Special Guests

Hiromi Ushino

Sugar Plum Fairy

Born and raised in Northern California, Hiromi began her dance training with the Marin Ballet School and on full scholarship at the San Francisco Ballet School. In 1994, she won first place in the ballet division at the Music Center Spotlight Award Competition in Los Angeles, and in 1995, was awarded the Encouragement Award at the International Ballet Concours in South Korea.

Professionally, Hiromi has danced with Houston Ballet and BalletMet Columbus, where she performed various classical and contemporary works by choreographers including Stanton Welch, David Nixon, Jiri Kylian, James Kudelka, Mark Morris, Lila York, Julia Adam, and Birgit Scherzer.

At Houston Ballet, she has performed lead roles including Princess Vasilisa in James Kudelka’s Firebird, Stanton Welch’s Maninyas, Nosotros, and Chairman Dances, and Jiri Kylian’s Forgotten Land. During her career with BalletMet Columbus, Hiromi performed principal roles as Princess Aurora in The Sleeping Beauty, Swanhilda in Coppelia, Sugar Plum Fairy and Clara in The Nutcracker, Titania in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and originated the role of Kitri in Stanton Welch’s Don Quixote.

Currently, Hiromi is on the faculty at City Ballet of Los Angeles in addition to pursuing her Bachelor’s Degree from Saint Mary’s College of California.

Seth Belliston

Cavalier

Trained at the Belliston Academy of Ballet and the School of American Ballet, Seth Belliston is an award-winning artist. He has received the very prestigious Princess Grace Award for Excellence, as well as the Mae L. Wien Award. Mr. Belliston was a Principal Artist with the Pacific Northwest Ballet for many years and continues to appear as an international guest artist.

When in London, the BBC filmed Mr. Belliston’s performance of Puck in George Balanchine’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, which has been aired on PBS. Film credits include Universal Pictures The Producer’s with Nathan Lane and Matthew Broderick and I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry with Adam Sandler.

Seth has an expanded repertoire of Balanchine’s greatest ballets including, Theme and Variations, Who Cares?, Stars & Stripes, Agon, The Four Temperaments, and Western Symphony. His contemporary work includes ballets by renowned choreographers such as Forsythe, van Dantzig, Taylor, Duato, and Martins. He was an original cast member in one of Jerome Robbins later works, 2 & 3 Part Inventions. Musical theater credits include A Christmas Carol, Mame, La Cage aux Folles, Hans Christian Andersen, On the Town, Camelot, Applause!, Never Gonna Dance, On Your Toes, The Sound of Music, and L’il Abner.