Faculty and Staff

Daniel trained with Jonathan Watts, Larry Long at the Ruth Page Foundation, Roger Tully in London, and David Howard in New York. During his career, he danced with the American Ballet Theatre, The Joffrey Ballet, and the Lar Lubovitch Dance Company and was noted for his partnering skills and dramatic roles.

During his career, he had several notable accolades and accomplishments, such as being featured in films, television, and winning First Place at the Saint Sauveur International Choreographic Competition. He was televised in Russia dancing with Ekaterina Maximova at the Kremlin Palace, appeared with Gala Des Etoiles in Montreal, was featured with the BBC of London, and appeared in the documentary film “Ballet Russes.”

In addition to his long dance career, he has choreographed ballets for the ABT Studio Company, Oregon Ballet Theatre, and ABT Summer Intensive Programs. He has also directed and choreographed for the Hiroshima Opera Company.

As a teacher, he has worked with students at the ABT Summer Intensive in New York and The Joffrey Ballet. He was a Professor of Dance at the New School University Eugene Lang College in New York City. He continues to coach dancers privately around the world and is noted for his knowledge of kinetic principles, music theory, and understanding of the classical form as it relates to the dance.

This is Mr. Baudendistel’s tenth year teaching at The School of Ballet Arizona. In addition to teaching, he performs with the Ballet Arizona and has been featured in Don Quixote, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Sleeping Beauty and Romeo & Juliet.

Ms. Acatos-Dadey began her formal ballet training in her native Switzerland. She furthered her studies at the Academie de Danse Rosella Hightower in Cannes, France and the John Cranko Schule in Stuttgart, Germany. Ms. Acatos was a prize winner of the prestigious competition, the Prix de Lausanne, and enjoyed a career that spanned over 22 years.

Chosen by George Balanchine, she began her professional career at the Grand Theatre de Genéve under the Artistic Direction of George Balanchine, with Director, Patricia Neary. With that company and later the Zurich Ballet, Ms. Acatos worked directly with Mr. Balanchine and as a soloist she danced roles in over 20 ballets by him. She also danced in the works of Jerome Robbins, Jiri Kylian, William Forsythe, Hans van Manen, Robert North and in classical ballets such as Giselle, Sleeping Beauty, Don Quixote, Le Coq D‘or and Cinderella.

She remained with Zurich Ballet under the direction of Uwe Scholz until her departure in 1988. Notable in her career were not only working with Balanchine but also performances at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. where she danced with Rudolf Nureyev. Upon joining Ballet Arizona as a Principal Dancer, she danced in leading roles in the Nutcracker, Swan Lake, Raymonda, and Cinderella and in many world premieres as well. She also had many roles created for her while under the direction of Jean Paul Comelin and Michael Uthoff, and performed in ballets created by her husband Donald Dadey.

Since her retirement from the stage, Ms. Acatos has dedicated her time to the teaching and training of future dancers. As a faculty member of The School of Ballet Arizona, she will be teaching all Upper Division Levels. She also taught and coached David Hallberg who is an alumnus of The School of Ballet Arizona and is currently Australian Ballet’s Artistic Director.

She and her husband currently live in Scottsdale with their 2 sons Killian and Darius.

Ms. Firicano received her formal ballet training at the Boston School of Ballet under a full scholarship. She began her professional career in 1984 with the Tennessee Festival Ballet, under the directorship of Anne-Marie Holmes. She went on to become a principal dancer with The Berkshire Ballet, the Southwest Ballet, and Ballet Arizona. Her repertoire includes the leading roles of Giselle, Juliet, Cinderella, Swanhilda, and the Sugarplum Fairy. In addition, her repertoire includes a wide range of contemporary and Balanchine pieces.

Gia retired in 2003 after 13 years of performing with Ballet Arizona. She has been an instructor with Phoenix Dance Academy and The Plumb Performing Arts Academy. In 2004, she joined the Arts faculty at Arizona School for the Arts. In the summer of 2010, she attended and achieved certification for levels primary through level three in American Ballet Theatre’s Teacher Training Intensive.

She is currently in her fifteenth year as the Program Manager of the Ballet Program at Arizona School for the Arts. This is Ms. Firicanos’s eighteenth year teaching at The School of Ballet Arizona.

