As Artistic Director of Ballet Center of Fort Worth, Ms. Tseng passes on her professional experience, developing students who will be prepared to lead the way in the future of professional dance.
Ms. Tseng is from Italy, where she began her training studying classical ballet with teachers such as Mr. Erik Bruhn, Ms. Yvette Chauvire’, Mr. Bruno Telloli, Mr. Ricardo Nunez and Ms. Ekaterina Maximova. Ms Tseng started her professional career in Italy where she danced with Teatro Comunale of Florence, Teatro Regio of Torino, and Teatro Nuovo of Torino. In 1990 she accepted an offer from Mr. Roy Tobias to join the Universal Ballet Company of Seoul.[More].
Ms. Edele began her career as a dancer, choreographer, and instructor in Dallas performing in the mediums of television, concert, and corporate/industrials. Her career has expanded over 15 years, and has gone on to include theater, commercial, and film -- adding credits of director, writer, and show producer. Her career has taken her to Austin, Las Vegas, and Los Angeles as choreographer, instructor, and performer working on the stage, TV, and film mediums.
Ms. Edele received a degree in the Applied Arts in Acting Performance, and has won numerous awards for commitment and dedication to the studies of her crafts. She has also studied under Jay Hall, learning the Luigi jazz technique, Fosse, and rhythm tap, and went on to assist Mr. Hall working in the dance and theater department of MVC.
Ms. Edele continues to produce, direct, and choreograph theatrical entertainment, providing a unique opportunity for professionals in the area, as well as combining different disciplines of the arts. She has worked as an instructor in Dallas and LA teaching the disciplines of ballet, jazz, lyrical, tap, modern, hip hop, musical theater, drill team, and acting.
Ms. Edele enjoys the opportunity to not only to teach different art disciplines, but also highly valuable skills that can be used for a lifetime of success for those working toward a professional career or the recreational student.
Ms. Hunter began her dance training at the age of eight under the instruction of Penny Askew at the Western Oklahoma Ballet Academy and was a performing company member of the Western Oklahoma Ballet Theatre for six years. Upon graduating high school, she attended the University of Iowa on a Dance Department scholarship, received the Francoise Martinet ballet scholarship in 2000, and graduated with a BFA in dance in 2003.
While in Iowa, she was able to study technique and choreography not only with the UI faculty but also with guest teachers and choreographers such as Joan Buttram, David Capps, Nacho Duato, Miguel Gutierrez, Nicholas Leichter, Lars Lubivich, Ben Stevenson, and Twyla Tharp, among others. In addition to performing in original works by the UI Dance faculty, several works of her own choreography were selected for UI Dance presentations.
Throughout her training, she has been awarded scholarships to study at summer intensive programs such as American Dance Festival, Oklahoma Summer Arts Institute, Long Beach Summer Ballet, and Regional Dance America’s Craft of Choreography Conference. These opportunities allowed her to train with renowned teachers like Patricia Barker, Thom Clower, David Dorfman, Mark Haim, Gelsey Kirkland, Jennifer Nugent, Clay Taliaferro, Edward Villella, and David Wilcox. She has performed with Contemporary Dance/Fort Worth, Dancers In Company, Duarte Dance Works, Charlotte Adams & Dancers, Push Comes to Shove, and UI Dance Company, in addition to guest artist work.
Ms. Hunter is now dancing with Texas Dance Theatre where she also serves as the company's Ballet Mistress.
Ms. Lemons began dancing at the age of 5 at the Plano Dance Academy in Plano, TX. After her family moved to Fort Worth, she continued dancing and soon joined the school at Texas Ballet Theater (formerly Fort Worth Dallas Ballet). While there, she had the privilege of working with Ben Stevenson and dancing in The Nutcracker, Swan Lake, Cinderella, and CoppŽlia. During her senior year of high school, Ms. Lemons chose to study with Chung-Lin Tseng and Enrica Guana Tseng as they started the Ballet Center of Fort Worth.
After graduating from high school, Ms. Lemons was awarded a scholarship in the ballet program at the University of Oklahoma. An injury caused her to change degrees and move back to Texas. She then began taking yoga classes, attended workshops, and has become a certified yoga instructor. Ms. Lemons has again enjoyed working with Chung-Lin and Enrica, as well as teaching ballet and yoga classes at their school.
Ms. Pleasant has lived in DFW for over ten years. Her early dance studies include the Ballet Conservatory in Lewisville as well as the Rock School in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She once received the Buster Cooper Scholarship from the Dance Council.
She has completed a B.A. in Art History and is completing a B.F.A. in Dance from Southern Methodist University.
