Guest Artists for The Nutcracker

Sarah Smith

Born in Bad Axe, Michigan, Sarah Smith began her first serious ballet training at Boca Ballet Theatre at the age of 11. She remained there for three years under the tutelage of Jane Tyree and Dan Guin. Smith then attended The Harid Conservatory for four years on a full tuition scholarship where her teachers were Victoria Schneider, Olivier Pardina and Svetlana Osiyeva. Smith then received a full scholarship to train at the Joffrey Ballet School in New York.
In 2002, Smith decided she would like to further her academic studies and accepted a merit scholarship to attend Indiana University. There she majored in Ballet Performance and Nutrition Science. She trained with Virginia and Jacques Cesbron, Violette Verdy and was coached by Guillaume Graffin and Julie Kent. Among the roles she danced were the Sugar Plum Fairy in The Nutcracker and Odette in Swan Lake. Since 2003, Smith has performed as a guest artist with Boca Ballet Theatre in Joseph Morrissey’s Flower Festival, Progression and the Sugar Plum Fairy in The Nutcracker.
Smith joined American Ballet Theatre as an apprentice in January 2004 and is currently a dancer in their corps de ballet.

Tobin Eason

Tobin Eason of Mandeville, Louisiana began his ballet training at age seven at the Apetrei Dance Center. At age 11, he transferred to the Giacobbe Academy of Dance in New Orleans, LA where he studied with Richard Rholdon and Joseph Giacobbe. While in New Orleans, Tobin performed with the New Orleans Youth Ballet and Delta Festival Ballet Company. He continued his professional training through the School of American Ballet where he received a full scholarship in 2000. While at SAB, Tobin was awarded the Nureyev Foundation Scholarship Award. In the summer of 2001, he attended ABT’s Summer Intensive Program on full scholarship.

Eason joined American Ballet Theatre as an apprentice in 2002 and became a member of the Company’s corps de ballet in April 2003. His roles with the Company include the Cockerel in La Fille mal gardée, a featured role in HereAfter, a Groom in Petrouchka and the Neapolitan Dance in Swan Lake.

Juan Carlos Penuela

A native of Cali, Colombia, Juan Carlos Peñuela began dancing at the age of 12 with Incolballet, a ballet-centered secondary school. His teachers included artistic staff from the National Ballet of Cuba and several Russian ballet academies. After graduating in 1986, Mr. Peñuela went on to dance with the school’s company, Ballet de Cali.

During the seven years he was with Ballet de Cali, he danced throughout South America, Europe, and the Caribbean Islands. His repertoire consisted of leading roles in contemporary works as well as classical pieces, including the principal male in Les Sylphides, Colin in La Fille Mal Gardée, and Franz in Coppélia.

 In 1993, Mr. Peñuela moved to the United States, and began studying in New York with William Burmann. From 1993 through 1995, he danced with Ballet Arizona in Phoenix, where he danced several pieces by artistic director and choreographer Michael Uthoff, and also created roles in new ballets by Violette Verdy and Helgi Tomasson. In 1996, he joined Dance Theater of Harlem, where he performed in many of George Balanchine’s works, including The Four Temperaments, Agon, Allegro Brillante, and Bugaku, as well as a variety of contemporary pieces.

 Mr. Peñuela danced with Pennsylvania Ballet from 1998-2004. He was featured in several roles in The Nutcracker, and in Lynne Taylor-Corbett’s Great Galloping Gottschalk. Most notably, he received critical praise for dancing the role of The Moor in Josè Limon’s The Moor’s Pavane. He also performed in new works such as Jeffrey Gribler’s Cricket Dances, Meredith Rainey’s Slight Shifts, and Matthew Neenan’s Sfrenato.

In September 2001 and 2002, Mr. Peñuela was selected to represent his native Colombia by performing in the Festival Internacional de Ballet de Miami, which featured dancers from more than a dozen countries worldwide.

During April and May 2005, Mr. Peñuela worked with Jimmy Gamonet’s new company, Maximum Dance Ballet Gamonet.  For much of the rest of 2004-2005, Mr. Peñuela worked in Cali, Colombia, with the school and company Incolballet. In addition to acting as Ballet Master and conducting classes six days a week, he set works such as Don Quixote and Meredith Rainey’s Slight Shifts (Miniaturas Moviles). He also danced featured roles in various contemporary and classical works.