Lisa grew up dancing in Phoenix at Tempe Dance Academy under the direction of Tammy Manville Booth, Wanda Manville and Lauri Silvestri. She received her BFA in Dance from the University of Arizona. There, she trained with Susan Quinn, Michael Williams, Amy Ernst, Melissa Lowe, Sherry Zunker and Sam Watson. She has danced for Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines. In addition to performing across the United States, she has also performed in Scotland and England with Scorpius Dance Theatre.

Lisa has taught at several studios around the valley such as Tempe Dance Academy, Yen Li Chen Ballet School, Bridget McCarter Dance Academy, Centerpointe Dance Academy as well as Highland High School, Chandler-Gilbert Community College and Mesa Community College. Currently, she is a featured dancer with Scorpius Dance Theatre, the Dance Department director at New School for the Arts and Academics as well as the Co-Artistic Director for Desert Star Dance Academy.

Lisa joined the School as the Jazz instructor for the 2020-21 School Year.

Two years into architecture school in his native Monterrey, Mexico, Luis Martinez transferred to the Superior School of Music and Dance of Monterrey to pursue his true love, ballet. He studied with Roberto Machado and Rosario Murillo. At the Cordoba Dance Festival, Luis studied under Vladimir Malakhov, Adria Velasquez, Tadeusz Matacz, and Claudio Muñoz. He also completed the Character Dances Intensive with Rafael Ibatullin and Horton Technique Intensive with Victor Talledos.

Upon graduating in 2010, Luis joined Ballet de Monterrey (BdM) under the direction of Luis Serrano. His repertoire as a dancer includes Giselle, Don Quixote, Swan Lake, The Nutcracker, Coppelia, La Bayadere, and Graduation Ball. He also performed in major productions such as Luis Serrano’s Celebration, Sinergia, Cantus, Jorge Amarante’s Uma Batida Diferente, Zendas, and Clark Tippet’s Brunch Violin Concerto. In 2014, Jorge Amarante became the director of BdM, and Luis performed in Raymonda, Romeo and Juliet, The Sleeping Beauty, Jorge Amarante’s Mexico en el Ombligo de la Luna, Carmen and Cinderella, where he played one of the stepsisters in pointe shoes. He was also chosen by Patrick Delcroix as the first cast in Mexico of Jirí Kylián’s Sechs Tanze. In 2016, under BdM’s new director Jose Manuel Carreño, Luis played Dr. Coppelius and Franz’s friends in Coppelia. In 2017, he danced in Alberto Mendez’s The Phantom of the Opera and also Luis Serrano’s Huapango. Luis was coached by renowned Ballet Masters and Mistresses Ileana Lopez, Phillip Balmain Beamish, Galina Alvarez, Analia Sosa Guerrero, Lazaro Carreño, and many more.

Drawing inspiration from his own teachers, Luis enjoyed working as a ballet instructor while he was a member of BdM, and after eight seasons with BdM, Luis chose to pursue a teaching career in earnest. In 2017, Luis and Serafin Castro founded and directed SL-Dancenter in Mexico. In 2019, Luis moved to the Phoenix Metro area, where Luis has become a sought-after instructor and choreographer. In 2020, he choreographed and danced a duet with Serafin Castro in the Downtown Chamber Series. In 2021, he won the Outstanding Teacher Award at YAGP. As a coach and choreographer, Luis was delighted that three of his students made the final round at the YAGP Finals in Tampa Florida. In 2022, Luis performed in Lauren Flower’s Fragments, a dance film commissioned by the Phoenix Art Museum.

Luis taught Ballet Arizona students in the 2022 Summer Intensive and has now joined the faculty. He seeks to instill in his students the importance of both technique and expressiveness to convey the feelings and emotions of dance.

Mr. Muñoz taught our students during the Summer Intensive and will be returning as a guest faculty member for the 2019-2020 school year. Originally from Chile, he was recently the Executive Director of The Gulfshore Ballet in Florida and guest teaches in the Denver, CO area. Mr. Munoz was a faculty member at Point Park College for 13 years and was a Ballet Master for Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre for several years.

In addition, he and Melinda Roy, former Principal Dancer of NYC Ballet, were the Founders and Directors of Saratoga Springs Dance Intensive and Vail Valley Dance Intensive in New York and in Colorado, respectively.

