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Artistic Director and Founder, Carrie Diamond
Photo: ©1991 Ken Skalski |
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Ballet Santa Barbara Artistic Staff
Carrie Diamond, Founder Artistic Director
Eric Valinsky, Music Director
Carlos Fittante, Artistic Associate
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CARRIE DIAMOND
Founder, Artistic Director
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Carrie Diamond returned to California in 2002 after many years as dance professional in New York City. She founded Ballet Santa Barbara in 2005, a professional ballet company and training venue for local dancers including an annual summer intensive program for young dancers. She began her career in Los Angeles, dancing with the Storie-Crawford Dance Theatre and studying ballet with Don Hewitt. In New York City, she studied with such luminaries as Margaret Craske, Benjamin Harkarvy and Jacque D’amboise and performed and toured extensively with the New York Theatre Ballet. She has particularly enjoyed dancing principal and soloist roles in the works of such choreographers as José Limón, Kurt Joos, Ohad Nahirin, and Benjamin Harkarvy. In 1990, she founded the New American Ballet Ensemble, a New York City company that promoted new music and choreography, commissioning two ballets by Harkarvy as well as choreographing many of her own. She has taught ballet for the Alvin Ailey American Dance Center and for the 92nd St Y and was the Co-Director for the Harkness Youth Ballet. Ms. Diamond holds an MFA in Dance from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts and is a certified teacher for children through DEL (Dance Education Laboratory). She has choreographed locally for several musical productions at Dos Pueblos High School, the Crane School, and Santa Barbara City College.
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ERIC VALINSKY
Music Director
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A native Manhattanite, Eric Valinsky has, for more years than he would like to admit, maintained dual careers in computer systems design and music. He was educated at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music and the University of Illinois, finally achieving his DMA in music composition from Columbia University. He studied composition with Walter Aschaffenburg, Salvatore Martirano, Jack Beeson, and Darius Milhaud; piano with Sara Crawford Drogheo and Emil Danenberg; and conducting with Harold Farberman. While living in Los Angeles, he became music director and composer-in-residence or The Storie-Crawford Dance Theatre Ensemble. Returning to New York, he served in a similar capacity for Danny Buraczeski's Jazzdance, Uris Bahr and Dancers, and The New American Ballet Ensemble as well as composer-in-residence for The Rachel Harms Dance Company, Opera Uptown, and the Dance Department at City College of New York. He currently moonlights as founder and partner of Plainwrap Solutions, a strategic Internet consulting company.
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CARLOS FITTANTE
Artistic Associate and Guest Artist
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Carlos Fittante is a dance artist of remarkable diversity who specializes in Balinese and Baroque dance. He is a graduate of the School of American Ballet and has a BA in Dance from Empire State College (SUNY). He studied with ballet master Benjamin Harkarvy who created two ballets on him while dancing with the New American Ballet Ensemble. Other ballet credits include New York Theatre Ballet, Metropolitan Opera Ballet, and the Universal Ballet Company in Seoul, Korea. Since 1990, he has been the artistic director of BALAM Dance Theatre, a contemporary dance company inspired by Balinese theatre and founded by Islene Pinder. He has performed internationally and studied extensively in Bali and Indonesia. As a Baroque dance specialist he has been featured in a number of Baroque operas including soloist roles for New York City Opera’s production of Rinaldo, and the Boston Early Music Festival’s production of Thesée. He danced principal roles with the New York Baroque Dance Company during the period of 1989-2002 and also served as rehearsal director. His choreographic work in East/West fusion, contemporary, and baroque styles has been presented at a number of New York festivals and venues including DUMBO Dance Festival, COOL Festival, and Lincoln Center Out-of-Doors. He teaches Mask & Gesture at the Lee Strasberg Theatre & Film Institute and Balinese and Baroque dance at Peridance Center in New York.
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© 2006-2007 American Dance and Music, Inc.
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