Faculty & Staff
Robin Twarowski: Executive Director
Owner of Ballet Arts, Robin has successfully developed young-dancer ballet programs for Agoura and Thousand Oaks communities. She has danced with Bay Area Ballet, Santa Cruz Ballet and CCBC. Robin is also Executive Director of Conejo Civic Ballet Company. In her executive positions Robin focuses on selection of faculty and staff, and acquiring resources and support for the faculty and CCBC artists so that they can provide our students with the best dance instruction in the Thousand Oaks area.
Eva Pokorny: Ballet
Graduate of the Vaganova Method, City Ballet School, Zlin, Czechoslovakia. Member of the National Ballet of Czechoslovakia for 20 years until coming to the Los Angeles area and joining Ballet Arts as a senior ballet instructor.
Helena Pokorny: Ballet
Soloist with the Prague National Ballet Theatre in the Czech Republic, dancing in such ballets as Cinderella, Swan Lake and Nutcracker. Helena teaches at Ballet Arts and is Ballet Mistress at Conejo Civic Ballet Company where her responsibilities include dancing, choreography, and cradle-to-grave management of our ballet productions.
Linda Lewis: Ballet and Jazz
Linda Lewis graduated from University of Iowa with a Master in Art majoring in Dance. She taught at the University of Alaska in Fairbanks and was Artistic Director of Dance Domenium. She now teaches dance at Long Beach City College and Ballet Arts. Linda is also an active member of Conejo Civic Ballet Company both as a dancer and behind the scenes helping our young dancers give their best performance.
Pamela Brezinski Lappen: Modern, Ballet
Pamela Lappen received a BFA from University of Wisconsin in Dance and Theatre Performance and an MA from UCLA in Dance and Education. She has over two decades of experience teaching dance at High Schools, Universities and dance studios. Pamela also has extensive experience in choreography and has produced many dance numbers for jazz and modern dance.
Linda Poff: Ballet
Linda Poff started her dance training in ballet at Ballet Arts at the age of five when the studio was owned by Gloria Connolly and Milada Miladova. She also studied classic Bob Fossie jazz from Sylvia Lewis, and American Tap from Dottie Starr. At the age of 14, Ms. Poff was the first recipient of the California Arts Council Award. She went on to attend the intense training program at the Marin Ballet in Marin, California and continued her studies at Ballet Arts under Eva Pokorny, Mark Erickson, Laura Behr and Jonette Swider. At the age of 17 she received the Presidential Academic Fitness Award as recognized by the United States President and the U.S. Secretary of Education. Ms. Poff trained under Bill Martin-Viscount and John Wey Ling at the Southwest Ballet Center, home of the Fort Worth City Ballet in Fort Worth Texas. While attending Moorpark College and performing in two of their spring concerts, she continued to perform with Conejo Civic Ballet company and was honored to perform with the Company at the grand opening of the Civic Arts Plaza. Since then Ms. Poff has performed in numerous productions including; Swan Lake, La Bayadere, The Sleeping Beauty, Stars and Stripes, Paquita, The Nutcracker, Les Sylphides, Hansel and Gretel, and Snow White.
Michelle Fayard: Tap
Michelle Fayard started dancing at the age of three. She danced with Entertainment Explosion of Chicago, touring throughout the US, Denmark, Russia, and Japan as dance captain and lead soloist. Michelle performed in the musicals Guys and Dolls, Westside Story, Gypsy, Cabaret, Chicago, Singing in the Rain and the list goes on. She has worked throughout the country as a judge for the national dance competition Dance Xplosion for five years and owned and operated her own performing arts school Fayard Studios in Los Angeles for six years. Her dance training includes Lou Conte/Chicago, Steps on Broadway/New York, and Tremaine Dance Center/Los Angeles to name a few. She has been choreographing and training dancers throughout the Los Angeles area for the past twenty years specializing in Jazz, Tap and Lyrical Jazz/Contemporary. She also studied acting at the highly acclaimed Stella Adler Academy of Acting in Hollywood. Most recently she has been teaching tap at The University of Southern California. Michelle wants to inspire everyone to love the art of dance the way she has throughout her entire life!
Rhapsody: Jazz, Hip Hop
Rhapsody has worked as a professional dancer in Los Angeles for the past 10 years and has appeared dancing along side artists Ricky Martin, Gloria Estefan, Christina Aguilera, Pink, Mya, Anastacia, Britney Spears and Jay-Z. She has also appeared in performances on the Grammy's, Mtv Music Video Awards, ACMAs and T.V. Land Awards. Her television credits include Dancing with the Stars, Scrubs, House, Cold Case, Nip Tuck, Passions, 7th Heaven and Ron Benise's Nights of Fire and Spanish Guitar on PBS. Rhapsody has filmed commercials for iPod, GAP, Chevy, Visa, Pepsi, McDonalds, and Fruit of the Looms. You can also see Rhapsody in Zach Efrons "17 Again" and "Spring Break Down" with Saturday Night Live's Amy Poehler. Being a working dancer in today's industry she has the opportunity to incorporate and fuse the latest dance steps into her routines and movements. Classes are challenging and focus on technique, execution of choreography, musicality, performance and love of dance.
Maria Tikhomirova: Ballet
Ms. Tikhomirova is a guest ballet instructor for Ballet Arts who, together with Enton Hoxha, will be choreographing and staging the 2010 production of The Nutcracker for Conejo Civic Ballet. Ms. Tikhomirova received a PhD degree with high honors from the Bolshoi Ballet Academy as Choreographer/Master Ballet Teacher in Classical Dance, the Vaganova method and Character Dance, under the direction of legendary Choreographer and Professor Yury Grigorovich. In 2006, she choreographed the ballet Song of the Rain for the Moscow Classical Ballet and, of special interest to Ballet Arts students, in 2007, she choreographed The Nutcracker for the Moscow Ballet.