His dancing career began at Pittsburgh Ballet Theater in 1972, where he worked with Ballet Masters such as Nicholas Petrov, Leonid Massine, Edward Caton, Vitale Fokine, and Ruth Page. He later danced with Ballet Internacional de Caracas under the direction of the late Vicente Nebrada, as well as with Hartford Ballet under the direction of Michael Uthoff.

Gail Passey Reed trained in Northern California with Contra Costa Ballet, San Francisco Ballet School, and Marin Ballet before dancing professionally with Baltimore Ballet. Gail joined Ballet Arizona in 1985 and danced with the company for 12 years. She received critical acclaim for portraying Swanhilda in Michael Uthoff’s Coppelia. Other favorite roles include the title role in Ben Stevenson’s Cinderella, Sugar Plum Fairy in The Nutcracker and John Paul Comelin’s Mozart’s Requiem.

Gail is the backstage coordinator for SBAZ performances and enjoys making headpieces for the School and Company.

This is Ms. Passey-Reed’s thirtieth year teaching at The School of Ballet Arizona.

Yumi la Rosa studied in Spain with well-known Flamenco artists such as Rafaela Carrasco, Juana Amaya, Belen Maya, Leonor Leal, Isabel Bayón, “La Truco”, and others.

Upon returning to Phoenix, Ms. La Rosa joined Viva Flamenco directed by Lydia Torea as a company dancer and later became a soloist with Mosaico Flamenco at Hyatt Scottsdale Resort.  Ms. La Rosa was also selected as a soloist with the prestigious touring group, Calo Flamenco, directed by Martin Gaxiola. She was later invited to Mexico, India and Singapore to teach Flamenco workshops and to perform. Currently, she is performing at Tapas Papa Frita Spanish restaurant in Scottsdale as a featured dancer.

Ms. La Rosa has been teaching flamenco for all ages throughout the valley to introduce the art of Flamenco. In 2009, she founded her own group, Yumi La Rosa Flamenco Dance and presented her very first dance production called Mujeres at Tempe Center for the Arts.  The production has been growing each year featuring invited artists from other dance disciplines in addition to her own group. Yumi created Mujeres to give the public an appreciation of other cultures in general and of the richness of Spanish culture in particular.

This is Ms. La Rosa’s second year teaching at The School of Ballet Arizona.

Kleiton Sistélos was born in Recife, Brazil.  He studied Classical Dance in the Royal Method and graduated in 2006.  He studied the Technique Cubana from 2005 to 2007.  Kleiton has trained in Brazil, the United States, and at the Teatro Carcano in Milan, Italy.  He has studied Jazz and Modern, specializing in the Horton Technique in Brazil and at Alvin Ailey in NYC. He has danced in festivals throughout Brazil and Europe, including the Latin American Tour in Milan, the Dell’Art Festival in Genova, the Nice Festival in France, and the Festival of Valencia in Spain. He has performed in major productions on the stage and on television in Rio de Janeiro Brazil. Mr. Sistélos has taught the Horton technique at The School of Ballet Arizona since 2015.

Robyn began her dance training at the age of 9 under Mari Lou Carlson and later Mary Moe Adams, studying the Royal Academy of Dance curricula, for which she received exam honors for each year of study.  She went on to major in dance for two years under a scholarship at Arizona State University, studying under Ann Ludwig, Beth Lessard, Daniel Nagrin, Mel Wong, Connie Stine, and Mme. Xenia Chlistowa, among many others.  Robyn’s studies at ASU were interrupted by her acceptance as a company member with Ballet Arizona under the directorship of Jean-Paul Comelin. While with the company, Robyn performed in classical ballets such as Cinderella, The Nutcracker, Midsummer Night’s Dream, Napoli Tarantella, and well as more contemporary works such as Robert North’s Entre dos Aguas, and Jean Paul Comelin’s Daughters of Mourning and Mozart’s Requiem.

In addition to her work with Ballet Arizona, Robyn had taught young dancers at Eastside Ballet Center, under the direction of Connie Stine.  Robyn retired from dance in the early 1990s to pursue a bachelor’s degree in family studies and child development and later a Master’s degree in clinical social work.  As a licensed psychotherapist, she has worked in the public and private mental healthcare fields, eventually owning and operating her own counseling practice.  Robyn closed her practice in 2013 and has found her way back to dance, one of her deepest passions, and is excited to be teaching at the School of Ballet Arizona.