Faculty

Jorge Laico, born in Manila, Philippines, received his dance training at Manila Metropolis Ballet under Tony Fabella and Eddie Elejar, then joining the professional ranks at Philippine Ballet Theater. He studied under the Royal Academy of Dancing syllabus (RAD) and Atlanta School of Ballet.

Mr. Laico’s 18-year professional dance career led him to join numerous top U.S. ballet companies. He joined Atlanta Ballet under Balanchine dancer Robert Barnett where he performed a broad repertory that included works by Marius Petipa, George Balanchine, Fernand Nault, Tom Pazik, and Toni Pimble. He joined Eugene Ballet-Ballet Idaho as principal dancer, and has danced with Tulsa Ballet, Kansas City Ballet, Oakland Ballet, Ballet Pacifica, and Lexington Ballet. He was featured in Balanchine’s Tchaikovsky Pas de Deux and Stars & Stripes, Marius Petipa’s Le Corsaire, David Allan Greer’s Capriole Suite, Dennis Nahat’s Quicksilver, Robert Sund’s Carmen, Stephen Mill’s Naughty Ones, August Bournonville’s La Sylphide, and The Nutcracker.

After his performing career, he taught at the Rock School of Pennsylvania Ballet, North Carolina School of the Arts, Escuela Municipal del Teatro in Ribarroja del Turia, Spain, Pennsylvania Governor School of the Arts, and Cirque du Soleil. He was appointed Artistic Director of Wilmington Ballet Academy of Dance in May 2009 and Peoria Ballet 2018. He has choreographed and restaged classical and contemporary ballets including Nutcracker, Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, Coppelia, 12 Dancing Princesses, Brigadoon, Piazzolla Suite, and Ave Maria.

Mr. Laico has taught beginner, intermediate, advanced, pas de deux, pointe, and male and female solo variations. His students have gone on to professional careers with New York City Ballet, American Ballet Theater, English National Ballet, and Dutch National Ballet. He has trained and coached dancers who have won medalists and awardees at the prestigious International Ballet Competition and Youth America Grand Prix in New York. To further his teaching knowledge, Mr. Laico has attended teaching and choreographic workshops with Central Pennsylvania Youth Ballet, Alonzo King Workshop, and Regional Dance America.

Ava was born and raised in Flint, Michigan, and received her early training at the Flint School of Performing Arts. She then went on to earn a Bachelor of Science in Ballet and Legal Studies from Indiana University. She also trained at the Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre School and performed with the company while there. Since joining the Sacramento Ballet in 2010, some of Ava’s favorite roles have been Choleric in The Four Temperaments (George Balanchine), Tall Girl soloist in Rubies (Balanchine), soloist in Wild Sweet Love (Trey McIntyre), Myrtha in Giselle (Ron Cunningham), and Gertrude in Hamlet (Stephen Mills). She has also been featured in works by Val Caniparoli, Ma Cong, Jodie Gates, Adam Hougland, Gabrielle Lamb, Edwaard Liang, Darrell Moultrie, Amy Seiwert and Septime Webre.  Ava is a founding member and dancer with Capital Dance Project, and has previously danced for Texture Contemporary Ballet, Oakland Ballet, and The Suzanne Farrell Ballet. Ava is additionally on the faculty of the School of Sacramento Ballet. She also enjoys embroidery and sewing and has her own business creating handmade goods (Picky Stitches).

R. Colby Damon was born and raised in Richmond, VA and received his early dance training at Richmond Ballet, Boston Ballet, and Virginia School of the Arts. Throughout his 12-year performing career, he danced professionally for Sacramento Ballet, The Metropolitan Opera Ballet, Mark Morris Dance Group, Northwest Dance Project, and BalletX among others. He has danced the works of George Balanchine, Alexei Ratmansky, Dwight Rhoden, Annabelle Lopez-Ochoa, Bobbi Jean Smith, Matthew Neenan, and many more.

As a choreographer, he has received commissions from Nashville Ballet, American Repertory Ballet, BalletX, Sacramento Ballet, Pennsylvania Ballet II, Nashville Ballet II, Bryn Mawr College, Skidmore College, and many other organizations, and his work has been performed at festivals in Brazil, Mexico, Bermuda, and New York City. His work, On the Mysterious Properties of Light, toured nationally and internationally with BalletX. As a teacher, Colby has taught at a a number of prestigious dance institutions, including of The Rock School for Dance Education, Ballet Tech – NYC Public School for Ballet, Ballet West Academy, Nashville Ballet, and The University of the Arts. He has also been invited to teach company class for City Ballet of São Paulo, Ballet Prejlocaj, BalletX, Pennsylvania Ballet, Ballet Hispanico, BodyTraffic, Nashville Ballet, and Sacramento Ballet. Colby has additionally coached numerous national finalists for the Youth America Grand Prix Ballet Competition, and received the Outstanding Choreography Award at the Philadelphia Regionals in 2019.

