Faculty
Nell Shipman
Portland School of Ballet Director
Nell Shipman began her training in Massachusetts and continued her studies in Indianapolis, Indiana with Marek Cholewa and Rosanna Ruffo. She holds a B.F.A. in Dance Performance with High Honors from Butler University and has performed and shown choreography throughout the United States and abroad. Ms. Shipman joined Portland Ballet as a dancer in 2004 before assuming the role of Artistic Director in 2015 and Director of Portland School of Ballet in 2016. With Portland Ballet she performed many leading roles, including the title role in Giselle and the lead in Andrei Bossov's Carmina Burana. She has also appeared as guest artist with Portland Symphony Orchestra, Good Theater, Best of Broadway and Opera Maine. Ms. Shipman's evening length choreography includes a Victorian Nutcracker, The Armed Man: A Mass for Peace, Tales By Poe, The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, Firebird, A Midsummer Night's Dream, Jack the Ripper, Sylvia, and A Harlequinade. Her contemporary works include Four Seasons, Impetus, First Principles of Hope and Enjoyment, PushMePullYou, Somebody and Spoke of the Wheel to name a few. As an innovative and educational initiative, she created the Building Ballets Series for Portland School of Ballet, which has presented versions of well known classics Sleeping Beauty, Coppelia, Don Quixote and La Esmeralda. Ms. Shipman is currently a Visiting Instructor at Colby College and has created works in collaboration with many local and national arts organizations.
Sabir Yapparov
Pre-Professional Division Director
Sabir Yapparov received his academic and ballet training at the Perm Ballet Academy in Russia and studied with some of the finest teachers. He was a soloist with the Sverdlovsk Academic Theatre of Opera & Ballet and with the Bolshoi Theater in Uzbekistan and was a principal with the Odessa Academic Theater of the Opera and Ballet in the Ukraine.
Mr. Yapparov danced leading roles in classical, neo-classical, and contemporary ballets, and was invited as a guest principal throughout the former Soviet Union, Italy, Hungary, Portugal, Finland, India, Spain, and Canada. He worked as a ballet master with the Sarasota Ballet for eleven years, serving one year as Associate Artistic Director, and was a Visiting Professor at the University of South Florida School of Theatre and Dance. Mr. Yapparov was part of the guest faculty at North Carolina School of the Arts and served as the Assistant to the Artistic Director at the Kirov Academy of Ballet in Washington, D.C., and and as Principal at the School of Cincinnati Ballet. He now directs Portland School of Ballet’s Pre-Professional Division, helping aspiring dancers prepare for their next steps.
Jennifer Jones
Pre-Professional Division
Jennifer Jones graduated Suma Cum Laude with a BFA in Ballet Pedagogy from the University of Hartford, where she studied under teaching legends Franco DeVita and Alla Osipenko, among others. During her 18 year career as a dancer, she has taught ballet at multiple studios, including the School of Hartford Ballet, Montgomery Ballet School, Northwest Florida Ballet Academie, and Drouin Dance Center. She is currently the Ballet Mistress for Portland Ballet’s Company, and is thrilled to be on the faculty at Portland School of Ballet.
Adam Miller
Pre-Professional Division
Adam Miller, from Providence, RI, trained on scholarship at American Ballet Theater School, The North Carolina School of the Arts and The School of American Ballet. He was a principal dancer with Pacific Northwest Ballet, Les Grands Ballets Canadiens and Hartford Ballet, and performed as a guest artist in the USA, Europe, Asia and South America. He has performed major roles in the great classic full-length ballets as well as works by 40-plus choreographers, including 20 by George Balanchine. His many teaching credits include Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival, Vassar College, The North Carolina School of the Arts, Lyon Opera Ballet, Veroneszh Ballet (Russia), Boston Ballet and Pacific Northwest Ballet. He has been choreographer, coach and director for many years. From 2008-2012, he toured the world as the Artistic Director of the Cirque Du Soleil shows Kooza and Saltimbanco. He is the founder and current Artistic Director of the Provincetown Dance Festival, now in its 19th season.
Grace Koury
Young Dancer Division, Senior Division
Grace Koury earned a Bachelor's of Science in Ballet Performance from Indiana University‘s Jacobs School of Music in 2016. She first started teaching while attending IU in the music school’s pre-college program as well as non-major elective ballet classes. After graduating, Grace taught varying ages of ballet students in schools across the country while also dancing professionally for Rochester City Ballet and Georgia Dance Theater. In 2019, Grace moved to Portland, ME to dance professionally with Portland Ballet and joined the faculty for Portland School of Ballet while also teaching at several other dance schools in Southern Maine.
