Corey Bourbonniere

Corey Bourbonniere of Woonsocket, Rhode Island, joins the company from the Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre School’s Graduate Program. Prior to coming to Pittsburgh, Corey received his training at the State Ballet of Rhode Island and Heritage Ballet in Rhode Island and attended summer programs at the American Academy of Dance and Texas Ballet Theater. Corey has performed in past PBT productions, including The Three Musketeers, The Nutcracker, Peter Pan, Uncommon and Coppélia.

Nicholas Coppula

Nicholas Coppula is a Pittsburgh native who trained at PBT School for five years before joining PBT in 2006. He has performed on local stages, including La Roche College, Act One Theatre School, Point Park University and Prime Stage. During his free time, Nicholas also works as a photographer and lighting designer.

Alejandro Diaz

Alejandro Diaz is from Miami, Florida, and received his early dance training with Tony Catanzaro and later trained at the Boston Ballet School.  He danced with Boston Ballet II prior to joining PBT in 2008.  This is Alejandro’s fifth season as a PBT Corps de Ballet member.

Danielle Downey

Danielle Downey was born in Charlotte, North Carolina, and was raised in Erie, Pennsylvania. She received her early training with the Lake Erie Ballet, and attended summer programs with Boston Ballet, Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre and Central Pennsylvania Youth Ballet.  She studied in PBT’s Graduate Program prior to joining the company.  This is Danielle’s sixth season with the company. 

Get to know more about Danielle!

Stephen Hadala

Stephen Hadala , now in his 15th season, began his training in Detroit, Michigan, at Allard Academy of Dance. He later went on to study at Marygrove College, Dance Theatre of Harlem, School of American Ballet and Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre School. Stephen is best known for his Character roles, some of his favorites include Drosselmeyer in The Nutcracker, Dr. Coppelius in Coppélia, Von Rothbart in Swan Lake and Dracula in Dracula. Stephen has also enjoyed dancing "Oh Johnny" in Paul Taylor's Company B, "Stomper" in Tharp's In the Upper Room, the male lead in Dwight Rhoden's Carmina Burana and the "Elegy Boy" in Balanchine’s Serenade. Stephen lives in Polish Hill with his wife Maghen, their son Ian and their two dogs Honey and Lola.

Olivia Kelly

Olivia Kelly, originally from Cincinnati, Ohio,  began her training at Ballet Tech Ohio under Claudia Rudolf Barrett.  When she was thirteen, she was awarded a scholarship to study ballet at the Kirov Academy of Ballet in Washington D.C.  After graduating from the Kirov, Olivia trained in PBT School’s Graduate Program.  Olivia has attended summer programs at Julliard, American Ballet Theatre and the Joffrey Ballet School. Olivia joined Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre in 2011.

Get to know more about Olivia!

Yoshiaki Nakano

Yoshiaki Nakano, a native of Japan, received his early training at the Elite Ballet Studio in Osaka, Japan. He later trained at San Francisco Ballet School and Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre School's Pre-Professional Graduate Program. In 2010, Yoshiaki won the silver medal at the World Ballet Competition in Orlando, Florida.  Yoshiaki has danced in PBT's past performances of The Nutcracker and Swan Lake.  This is Yoshiaki’s third year with Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre.

Makoto Ono

Makoto Ono, a native of Japan, trained at the Hisatomi Yoshiko Ballet in Japan before coming to the Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre School in 2002. He has previously performed with K-Ballet Company in Tokyo. This is Makoto's eighth season as a PBT Corps de Ballet member.

Joseph Parr

Joseph Parr is from Wooster, Ohio, and joins PBT for his fifth season.  He received his training from Wayne Center for the Arts, University of Akron Dance Program and the Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre School Graduate Program.  He has performed with Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre, Cincinnati Ballet, Dance Theatre of Pennsylvania and Owensboro Dance Theatre.

Caitlin Peabody

Caitlin Peabody of New Hampshire is in her fourth season with Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre.  She received her training from Boston Ballet and joined Boston Ballet II in 2007.  Caitlin toured to Spain with Boston Ballet in 2007, and in 2006 was awarded the Dierdre Miles Burger Scholarship. With PBT, Caitlin has performed feature roles, including The Upper Room, Tinkerbell in Peter Pan and Marie in The Nutcracker.

Caitlin regularly contributes to the the PBT dancer blog, Human or Dancer.

JoAnna Schmidt

Born and raised in Florida, JoAnna Schmidt began training at Central Florida Ballet when she was seven years old. After ten years under the instruction of Vasile Petrutiu, Heather Fryxell, and Vladimir Bykov, she graduated from the Central Florida Ballet Academy in 2010. In the fall of the same year, JoAnna joined the Graduate Program in the Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre School. After spending two years as a Grad student, JoAnna is excited to be in her first season as a company member at Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre. She has received additional training from summer programs at Miami City Ballet, Bolshoi Ballet Academy and Jacob's Pillow.

Casey Taylor

Casey Taylor grew up in Pittsburgh attending the Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre School. In addition to the PBT School Graduate Program, Casey also trained at Pacific Northwest Ballet's Professional Division and attended summer courses at The School of American Ballet, Pacific Northwest Ballet and Boston Ballet. She has performed in various works with Pacific Northwest Ballet and as a guest artist with Dresden Semperoper Ballet and Pennsylvania Ballet. Casey is excited to be dancing again in Pittsburgh, close to her family and friends.

Get to know more about Casey!

Gabrielle Thurlow

Gabrielle Thurlow is a native of Buffalo, New York, and is in her sixth season with PBT. She received her training from Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre School, where she participated in the Graduate Program, and Neglia Conservatory of Ballet in Buffalo, NY. She has also studied at various summer programs, including School of American Ballet and American Ballet Theatre in New York.

Cooper Verona

Cooper Verona is originally from Connecticut.  He received his training from David Lawrence and Wendy Fish-Lawrence, Ethan Stiefel at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts, and Claudio Muñoz and Andrew Murphy at Houston Ballet’s Ben Stevenson Academy. In addition, he has studied at American Ballet Theatre's summer programs in New York and Detroit. He was in the world premieres of Ethan Stiefel's The Nutcracker and Johan Kobborg's Salute. He has performed with Houston Ballet II on tour and Houston Ballet's main company. Cooper joined PBT in 2011. 

Get to know more about Cooper!

Molly Wright

Molly Wright, originally from Tampa, Florida, is in her third season at PBT. Molly first began dancing at the Diane Partington Studio of Classical Ballet before joining the Pre-Professional Graduate Program at Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre School. Molly has also participated in extensive summer programs at Chautauqua Institution, Miami City Ballet, San Francisco Ballet and Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre.

Kaori Yanagida

Kaori Yanagida, from Tokyo, Japan, is in her third season with PBT. She began her training at the Mitaka Ballet Academy in Japan, with Tetsuji Adach, and the Hungarian National Ballet Academy in Hungary. In 2007, Kaori joined Columbia Classical Ballet where she was a company member for three years and performed such roles as Satanella in Carnival of Venice and the Sugarplum Fairy in The Nutcracker.