Lumidee. 

While she loves performing, teaching is such a big passion of Brenna’s! Since she was 16 years old she has had a love of working with younger dancers and helping train the future generation of movers. . In 2019 Brenna created her business Pilates To Pirouettes. Merging dance and Pilates is a passion of hers, which allows her to help kids better understand their muscles and help avoid injuries in the future. She is looking forward to opening up her own Pilates space in October 2021. She hopes to make everyone feel their best so that they can dance their best.  

National Ballet of Cuba where she held the rank of soloist for three years, and competed in National and International Contests.

Arianni’s accomplishments include bronze and silver medals at National and International Competitions in 2009 and 2010 in Cuba. From Cuba, Arianni came to the United States in 2013 and began working with Ballet Arizona. With this company she has had the opportunity to go to the 2014 USA International Ballet Competition in Jackson, Mississippi, where she was one of the finalists.

While dancing with Ballet Arizona she has had the opportunity to dance principal roles in Cinderella, La Bayadere, The Nutcracker, Coppélia, Sleeping Beauty, Swan Lake, Napoli, Romeo and Juliet and George Balanchine’s Walpurgisnacht, Western Symphony, La Sonnambula, Apollo, Emeralds, Agon, Theme and Variations, Symphony in Three Movements and many of Ib Andersen ballets such as Eroica, Indigo, Rio, Round and The Firebird.

Heather Haar, began her ballet training in Honolulu, Hawaii. at the Hawaii State Ballet, under the direction of John Landowsky. After attending the summer ballet program at the Hartford Ballet in Connecticut, she

was invited to join their studio company. Here she continued her training among ballet greats, Alla Osipenko and Franco Devita and performed with the company in The Nutcracker and George Balanchine’s Stars and Stripes. After a year with the Hartford Ballet, she accepted a company contract with the Nevada

Ballet Theater. Here, she danced five seasons under the direction of Bruce Stievel, performing lead roles in Giselle, The Nutcracker, Fairy Doll, Peter Pan and Cinderella. As well as works by renowned

choreographers, Choo San Goh, George Balanchine and Val Caniparoli to name a few.

While living in Las Vegas, Heather was offered a dancer contract with Cirque du Soleil. (Canadian entertainment company and the largest theatrical producer in the world). However, she decided to instead

further her career as a ballet dancer by accepting a company contract with Ib Andersons Ballet Arizona.

During Heather’s seven seasons with Ballet Arizona she was featured in repertoire that included Swan Lake, Giselle, Coppelia, Don Quixote, Raymonda, Les Sylphides, Romeo and Juliet, La Sulphide and The Nutcracker. She also had the opportunity to add George Balanchine’s Rubies, Theme and Variations,

Serenade, The Four Temperaments, La Valse, Divertimento No. 15, Concerto Barocco and La Sonnambula to her resume. She was a part of the founding creative team of the Phoenix based, contemporary summer company, Nova Ballet. Here she worked as a rehearsal director, and danced with the company for two

seasons in works by Adam Hougland, Robert Dekkers, Emery LeCrone and James Jeon to name a few.

After a professional career that spanned over twelve years, Heather decided to retire from company life in order to spend more time with her growing family. She then began the next phase of her career; teaching at dance schools in Phoenix and discovered a new passion. Now after thirteen years of teaching classical

ballet to all levels, she also enjoys choreographing and setting new works on her students. Her goal remains to pass her love, knowledge and experience of ballet down to the next generation of dancers. When she is

not teaching, her ultimate enjoyment is spending quality time with her husband and three daughters.

Kristijan and Anja, both coming from Slovenia, crossed dancing paths when they were young kids between the ages of 7-9. They each started dancing over 20 years ago and today they are ballroom dancers, artists, athletes, and teachers.  Moving from Slovenia to Phoenix in 2015, they have built themselves as not only exceptional ballroom dancers, but as a ballroom powerhouse couple. They are passionate about teaching others to be the best dancers they can be. 

We, at Premier ballet Conservatory, feel we are truly lucky to have them on our faculty. 

 Dannis brings over 20 years of dance education experience to her classes. During her career Dannis has celebrated many successes in the industry. Some of her accolades include Youth Grand Prix gold medal distinction recipients honored at the Kennedy Center, Top 10 female finalists for “So You Tink You Can Dance”, scholarship winners to Alvin Ailey Professional/Junior Division, American Ballet Theater apprentices, Rockettes, Nike commercials, videos for artists such as Ariana Grande, Taylor Swift, and SIA. Some of her former students are represented by dance agencies such as MSA, Te Movement Agency and Bloch.

 Kyla Kabat is a choreographer, performer, and dance educator based in the Chicago area. She is pursuing a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Dance from Barrett, the Honors College at Arizona State University along with a minor in business. While at Arizona State, Kyla has performed in multiple dance productions such as SpringDanceFest, Transitions, and numerous Undergraduate Project Presentations, in which her self-choreographed works were also presented. In 2021 Kyla premiered her work, Toxic Love, which had been chosen by Arizona State University to represent the school’s dance program in a national dance conference, ACDA. In spring of 2022, she traveled to the University of Oregon where Toxic Love was performed in front of a variety of schools from the west coast, receiving a great amount of recognition and rewards. Kyla is in the process of putting together her honors thesis and other choreographic works to be featured this spring. Since then, she has taught and choreographed competitive pieces at a dance studio based in Chandler, Arizona where she plans on expanding her creative mind and inspiring dancers of all ages. 

  Taylor Mckinley has been dancing for over 16 years.  She has trained and competed in 7 different styles of dance. She choreographs lyrical, contemporary, jazz, and musical theater solos. She teaches ballroom, tap, and ballet for a wide age range of students around the valley.  At Premier Ballet Conservatory, she teaches a recreational ballet class for 4-6 year old’s. Taylor is also a student at Arizona State University majoring in accounting as well as a professional dancer with the Arizona Rattlers Sidewinders!