SCDIBC 2023 Jury

VLADIMIR ISSAEV is currently Ballet Master, Choreographer & Artistic Director of Arts Ballet Theatre of Florida and former Ballet Master of Ballet Nacional de Caracas – Teresa Carreño and Miami City Ballet School.

He was born in Siberia, Russia, in 1954. At the age of 11 he began his ballet studies at the Choreographic School of Voronezh, obtaining the degree of “Ballet Artist” in 1973.

Dancer at the Opera House of Ufa and the Opera House of Odessa
Master’s Degree from the State Institute of Arts Lunacharsky G.I.T.I.S. in Moscow.
He has been Academic and Artistic Director at the Choreographic School of Frounze, and Ballet Master for the disciplines of Classical Ballet, Character Dance, Court Dances and Pas de Deux.
Ballet Master for the Ballet Metropolitano de Caracas
Ballet Master at the Ballet Nacional de Caracas – Teresa Carreño and Artistic Director of II Company.
Ballet Master at Ballet Concierto de Puerto Rico
Ballet Master Miami City Ballet School

As a Choreographer he has staged several ballets in Russia, United States, Puerto Rico and Venezuela for the Choreographer School of Voronezh and Frounze, the Ballet School Teresa Carreño, Ballet Metropolitano de Caracas, Ballet Nacional de Caracas Teresa Carreño – Second Company and for the Ballet Nacional de Caracas Teresa Carreño itself, Ballet Concerto de Puerto Rico, Arts Ballet Theatre of Florida, Miami City Ballet School, The Georgia Youth Ballet, The Vaganova Ballet Academy (Kirov) in Saint Petersburg, Russia, Ballet Concierto de Puerto Rico, Ballet Juvenil de Venezuela, South African Ballet and Georgia Youth Ballet, Matsumoto Ballet in Nagoya, Japan, Caadi, Queretaro Mexico.

Artistic Director of the Russian Ballet Seminar of Russian Technique since 1998.
Ballet Master for the Florida Dance Festival and the Cecchetti Seminar at the Harid Conservatory.
Seven CD’s of Music for Ballet Technique Classes and Character Dances have been released. Every CD has received the best reviews.

Guest Ballet Master for: Le Jeune Ballet de France, Ballet Nacional de España , Les Ballets Jazz de Montreal, Orlando Ballet, Indonesia Ballet, ENSB Peru, CAADI Ballet, South African Ballet, Michiko Matsumoto Ballet
Judge at the First International Competition of Choreographers held in Russia, International Ballet Competition, International Ballet Competition of Lima, Nagoya international Ballet Competition in Japan, International Ballet Competition Korea, International Ballet Competition “Golden Pointe” in Poland

AWARDS:
2015 Best Choreographer for best production – Miami Life Awards
2009 Best Arts Educator of the State of Florida by the Florida Alliance for Arts Education.
2002 “Best New Choreographer” at the Dance Under the Stars Choreographic Competition in Palm Springs, California.
2002 Honorable Merit Diploma from the Terpsihora Foundation for the Advancement of the Arts of Dance of Saint Petersburg, Russia, in recognition for his outstanding performance enhancing the art of classical ballet on the Vaganova Style in the United States.
2000 Most influential Ballet teacher by the National Foundation of the Advancement of the Arts

Claresta started taking dance lessons at a very young age at Marlupi Dance Academy (MDA), until she was awarded advanced 2 with Distinction and represented Indonesia for the Genee Award in Toronto, Canada in 2008. Her professional debut started when she joined Beijing Dance Academy under the direction of Li Chen Hua in 2008.

In the same year, she received scholarship from Joffrey Ballet School in New York, USA with famous professional ballet dancers such as George De La Pena, Daniel Ulbricht, and Eva Jouravlev.

A year later, she was accepted in ABT (American Ballet Theatre) Summer Session in New York. In the following year, she joined the Washington Ballet under the direction of Kee Juan Han and Septime Webre. She was chosen to become the leading role in “Garden Pas De Deux” and became corps of the ballet in Septime Webre’s Nutcracker in 2010.

In the same year, she attended the full time professional program in Alvin Ailey before she started her professional career with “Arts Ballet Theatre of Florida” in 2011. She became a professional ballet teacher at Vladimir Issaev School of Classical Ballet, Vaganova in Miami, Florida. She was also invited to participate in the International Young Dancer Ballet Festival in Lima, Peru in 2013.

Her repertoires are Soloist and Corps, the Issaev’s Harlequinade, Fairy Doll, Le Corsaire, Raymonda, Cinderella, The Nutcracker, Little Mermaid in Ballet, Shostakovich (3 movements), Sleeping Beauty, Aladdin, and Edgar Anindo’s Fragmentos.

