Miami City Ballet Announces Ten New Dancers For The 2019-20 Season

Miami City Ballet announces the addition of ten talented dancers to the Company roster for the 2019-20 season as well as four promotions, resulting in Miami City Ballet's biggest roster with 53 dancers. As one of the most critically acclaimed ballet companies in the nation, Miami City Ballet has grown in size, its level of excellence in the company's training and performance, and its breadth of repertoire under the artistic vision and leadership of Lourdes Lopez.

The artists joining Miami City Ballet include principal dancer Carlos Quenedit, soloist Kathryn (Katie) Morgan and the addition of eight new dancers to the corps de ballet. Alexander Peters was promoted to principal, while Emily Bromberg, Shimon Ito, and Chase Swatosh also were promoted from soloists to principal soloists.

Carlos Quenedit returns to Miami City Ballet as a principal dancer. Most recently, he comes from Houston Ballet and also San Francisco Ballet where he danced for three seasons in principal roles including Helgi Tomasson's, The Nutcracker, Romeo & Juliet, Swan Lake, and Tomasson/Possokhov's Don Quixote. Prior to that, he danced as a soloist for Miami City Ballet in 2009. He hails from Havana, Cuba where he trained at the National Ballet School of Havana. He was also a principal dancer with the Ballet de Monterrey in Mexico, a soloist with the National Ballet of Cuba, and a guest artist with the Joffrey Ballet, and Royal Winnipeg Ballet.

Kathryn (Katie) Morgan from Mobile, Alabama, joins Miami City Ballet as a soloist. She was a soloist with New York City Ballet performing Juliet, the Sugarplum Fairy, and Aurora all by the time she was 20 years of age. In 2012, she took leave from performing due to medical reasons. She has been teaching and writing around the country, guest performing as well as creating a popular podcast series, even amassing 152,000 subscribers to her YouTube Channel. With her health recovered, she returns to dance with Miami City Ballet.

Alexander Peters was promoted to the rank of principal after two years as a principal soloist at Miami City Ballet. Before joining the Company in 2017, Peters was a principal dancer with the Pennsylvania Ballet. He also danced with the Kansas City Ballet, studied at the School of American Ballet and took part in the New York Choreographic Institute. Peters is a recipient of the 2008 Princess Grace Award and the 2010 Mae L. Wien Award for Outstanding Promise. He has performed many principal roles including those in Jewels ("Rubies"), Alexei Ratmansky's Jeux de Cartes and Christopher Wheeldon's Swan Lake and has originated featured roles in multiple works including those by Matthew Neenan, Nicolo Fonte, William Whitener, and Trey McIntyre.

Emily Bromberg was promoted to the rank of principal soloist after nine seasons with the Company. She joined Miami City Ballet as a corps de ballet member in 2010 and was promoted to soloist in 2015. She has portrayed Juliet in Miami City Ballet's production of Romeo and Juliet, Queen of the Dryads in Don Quixote, and the Sugar Plum Fairy in George Balanchine's The Nutcracker©. Bromberg is a Florida native who calls Boston home after relocating there at age 10 to attend the Boston Ballet School. She performed soloist and principal roles with Colorado Ballet before joining Miami City Ballet.

Shimon Ito was promoted to the rank of principal soloist after eight seasons with the Company. Born in New York City, Ito joined Miami City Ballet in 2011 from Silicon Valley's Ballet San Jose where he danced for three years. He was promoted from our corps de ballet to soloist in 2016. Throughout his career with the company, Ito has performed in more than two dozen ballets including Don Quixote, Carmen, Symphonic Dances, Dances at a Gathering, Mercuric Tidings, and A Midsummer Night's Dream as both Puck and Oberon.

Chase Swatosh was promoted to the rank of principal soloist after nine seasons with the Company. He has had the pleasure of dancing in much of the company's repertoire, including Giselle, Coppélia, Slaughter on Tenth Avenue, Heatscape, Mercuric Tidings, Nine Sinatra Songs, and West Side Story Suite as Tony. A native of Westlake Village, California, Swatosh became a member of the corps de ballet in 2012 and was promoted to soloist in 2016.