Colby graduated Magna Cum Laude with a BA in Performing Arts from Saint Mary’s College of Cailfornia’s LEAP Program, in addition to professional certificates in Non-Profit Arts Management, Marketing Strategy, and Creative Advertising. Besides rehearsing children for Nutcracker and serving as an instructor for the Second Company, Colby is also the Marketing Director for Sacramento Ballet, in addition to continuing to work as a freelance choreographer and dance teacher throughout the USA and beyond. http://www.colbydamon.com.

Local to Sacramento, California, Alexa has been a part of the world of ballet since the age of 4. Starting at Pamela Hayes Classical Ballet Training in El Dorado Hills, she learned the foundational techniques from those who studied and danced at London’s Royal Ballet.

Alexa then moved on to Deane Dance Center where she trained under Barbara Crockett (founder of the Sacramento Ballet), Allison Deane, and Jorge Esquivel. She participated in Regional Dance America and attended summer courses at the University of Utah and San Francisco Ballet.

She then joined Sacramento Ballet’s Trainee program at its inception in 2019, being given the opportunity to perform a variety of roles ranging from contemporary movement to classical ballets such as Swan Lake, Napoli, La Bayadere and Giselle. She was an apprentice at Sacramento Ballet for two years,

She has switched to teaching ballet at School of Sacramento Ballet and is thrilled to pass on her knowledge to the students.

Photo by Tony Nguyen

Katie Kilbourn starting dancing at the age of four and trained all over Sacramento before moving to the East Coast where she earned a Bachelor’s Degree in Jazz Dance Performance at the University of the Arts in Philadelphia. After relocating to New York City, Katie had the opportunity to dance with several companies including Balasole, J/D Dansfolk, and IKADA before she co-founded Borne Dance Company with Kianna Moye in 2015 and became Borne’s Artistic Director. Katie’s work with Borne Dance Company has been performed at the Alvin Ailey Citigroup Theater, Bellevue Hospital, BAAD!, The Producer’s Club, and Anita’s Way. Through Borne, Katie has had the opportunity to work with and collaborate with Renoly Santiago, The Theater Development Fund, Frank Sinatra School of the Arts, Project Heal, Natomas Charter Performing and Fine Arts Academy and the National Eating Disorders Association. Alongside choreographing with her company, Katie’s other passion is teaching dance to students of all ages and backgrounds. She has been a teacher for over seven years and has had the privilege to teach all ages and levels. She loves helping her students develop and expand their artistic expression and she believes art is a necessary tool in everybody’s life.

Genevieve Szaly Eidem was born and raised in Anchorage, Alaska. She began her classical training at Anchorage Classical Ballet Academy under Farah Zoetmulder.

While training in Alaska, Genevieve enjoyed dancing in roles including Aurora-A Tale of the Northern Lights with Anchorage Ballet, The Nutcracker with Oregon Ballet Theatre and with Eugene Ballet. She performed in Quq Yucq, an Alaskan Swan Lake, choreographed by Gilmer Duran of Eugene Ballet and danced the leading role in Into the Jungle choreographed by Niki Maple with ADT Company II. In 2013 Genevieve accepted a position in the Ballet 5:8 trainee program. She spent two years dancing with Ballet 5:8, and enjoyed touring and performing classical and original works including soloist roles with the company and school.

Leaving the stage due to injury, Genevieve discovered her love and passion for teaching and choreography. She has taught various dance styles and has choreographed for studios in Alaska, Illinois, California, and Kyiv, Ukraine. To continue her education she traveled to Lyon, France in 2019 to earn her Progressing Ballet Technique teaching certificate under Callie Sant.

In 2019 Genevieve joined the faculty at Sacramento Ballet and has enjoyed teaching a wide variety of classes and skill levels. One of her favorite roles at SSB is teaching older adults Falls Prevention Through Movement, and she is currently the Director of Outreach, and Children’s Rehearsal Director.