Ms. Pleasant has taught dance throughout the area for many years and has performed with Dallas Black Dance Theatre’s second company as well as the Festival Ballet of North Central Texas. She has also assisted the Dance Theatre of Harlem in New York with their administrative internal affairs. Ms. Pleasant currently works at the Kimbell Art Museum.
Originally from San Francisco, Ms. Priolo received most of her ballet training from San Francisco Ballet School while on a full merit scholarship. While attending the school she was invited to perform many ballets with the company including The Sleeping Beauty, Giselle, Swan Lake , Raymonda and The Nutcracker.
In 2002, she was asked to join the English National Ballet where she performed at the Royal Albert Hall in London . She then joined Ballet West in Salt Lake City where she danced from 2002-2006. There she enjoyed dancing many Classical ballets, Balanchine and the more contemporary pieces such as Rite of Spring by Glen Tetley. In 2004, the company was invited to perform an evening of Antony Tudor Ballets at the prestigious Edinburgh International Festival in Scotland.
Sophie retired in 2006 making Fort Worth her home while enjoying a career in Real Estate.
Originally from Atlanta, Georgia, Ms. Schilling trained at the Atlanta Ballet Center for Dance Education on full merit scholarship from 1994-2001, where she attended the pre-professional program which provided her with a wide variety of styles in order to prepare for a professional career in dance.
She studied with teachers such as Fernando Bujones, Anne-Marie Holmes, Violette Verdy, Patty McBride, Jean Pierre Bonnefoux, Li Chou Cheng.
Ms. Schilling was invited to join the Atlanta Ballet Company under the direction of Mr. John McFall for the 2002-2003 and 2003-2004 seasons. She traveled with the company to London where she performed in John McFall’s Nutcracker, Prisma, Stanton Welch’s Madame Butterfly, Michael Pink’s Dracula and Romeo & Juliet.
In 2004, Ms. Schilling joined Texas Ballet Theater as a company member, where she currently performs. She has enjoyed dancing the role of Snow Queen in Mr. Stevenson’s Nutcracker and the Autumn Fairy from Cinderella along with other Mr. Stevenson productions.
Ms. Schilling currently teaches the Intermediate levels at the Ballet Center of Fort Worth.
Taiwan-born Chung-Lin Tseng began his artistic career as a figure skater, and in 1984, won a gold medal for pair’s figure skating in the Taiwan National Championship. In 1990, he accepted a two-year, full scholarship to the Hong Kong Academy for the Performing Arts where he developed a strong background in classical ballet and partnering technique. In the spring of 1992, Mr. Tseng had the great honor of performing in London in the production of Hong Kong Heartbeat where he was privileged to meet Princess Diana.
Prior to coming to Texas, Mr. Tseng danced with the Universal Ballet Company of Seoul. As a soloist for 6 years, he danced in 11 full-length and 19 one-act ballets. Mr. Tseng gained recognition on the international stage, performing in over 100 cities and 16 countries around the world. In 1998, Mr. Tseng joined Texas Ballet Theater where he performed as principal dancer under the direction of Ben Stevenson. He has been featured in Balanchine roles such as Puck in Midsummer Night’s Dream, Allegro Brillante, the Poet in La Sonnambula, the Waltz Boy in Serenade and others. In the classical repertoire, he has appeared as Prince Sigfried in Swan Lake ( Second Act), the Sugar Plum Fairy’s Cavalier in The Nutcracker, the male lead in Paquita, and in Mr. Stevenson’s Four Last Songs and Cinderella.
Mr. Tseng began his choreographic work as a student under the supervision of Aaron Wan. He continue developing his talent choreographing for Universal Ballet and other professional groups in Taiwan and Italy under the supervision of Roy Tobias. He has presented two full-length evenings of his choreography in Fort Worth with dancers from Texas Ballet Theater, and his works were selected by the Star-Telegram as one of the “ Ten Best Performing Events” of the year 2002.
In the summer 2004 Mr. Tseng staged the full-length production of La Sylphide for the Kaohsiung City Ballet in Taiwan. Mr Tseng was appointed Visiting-Artist-In-Residence at Southern Methodist University, Division of Dance, in 2004. In 2005-2006 has taught as part-time adjunct faculty at Texas Christian University, Department of Ballet and Modern Dance.
Kerri Westfield began her dance training at South Texas Dance Theatre at the age of 7. She was accepted into intensive summer programs by the Virginia School of the Arts and the Houston Ballet. Kerri was also accepted to the school of dance at TCU in Fort Worth where she spent one semester before moving on to graduate with a degree in Entrepreneurial Management.
Since graduating from TCU, Kerri has had the privilege of dancing with the Ballet Center of Fort Worth. She currently works at American Airlines’ headquarters office in the Dallas-Fort Worth area.