Lydia Wirth
Junior Division, Senior Division, Community Division
Lydia Wirth began dancing at age five in Pittsburgh, PA, and continued her early training at West Point Ballet with Cynthia Castillo and Damien M. Coro. She went on to attend summer programs with Washington Ballet and Cincinnati Ballet. In 2021, Lydia graduated magna cum laude from Butler University with a BFA in Dance-Performance and a minor in Strategic Communication. She had the opportunity to teach group and private ballet lessons throughout her high school and college dance training. Alongside her professional dance career, she is a faculty member of the Portland School of Ballet and works as the Newsletter and Website Editor for Dance Data Project®
Eva Walden
Young Dancer Division, Junior Division, Community Division
Eva Walden began her formal ballet training at Bossov Ballet Theatre under Natalya Getman. While at Bossov Ballet Theatre, she had the opportunity to be a teacher assistant in creative movement classes. In 2019 she joined Charlotte Ballet as a trainee where she also served as a substitute teacher for the academy. Eva joined Portland Ballet during the 2022/2023 season and became faculty at Portland School of Ballet in the Young Dancer, Junior, and Community Divisions.
Eugene Mesheryakov
Senior Division, Pre-Professional Division
Eugene Mesheryakov was Born in Moscow Russia, and began his training in Las Vegas, Nevada under the Vaganova method of Ballet. He then Furthered his training by joining the second company of Oklahoma City Ballet in 2019, and performed in works such as Michael Pinks Dracula and Robert Mills Romeo and Juliet. In 2021 Eugene had the pleasure of dancing with Ballet 120 as an apprentice as well as performing with Las Vegas Dance academy as the “Cavalier” in the Nutcracker. He is ecstatic to share his passion for the art of ballet with Portland School of Ballet’s students!
Heather Baxter
Young Dancer Division, Junior Division, Community Division
Heather Baxter grew up in Maine and received her early training at Portland School of Ballet. She received her Bachelor of Arts in Dance with a concentration in Ballet from Point Park University. After graduating, Heather was a company member with Roanoke Ballet Theater in Virginia for two years, where she began teaching creative movement and ballet. She returned to Portland Ballet as a company member in 2019 and joined the faculty in 2021. While at Portland Ballet her roles have included Olivia in A Victorian Nutcracker, Young Girl in Jen Jones’ Surprised by Joy, Peasant Pas de Trois in Giselle, and Olivetta in A Harlequinade. As a student she had the opportunity to train at several nationally renowned summer intensives including Walnut Hill School for the Arts, Oklahoma City Ballet, The Washington Ballet and Dance Italia. She currently teaches ballet, jazz, creative movement, modern, and musical theater dance to students of all ages at dance studios in southern Maine.
Elliott Evans
Contemporary
Elliott Evans was born in Phnom Penh, Cambodia and has studied ballet since the age of nine with American Ballet Theatre Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis School under the tutelage of Franco De Vita. He then trained privately with Fabrice Herrault in New York City, The National Ballet School of Canada in Toronto training under Sergiu Stefanschi and Raymond Smith. He then continued as a trainee with the Washington School of Ballet under the direction of Xiomara Reyes, Rinat Imaev and Mimmo Miccolis, and where he danced in several productions with the Washington Ballet under artistic director Julie Kent. He has attended several summer intensives at American Ballet Theatre and Fabrice Herrault both in New York City, English National Ballet in London, England, Canada’s National Ballet School in Toronto, Canada, Sarasota Ballet, Florida and Arts Umbrella in Vancouver, Canada. Arts Umbrella included repertoire by Crystal Pite, Ohad Naharin, Jiři Kylián, Lukáš Timulak and Tom Weinberger.
Elliott was awarded first place in both the professional classical and contemporary ballet category at the Washington Grand Prix 2021.
Elliott now dances as a company member at Portland Ballet in Portland, Maine where he continues honing his craft as both an artist and dancer.
Vanessa Beyland
Jazz, Baby & Me
Vanessa Beyland holds a BFA in Dance from New York University's Tisch School of the Arts. In addition to her many years teaching at Portland School of Ballet, she is currently on the dance faculty at the University of Southern Maine, Casco Bay Movers, Stages Youth Theater and Portland Arts and Technology High School (PATHS). Vanessa's choreography and performance credits include work with school, community and professional companies, including Portland Ballet, Maine State Music Theater, Opera Maine (formerly PORTopera), Dramatic Repertory Company, Lyric Music Theater, SchoolHouse Arts, Windham Center Stage, USM, Allegra Dance Greenwich, numerous local high school musical productions and many others.
Larry Lee Van Horne
Open Classes
LarryLee has been dancing since the earth was cooling. Company credits include Atlanta Ballet, Ram Island Dance Company, Concert Dance Company of Boston, Ballet New England, Ballet Arts Minnesota, Zenon Dance Company, Minnesota Dance Theatre, and various pickup companies. He’s worked with many modern, jazz, and ballet choreographers, and danced in countless dances of others as repertory companies were his career choices. Performed lots of contemporary and classical ballets, too. LarryLee has been with Portland Ballet for many years as an open class teacher and Nutcracker Party Parent. LarryLee is grateful and thankful just to be able to continue dancing.