Isabella Velasquez grew up training in Orange County at the Maple Conservatory. At 17 she joined The Washington Ballet in DC as a trainee, and continued training at Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre’s graduate program for two years after. Isabella joined Sacramento Ballet in 2014 where she has had the opportunity to perform many lead roles including Odette/Odile in Swan Lake, Cinderella in Paul Vasterling’s Cinderella, Sugar Plum in The Nutcracker, Ophelia in Stephen Mills’ Hamlet, and the lead in George Balanchine’s Allegro Brillante, Donizetti Variations and Tarantella. She has also been featured in neoclassical and contemporary works by choreographers Alejandro Cerrudo, Ma Cong, Septime Webre, Adam Hougland, Ron Cunningham, Amy Seiwert, Annabelle Lopez Ochoa, Val Caniparoli, Twyla Tharp, and Ihsan Rustem. Outside of Sacramento, Isabella has danced multiple times with The National Choreographers Initiative in Irvine, Amy Seiwert’s Imagery in San Francisco, and has guested multiple times with Nevada Dance Company. Isabella has also danced and choreographed for Capital Dance Project, and Ballet Project OC. When not working Isabella loves to spend time with her two wiener dogs Luigi and Leonardo!

Cynthia Booth is a Sacramento State University alumni who received a BA in Dance and a BS in Psychology. As a student she attended four American College Dance Association conferences where she participated in a variety of classes and performed each year.  Booth received training in aerial dance and unarmed stage combat at CSU Summer Arts 2014. In 2015 she attended and interned at the American Dance Festival at Duke University. She graduated in 2016 as the honor student for the Department of Theatre and Dance. Her movement is mostly influenced by training in Dunham and Horton technique, improvisation, and floorwork. Booth judges colorguard movement for the Northern California Band Association and dances with Lorelei Bayne Dance Projects and Impulse Anima. She is a principal dancer in bbMoves, a social justice dance theatre company. Booth started teaching and choreographing for the School of Sacramento Ballet in 2020. She stands on the shoulders of her teachers and mentors; Lorelei Bayne, Marcus Mills, Bernard Brown, Nolan T’Sani, Nicole Manker, Melisa Cervantes, Philip Flickinger, and Dr. Linda Goodrich.

Agata Grzelak began her training in multiple disciplines including ballet, pointe, modern, jazz, and character under the artistic direction of Ayako Takahashi and faculty which included Michael Lowe, Maria LeMance, Audie Atienza, and Mariko Takahashi. In 2010, she quickly immersed herself in the Sacramento State Dance program and began training under noteworthy faculty members such as Nolan T’Sani, Lisa Ross, Randee Pauve, Lorelei Bayne, Dr. Linda Goodrich, Philip Flickinger, and Ed Brazo. Agata has performed in numerous works on and off campus in venues such as CSUS University Theatre, Crocker Art Museum, and ODC Theatre for guest artists. In spring 2013, Agata was the very first recipient of the new Department of Theatre and Dance Joseph Allen Long Scholarship, recognizing excellence in Dance. In fall 2014, she graduated with her Bachelors of Arts in Dance. Agata is currently teaching dance at St. Francis High School.

Samuel Alden Fulk is a professional ballet dancer living in Sacramento. He is experienced in a wide range of dance styles and methodologies, with a focus on classical ballet, modern, and contemporary dance. Born and raised in California, he grew up performing in dance, musical theatre and dramatic productions, later joining the pre-professional company Santa Cruz Ballet Theatre, directed by Robert Kelley and Diane Cypher.

Samuel then went on to perform professionally with Utah Regional Ballet for six seasons under the direction of Jacqueline Colledge.  During this time, he also attended Utah Valley University, from which he graduated with honors in 2014 with a BFA in Dance.  While in Utah, Samuel also taught at Academy of Ballet directed by Lynne Thompson, and served as the Director of their second company Ballet Utah II North.

Since relocating to Sacramento in 2016, Samuel has become a highly sought after dance instructor in the region.  In January of 2018 he became a professor of dance at CSU Sacramento, where he teaches upper division ballet.  Samuel regularly teaches master classes and private lessons in classical and contemporary ballet, pas de deux, modern dance and broadway jazz.  Samuel choreographs works on dancers with varying levels of experience, from beginning to professional.  Samuel performs as a guest artist for professional and pre-professional companies. He is proud to have been a company member for three seasons with Sacramento Contemporary Dance Theatre, a company which partners with organizations to produce impactful work about important causes such as sign language integration, confronting cancer, and human trafficking.