Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre Signs New Dancers For 2022-2023 Season

Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre (PBT) Artistic Director Susan Jaffe has signed five new dancers to the company roster for PBT's 2022-2023 Season. The season opens Oct. 7-9, with Storytelling in Motion at the August Wilson African American Cultural Center.

Ariana Chernyshev, of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, will join the company as an apprentice for the 2022-2023 Season. Chernyshev has trained at PBT School from Pre-Ballet all the way through to the graduate program. Pittsburgh native David O'Matz joins Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre as a corps de ballet dancer, previously having danced at Orlando Ballet. Maria Eduarda Pinto of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil also joins the company as an apprentice.

In other roster changes for the 2022-2023 Season, soloists Masahiro Haneji of Japan and Lucius Kirst of Los Angeles were promoted to principal dancers and Colin McCaslin of Vineland, New Jersey was promoted from corps de ballet to soloist. Apprentices from the 2021-2022 Season Sujanya Dhillon of Vancouver, Canada and Jacob Miller of Lawrence, Massachusetts have been promoted to the corps de ballet. Principal Dancer Alejandro Diaz of Miami, Florida has resigned his position as principal dancer. Corps de Ballet Dancers Cooper Verona of Connecticut and Victoria Watford of Cleveland, Ohio have left PBT to join Ballet Met in Columbus, Ohio.

Single tickets for Storytelling in Motion and other 2022-2023 Season productions are on sale now at www.pbt.org, 412-456-6666 or the Box Office at Theater Square. Tickets start at $29. Subscription packages are available now by visiting www.pbt.org or calling 412-454-9107.

About the New Dancers

Sujanya Dhillon, from Vancouver, Canada, has trained with Goh Ballet Academy, Miami City Ballet School and San Francisco Ballet School and has attended summer programs at all three. She received First Place Scholarships from Coastal Capital Savings and Affinity Dance in 2017, was awarded the Shakti Award for Artistic Achievement in 2019, and received the British Columbia Arts Council Grant in both 2018 and 2020. She also received a Young Artists Relief Fund grant from The American Friends of the Paris Opera & Ballet in 2020, created to support artists during the times of COVID-19. Her repertoire includes excerpts from La Bayadére, Don Quixote and George Balanchine's Coppélia, as well as Goh Ballet Academy's Four Seasons, Peter and the Wolf and The Nutcracker. Sujanya was an apprentice with PBT in the 2021-2022 season.

Jacob Miller began his ballet training at Northeast Dance Center in Lawrence, Massachusetts. He left home to continue his training at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts (UNSCA) in 2016, where he was awarded the Gillian Murphy Scholarship. After receiving his high school diploma in dance, Miller stayed at UNCSA for college and is currently working toward his BFA in dance performance. While at school, Miller worked with many renowned choreographers, such as Goyo Montero, Aszure Barton and Susan Jaffe. He has also performed principal roles in classical and neoclassical ballets, such as Marius Petipa's The Sleeping Beauty and George Balanchine's Concerto Barocco. Miller was an apprentice with PBT in the 2021-2022 season.

David O'Matz joins Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre from Orlando Ballet, where he has danced since February 2021. He also previously danced at Joffrey Ballet Studio Company, and received his training from San Francisco Ballet School and Ballet Academy of Pittsburgh. Selected repertoire include Hilarion in Giselle, the pas de trois variation in Swan Lake, Rapid Maneuver by Nicolas Blanc, Life's a Bridge by Annabelle Lopez Ochoa, Ballet D'Isoline by Helgi Tomasson and Stars and Stripes by George Balanchine.

About the New Apprentices

Ariana Chernyshev was born in Pittsburgh and trained at Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre School (PBT School) from Pre-Ballet all the way through to the Graduate program. Additionally, she attended summer programs at Pacific Northwest Ballet, American Ballet Theatre, Cincinnati Ballet and The Washington School of Ballet. In 2019, Ariana accepted a trainee position at The Washington School of Ballet, where she performed with the company and danced lead roles in classical and contemporary works with the school. As a Graduate student at PBT School, she has had the honor of performing with the company in George Balanchine's Rubies, Terrence S. Orr's The Nutcracker and The Sleeping Beauty. In 2022, Ariana performed as a guest artist of Tulsa Ballet's Swan Lake. Ariana enjoys teaching yoga to the high school students at PBT School and was thrilled to perform Susan Jaffe's Swan Lake last May.

Maria Eduarda Pinto was born in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, where she started taking ballet class at the age of two. She joined the Maria Olenewa Dance School and finished her studies at the Lyceu Dance School supervised by Lorena Boaventura. In 2020, she trained at Miami City Ballet with Aranxta Ochoa and Alexander Iziliaev. She won several awards in competitions in Brazil and was a finalist in the Latin America Selections of the Prix de Lausanne and the Youth America Grand Prix, in addition to participating in several international competitions such as Tanzolymp, ADCIBC, WBC and VKIBC.

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