Kenny Shim completed his BA in Contemporary Dance at Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance, and subsequently his Post Grad at London Contemporary Dance School (Masters in Contemporary Dance Performance).

He joined the EDge Dance Company (London) 2016. During his training in the U.K., Kenny has worked with choreographers and company’s members from around Europe such as Wayne McGregor, Tom Roden, Alexander Whitley, Phillipe Blanchard, Gary Lambert, Alison Curtis-Jones, Lea Anderson, Joseph Toonga, Jeanne Yasko and Fred Ghedrig.

With an aptitude in choreography, Kenny has crafted works that have toured Europe namely, ‘Within’ and ‘Rite’. Recently, Kenny produced his debut production: TRIPLE BILL of Contemporary Dance Works, featuring two new choreographies – Winged Wolves and the Bamboo Mew and Pieces of Three Movements. He is also the commissioned choreographer for the 15th & 16th Boh Cameronian Arts Award (arts awards that has been devoted to recognising outstanding Malaysian art practitioners).

Kenny has a strong interest in film and has collaborated with Chicago based NEON 35 MEDIA Company in choreographing the recent H&M advert. He is also the movement director of the acclaimed musical The Edge, 10th Anniversary production written by Nick Choo, directed by Christopher Ling

Tong Wang
Associate Professor of Dance

University of California, Irvine
Artistic Director, East Meets West International Dance and music Festival

Following a successful career as a principal artist, Tong Wang has continued to devote his talents to the field of dance as a choreographer, dance professor and master teacher. In recent years, Tong!s creative works have continued to become notable internationally. While his choreographic works have received high praise from the nationally ranked dance departments of University of Utah, Butler University and University of California-Irvine, his work has also been performed by professional companies such as Ballet West, China Military Dance Ensemble, and Ballet Arkansas. His work “Chase” has been performed in the United States and China numerous times and was broadcast by China Central Television Station. “Qiu Yie” received the Outstanding Choreography Award at YAGP. As a master teacher, Tong has taught internationally and nationally at National Ballet of China, Hong Kong Ballet, Ballet West, Beijing Dance Academy, Colorado Ballet, and National Choreography Initiative.

After graduating with honors from the prestigious Beijing Dance Academy Ballet department in 1986, Tong Wang performed as a principal artist with companies such as Shanghai Ballet, Tulsa Ballet Theatre, Dayton Ballet, Colorado Ballet, and, most recently, Ballet West. While dancing professionally, Tong completed his B.F.A. and M.F.A. degrees in Ballet Teaching and Choreography with the University of Utah Ballet Department and also worked as a guest faculty member from 2000-2005. From 2005-2007, Tong served as Assistant Professor of Dance at Wright State University. He held the position of Dance professor at Butler University from 2007-2011. In fall 2011, Tong joined the distinguished Dance Department of University of California, Irvine. Currently serving as an associate professor, Tong is one of the creators and artistic directors for East Meets West International Dance and Music Festival from 2016 to present.

Kenichi started ballet at the age of three in Yokohama,Japan.

In 1985, he joined Universal Ballet at the age of 16.

In 1990, he moved to the Hong Kong Ballet as a soloist.

Since 1991, he has joined the Austrian Salzburg State Theater Ballet as a soloist and dances in Austria, Germany, Switzerland, France, Italy and Spain all over Europe.

Return to Japan in 1996

In 1997, he joined as a soloist with the National Ballet of Japan and opened Soki Ballet International in the same year.

In 2007, He was in charge of the choreography of Junior/Senior Men at the 18th All-Japan Ballet Competition of the Japan Ballet Association.

He was the judge of the ballet competition in the Kitakyushu branch of the Japan Ballet Association, and also was in charge of the Choreography for Girls/Men’s Variation.

In 2012, he served as a Japanese judge at the 25th Varna International Ballet Competition with the recommendation of Dr.Kenji Usui.

All Japan Ballet Union from 2013 Regular judge.

Japan Ballet Competition from 2014 Regular judge.

He served as a judge for the Korean International Ballet Competition in 2016.

From 2017, the Canaan International Ballet Competition (Hong Kong, Malaysia, Indonesia)Regular judge.

Instructed at Dutch National Ballet Academy in 2018.He choreographed “Grand Defile” at Chura Vista Ballet (San Diego, USA) and won the first prize in the contemporary junior category for his choreographed work “Romance”at YAGP 2019 Japan Semi Final.

2019-2020, Kenichi is coordinating and mentoring the scholarship of the Kirov Academy of Ballet of Washington DC.Since the same year, he has been Head of “art ballet intensive” Japan.
Judges from Miami International Ballet Competition since 2020.