Itzkan Barbosa joins the company as a corps de ballet member, graduating from the MCB pre-professional division and MCB School Summer Intensive in 2018. This Columbia, South Carolina native began her dance training at age two at the University of Southern California Dance Conservatory and the Center of Dance Education with Carolina Ballet. She trained at the Paris Opera Ballet on a full scholarship and in 2014, studied at Ballet Academy East (BAE) in New York City. As part of a celebration of merging two art forms, ballet and street art from the 2018-19 season, Itzkan was the dancer painted onto the large mural on the Arsht Center CN Tower by Brazilian artist Eduardo Kobra.

Bianca Bulle, from Queensland, Australia, joins the Company as a corps de ballet member after dancing with The Los Angeles Ballet as a principal. During her career, Bianca choreographed the original works for the Los Angeles Ballet and School of American Ballet dancers. Bulle moved to New York City to train at the School of American Ballet at the age of 16 and began dancing professionally after two years of training.

Cameron Catazaro joins the Company as a corps de ballet member after training at the Miami City Ballet School on a full scholarship. Born in Canton, Ohio, Catazaro began his dance training at the School of Canton Ballet and continued his training in 2017 at Ballet Academy East in New York City before coming to Miami. At BAE, he was awarded the prestigious David Howard Foundation Scholarship.

Samivel Evans, a native of Santa Fe, New Mexico, joins Miami City Ballet as a member of the corps de ballet. Evans began his ballet training at Aspen Santa Fe Ballet School. He attended North Carolina School of the Arts and joined Boston Ballet in 2014 before being promoted to their Corps de Ballet in 2016.

Maddie Goodman, originally from New Bern, North Carolina, joins the company as a corps de ballet member. She received her dance training at New Bern Ballet and the Cary Ballet Conservatory. Goodman was a YoungArts Ballet Winner in 2017, and this past year she studied in the Trainee Program with BalletMet. Maddie was a 2018 and 2017 finalist of the prestigious Youth America Grand Prix.

Julian Goodwin-Ferris grew up in Houston, Texas, and joins the company as a corps de ballet member. He spent more than 10 years training at the Houston Ballet Academy and danced with Ballet Austin during the 2016-17 season. While at Ballet Austin, he toured China for a month performing in 15 different cities. Goodwin-Ferris will graduate from Indiana University Jacobs School of Music this year with a degree in ballet and an outside field in music.

Anna Grunewald joins the company as a corps de ballet member after dancing with Ballet Arizona. Born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Grunewald trained at the Ballet Academy of Pittsburgh and graduated in 2018 from Indiana University Jacobs School of Music with a Bachelor of Science in Ballet Performance.

Benjamin Lepson, from New York City, joins the company as a corps de ballet member. Starting at the age of five, he trained for 12 years at the School of American Ballet and performed in many productions with New York City Ballet. As an advanced student, he has danced in four sessions of the New York Choreographic Institute.

Miami City Ballet warmly welcomes these new dancers to its company of world-class artists. For more information about the 2019-20 company and season, please visit our Website.

The 2019-2020 season officially kicks off with performances at the John F. Kennedy Center in Washington DC as Miami City Ballet and Dance Theatre of Harlem headline Ballet Across America, a weeklong festival celebrating women's creativity and leadership in ballet on May 31 to June 2, 2019. The Miami City Ballet home season opens on October 18, 2019, with 16 weeks of performances across Miami, Ft. Lauderdale, and West Palm Beach through April 26, 2020. Subscription packages are on sale now at miamicityballet.org or call 305.929.7010 or 877.929.7010 toll-free.

Miami City Ballet is one of the country's premier ballet companies with a mission to transform lives through the passion of ballet in the South Florida community. It performs for 100,000 patrons each year in Miami and locations throughout South Florida. The organization also has one of the most respected ballet training schools in the country with more than 1,000 participating students.

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