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Ms. Tikhomirova was born in Moscow, Russia and graduated in 2001 with the equivalent of a B.A. degree in ballet instruction from the Bolshoi Ballet Academy, under the direction of Professor Ida Vasileva. In 2006, Ms. Tikhomirova received a PhD degree with high honors from the Bolshoi Ballet Academy as Choreographer/Master Ballet Teacher in Classical Dance, the Vaganova method and Character Dance, under the direction of legendary Choreographer and Professor Yury Grigorovich.
During her student years at the Bolshoi Ballet Academy, Ms. Tikhomirova also staged several concert productions including the Albinoni Adagio in G minor by Remo Giazotto, Classical Symphony by Sergei Prokofiev, the Adagio from L'Arlesienne by Georges Bizet, Pas de deux by Rossini, Grand Pas and Trio to music by Gershwin, Flamenco Dance and Towards the Light to music by Howard Shore, Russian Folk Dance and Sprinters to music from Tarantino's Pulp Fiction sound track, Waltz by Johann Strauss, and a Passacaglia by Handel. In 2006, she choreographed the ballet Song of the Rain for the Moscow Classical Ballet and in 2007, The Nutcracker for the Moscow Ballet.
From 2001 to 2006, Ms. Tikhomirova was a ballet dancer with the Moscow Classical Ballet Theater directed by Natalia Kasatkina and Vladimir Vasilyov. She toured as part of this company in the USA, France, Germany, Switzerland, Israel, Italy, Portugal, Spain, China, Greece and Turkey. Ms. Tikhomirova performed solo parts in ballets including Don Quixote, Swan Lake, The Nutcracker, Romeo and Juliet, The Firebird, Spartacus, Cinderella, The Creation, Sleeping Beauty, Giselle, Holy Spring and many others. Her training for these roles was led by prominent Ballet Masters including Natalia Kasatkina, Tatiana Popko, Marina Kolpakchi and Natalia Taborko.
Ms. Tikhomirova frequently collaborates with Ballet Masters throughout the world including Anna Tikhomirova (Bolshoi Theatre), Evgenia Savarskay (Kremlin Ballet Theatre), and Kirill Ermolenko (Kremlin Ballet Theatre), who are recipients of many prestigious awards, preparing dancers for International Ballet Competitions. At the Olympic Reserve Sport School in Moscow, Russia she has given Ballet Master Classes to rhythmic gymnasts.
From 2008, Ms. Tikhomirova worked with many schools and dance companies in the Los Angeles area including State Street Ballet in Santa Barbara as Guest Artist, Los Angeles School of Gymnastics as Master Ballet Teacher, Ballet Academy Ventura as Guest Artist, ALL American Ballet of Ventura as Master Ballet Teacher, Choreographer, and Guest Artist, Marat Daukayev School of Ballet in Los Angeles as Master Ballet Teacher, California Rhythms, Inc in Los Angeles as Master Ballet Teacher and Choreographer, and Dmitri Kulev Classical Ballet Academy in Orange County as Master Ballet Teacher.
Enton Hoxha: Ballet
Mr. Hoxha studies at the Bolshoi Academy School in Moscow, Russia with legendary dancers Mikhail Lavrovsky, Leonid Jdanov, Nikolay Dorohov, Mikhail Mineev and Nikolay Tikhomirov. After receiving a Master's Degree from the Bolshoi Academy Mr. Hoxha toured with the Moscow Classical Ballet and the Russian Chamber Ballet in Europe, Asia and the United States.
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Born in Tirane, Albania, Enton started his dance education at the National Ballet Academy in Albania. At age 15 Enton was invited by the Russia Embassy to continue his studies at the Bolshoi Academy School in Moscow, Russia with legendary dancers Mikhail Lavrovsky, Leonid Jdanov, Nikolay Dorohov, Mikhail Mineev and Nikolay Tikhomirov. Mr. Hoxha graduated from the Bolshoi Academy School with a Master's degree and danced as a first soloist with the Moscow Classical Ballet and Russian Chamber Ballet 'Moscow' touring Europe, Asia and the United States. During his tours Mr. Hoxha was invited to be part of the World Premier of Madam Leonely by choreographer Kiril Simonov, and performed in the Gala Concert with Ballet Stars of St.Petersburg with famed dancers Irma Nioradze , Ilya Kuznetsov, Yulia Makhalina, Igor Zelensky, Daria Pavlenko, Yevgeny Ivanchenko, Faruk Razumatov, and Nikolay Ciscaridze in Albert Hall, London.
In 2004 Mr.Hoxha received permanent residency status in the U.S. as a person with extraordinary ability in the arts. From 2004 to 2010 Mr. Hoxha performed as a guest dancer, company member, and Ballet Master in a number of companies including Metropolitan Opera Ballet of New York, Flint Institute of Art in Michigan, State Street Ballet in Santa Barbara, CA, South Carolina Ballet, Baltimore Ballet, Atlantic Ballet Company of Maine, New England Ballet Company in Connecticut, Ithaca Ballet Theater in New York state, Ballet Academy Ventura in California, Dance Conservatory of New York, Festival Ballet Theater in California, and Ajkun Ballet Theater in New York. His vast repertoire includes principal roles in Carmen, Cinderella, Coppelia, Don Quixote, Esmeralda, Giselle, La Baydere, La Fill Mal Gardee, La Vivandiere, Le Corsaire, Napole, The Nutcracker, Paquita, The Sleeping Beauty, Swan Lake, Waltz of White Orchids by Konstatin Uralsky (choreographer), and Otello's Birthday by Radu Pokletar (choreographer).