Colorado Ballet Announces Mid-Season Promotions

Ahead of opening the 59th annual production of The Nutcracker on Nov. 30, Colorado Ballet announces the promotion of four Corps de Ballet Dancers:

NICOLAS PELLETIER - Promoted to Soloist
Opening Weekend The Nutcracker Roles*: Mouse King, Arabian, Marzipan
Joined Colorado Ballet: 2017
Hometown: Quebec City, Canada

SEAN OMANDAM - Promoted to Demi-Soloist
Opening Weekend The Nutcracker Roles*: Fritz, Chinese, Russian
Joined Colorado Ballet: 2004
Hometown: Fresno, CA

EMILY SPEED - Promoted to Demi-Soloist
Opening Weekend The Nutcracker Roles*: Clara, Columbine Doll, Marzipan, Crystals
Joined Colorado Ballet: 2014
Hometown: Argyle, TX

MELISSA ZOEBISCH - Promoted to Demi-Soloist
Opening Weekend The Nutcracker Roles*: Crystals, Spanish
Joined Colorado Ballet: 2014
Hometown: Guadalajara, Mexico

*Casting for The Nutcracker is subject to change.

Nicolas Pelletier was born in Quebec City, Canada. He moved to California when he was eight, where he attended the San Francisco Ballet School for 10 years. During his time at the school, he performed in ballets including John Neumeier's Yondering and Balanchine's Stars and Stripes. He completed his training with Canada's National Ballet School in 2010 and joined Alberta Ballet in 2011. During his six years with the Company, he had the opportunity to dance many principal roles including Dracula in Ben Stevenson's Dracula and Romeo in Jean Grand-Maître's Romeo and Juliet. Nicolas also had the pleasure of working closely with Jean Grand-Maître in the creation of many new works throughout his time at Alberta Ballet, including pas de deux and solos. Other notable ballets in his repertoire include Divertimento No. 15, Four Temperaments, Swan Lake, Giselle, Cinderella, Don Quixote, Madame Butterfly, Othello and The Nutcracker. This is his third season with Colorado Ballet.

Sean Omandam is from Fresno, California, where he began his training with Shirley Winters. He later went on to train on full-scholarship at the Harid Conservatory in Boca Raton, Florida, under the instruction of Victoria Schneider, Olivier Pardina and Svetlana Osiyeva. Upon his graduation in 2004, he joined Colorado Ballet's Studio Company and was promoted to the Company in 2005. With Colorado Ballet, Sean has performed a variety of soloist and principal roles including Puck in Christopher Wheeldon's A Midsummer Night's Dream, White Rabbit in Septime Webre's ALICE (in wonderland), Peter in Michael Smuin's Peter and the Wolf, Champion Roper in Agnes De Mille's Rodeo, Jester in Ben Stevenson's Cinderella, Whip Boy in Glen Tetley's The Rite of Spring, Max in Septime Webre's Where the Wild Things Are, John Darling in Michael Pink's Peter Pan, Green Man in Lila York's Celts and Russian in Martin Fredmann's The Nutcracker. His repertory also includes featured roles in works by Lar Lubovitch, Val Caniparoli, Amy Seiwert, Edwaard Liang, Matthew Neenan, Jodie Gates, Dwight Rhoden, Darrell Grand Moultire and Jessica Lang, among others. In 2007, he was a competitor and gala performer at the New York International Ballet Competition. In the summer of 2013, he was featured as a contestant on the premiere season of the South Korean television show, Dancing 9. Pointe Magazine featured Sean in their 2014 October/November "Dancer Spotlight."

Emily Speed grew up in Argyle, TX and graduated from Marina Almayeva School of Ballet. She has qualified and competed in Varna International Ballet Competition, Jackson IBC and YAGP Finals, as well as being a World Ballet Competition Finalist and winning First Place in the YAGP regionals. During her career, Ms. Speed has danced in companies across the country including Alabama Ballet, Boulder Ballet and Ballet Tucson, performing soloist and principle roles. Since joining Colorado Ballet in 2014, Emily has danced numerous featured roles in several productions and performed in the Vail Dance Festival in 2015, 2017 and 2019. Some of her most notable performances with Colorado Ballet include Balanchine's Concerto Barocco and Russian Girl in Serenade, Princess Florine and Vitality Fairy in The Sleeping Beauty, Cygnets and Pas de Trois in Swan Lake, Pink Couple in Mark Tippet's Bruch Violin Concerto No. 1, Red Couple in Twyla Tharp's Brief Fling, Little Sister in Tudor's Pillar of Fire, Jiri Kylián's Petite Mort, Scherzo in Wheeldon's A Midsummer's Night Dream, Flames of Paris Pas De Deux, Clara and Dew Drop in The Nutcracker, Michael Pink's Dracula, Derek Deane's Romeo and Juliet, Septime Webre's Alice (in wonderland) and The Wizard of Oz, and Fernand Nault's Carmina Burana.

Melissa Zoebisch grew up in Mexico and studied at the Chamber Ballet of Jalisco. She received a scholarship to attend for a year at the Kirov Academy of Ballet in Madame Sizova's class, and returned to Mexico to graduate. Throughout her school years, she participated in many workshops around the world including: Cuba, Canada, Austria, Spain and the United States. In 2005, Melissa joined the National Dance Company, where she performed soloist roles in her first year in ballet like Swan Lake, The Nutcracker and Sleeping Beauty. In 2010, she was a finalist at the Korea International Ballet Competition and received a Special Award. Before joining Colorado Ballet in 2014, she had been freelancing with her husband around the country. At Colorado Ballet she has been featured in roles like Lilac Fairy (Sleeping Beauty), Sugarplum Fairy (The Nutcracker), Wicked Witch (The Wizard of Oz), to name a few. Her other repertoire includes principal roles in Giselle, The Sleeping Beauty, The Nutcracker, Paquita, Don Quixote, original contemporary choreographies and many others.

Presenting exceptional classical ballet and innovative contemporary dance through performances, training, education and community engagement, Colorado Ballet continues to inspire and grow an increasingly diverse audience base in Denver, Colorado. Established in 1961 by Lillian Covillo and Freidann Parker, Colorado Ballet is a non-profit organization celebrating 59 years of excellence. As a world-class professional company, Colorado Ballet presents 55 performances annually to sold-out audiences in the 2,000 seat Ellie Caulkins Opera House. The Company's 32 professional dancers and 21 studio company dancers come from all over the world. Colorado Ballet's The Armstrong Center for Dance, a 35,000 square foot building, boasts eight state-of-the-art professional dance studios and amenities for the professional Company. Under the direction of Artistic Director Gil Boggs, Colorado Ballet performs classical ballet masterpieces, full-length story ballets and its critically-acclaimed repertory production Ballet MasterWorks, featuring varied works from neoclassical ballets to world premieres. The Raydean Acevedo Colorado Ballet Academy serves over 1,200 students from toddlers to seniors each year. Colorado Ballet's Education and Community Engagement programming serves under-resourced students, teachers, families, people with disabilities and lifelong learners, reaching more than 35,000 contacts in 300 schools and organizations annually. For more information please visit COLORADOBALLET.ORG.

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