Officers
Founder and President, Alice Alyse
Director, Richard McDonough Director, Gina Buntz Treasurer, Moryns Lewitzke Secretary, Larry Klayman Alice Alyse is an honors society academic and ballet graduate of New World School for the Arts in Miami, Florida. At fifteen, she rehearsed with the Hartford Ballet and performed with members of the Joffrey Ballet under Gerald Arpino. She was awarded in ballet competition the 1st place winner of the National YoungArts Foundation and 1st place winner award from the National Arts and Letters Foundation. She received the Outstanding Performance Award from the International Ballet Competition in Varna, Bulgaria. At the age of sixteen, Ms. Alyse was invited to join the Miami City Ballet Company by the legendary Artistic Director Edward Villella. Ms. Alyse performed as a principal dancer, at the age of seventeen, with the Miami City Ballet and then the Sarasota Ballet of Florida.
At nineteen, Ms. Alyse danced principal roles with the San Francisco Ballet under the direction of Helgi Tomasson. At San Francisco Ballet she excelled in lead prominent ballerina roles such as Myrtha in Giselle, Itallian Ballerina in Antony Tudor’s Gala Performance, Bianca in Lar Lubovitch’s Othello, and the Diana Adams role in George Balanchine’s Liebeslieder Waltzer. She joined Broadway and performed over 300 performances of the three time Tony award winning Broadway Show Movin’ Out choreographed by Twyla Tharp. She has performed throughout the world on countless stages such as the Balanchine Celebration at the Kennedy Center – D.C., Opéra de Paris- Garnier, Mariinsky Theatre- Russia, Reykjavik City Theatre- Iceland, Edinburgh Playhouse- Scotland, Tivoli Gardens Theatre- Denmark, War Memorial Opera House- SF, Pantages Theatre- LA, Hollywood Bowl- LA, City Center- NYC and Lincoln Center- NYC. Ms. Alice Alyse served as an Artistic Director, Master Instructor and choreographer for the Joffrey Ballet School in New York City for five and a half years. During which time she founded Joffrey West - California, Joffrey South/West - Texas, and revamped the program for Joffrey South in Georgia. She built programs and performances. Ms. Alyse has earned her BA in Dance Performance from St. Mary’s College of California. Ms. Alyse is the President of the American Ballerina™ Foundation and for years she has personally worked on helping young artist in achieving their goals and dreams. She saw that so many artist loved what they did, loved to entertain, however they are many times left without help. Artists’ give us hope, love, joy, entertainment and add beauty to our world. It’s time we give back! Let us join together. Help Artist Thrive™ Ms. Buntz has taught and choreographed throughout the U.S. and overseas with for the U.S. State Department in Europe, Korea, East Africa and Haiti. She is a recipient of five NEA Choreographer’s Fellowships, and has presented her work at the American Dance Festival, Edinburgh Festival, CNDC Angers in France among many others. As a choreographer, Ms. Buntz was hailed by the New York Times Anna Kisselgoff as, "A dancer's choreographer - the possessor of a virtuoso mind whose
inventiveness is of keen interest to other dancers." Ms. Buntz has an MFA from the University of Michigan and has been on faculty at the Dreyfoos School of the Arts, New World School of the Arts, Interlochen Arts Academy, Stephens College, Cranbrook Schools, Marygrove College and the University of Michigan. She has served as Chair of the Dance Department at the Los Angeles County High School for the Arts since 2007. Gina continues to teach around the country, most recently at Joffrey West in Los Angeles, Oklahoma Arts Institute, Gibney Dance Center, New York University, and the Ailey School in NYC. |