The Governor's School's Dance program creates well-rounded and versatile dancers who are eligible for a diverse range of future opportunities. Alumni have joined companies such as American Ballet Theatre, Kansas City Ballet, Mark Morris Dance Group, Richmond Ballet, Hong Kong Ballet, Ballet San Antonio, Charlotte Ballet, Ballet Theatre of Maryland, Oklahoma Ballet 2, and Cincinnati Ballet 2.
Dance Alumni
Dance Alumni
Brandon L. Whitmore, Class of 2011
Brandon L. Whitmire is a graduate of the University of the Arts in Philadelphia, where he received his BFA in Dance. Whitmore has trained at the summer sessions of the Alvin Ailey School, The Dance Theater of Harlem, where he was awarded the DTH Image Award, and The Alonzo King LINES Ballet School where he received a full scholarship. His training also paved the way for a spot in the top 60 most talented dancers on season 11 of the hit TV show, So You Think You Can Dance. Whitmore has performed with national theaters including Royal Caribbean’s Allure of the Seas, Fireside Dinner Theater, Maltz Jupiter Theatre, North Carolina Theatre, The MUNY in St. Louis, and performed in the First National Tour of Hello, Dolly. He is represented by CESD Talent.
Sarah Jung
Sarah Jung is a former professional dancer with Georgia Dance Theatre and Artist-in-Residence with the International Ballet of Greenville, SC. She danced the principal roles in La Bayadere as Nikyia, Swan Lake as Odile and The Nutcracker Ballet as Sugar Plum. She has danced additional lead roles in Carmen, Paquita, Pas de Quatre, The Pharoah’s Daughter, Don Quixote, and Le Corsaire. She is an award winner of the Youth America Grand Prix from 2013-2016 and received an Honorable Mention award through the YoungArts program. She is currently a demi-soloist in her fifth season with the Ballet Theatre of Maryland.
Marija Abney, Class of 2003
Marija Abney earned her BFA from The Ailey School/Fordham University, her MA from NYU’s TISCH in performance studies and is an alumni of The William Esper Studio’s Two Year Meisner Training Program. She was featured as “The Cheetah” in Disney’s The Lion King, performed in FOX Searchlight’s Black Nativity, and Broadway’s After Midnight, which won a TONY award for best choreography. She recently joined the Marvel Comic Universe as a member of the Dora Milaje, Wakanda’s all-female elite military force, in Black Panther and will reprise her role in Avengers: Infinity War and the final installment of Avengers to be released in 2019.
Gray Davis, Class of 2004
Gray Davis joined ABT's Studio Company in 2005 and joined the main Company as an apprentice in January 2007 and the corps de ballet later that year. He was the 2003 Gold medalist recipient of the Youth American Grand Prix and the 2004 overall Grand Prix winner at the NYC finals. Davis also received the NY State Liberty Medal, the highest civilian honor bestowed by the New York State Senate for his bravery in rescuing a man from the subway tracks in spring 2017. Davis was a principal member of the American Ballet Theatre, where he retired in 2018. Davis now serves as a sheriff's deputy in Abbeville County, South Carolina.
Whitney Huell, Class of 2004
Whitney Huell earned a Bachelor of Science in Ballet and Psychology from Indiana University before joining Ballet West. With Ballet West, Huell performed featured roles in Paquita, Sleeping Beauty, Cinderella, Petite Mort, and Jewels. In January 2011, she was one of Dance Magazine’s Top 25 to Watch and was also featured in the September 2012 issue of Pointe Magazine. With Kansas City Ballet, Huell has performed works by Amy Seiwert, Monique Meunier, Stanton Welch, Edward Liang, Val Caniparoli and Jerome Robbins and has been featured as The Lead Woman in James Kudelka’s The Man in Black, Caterpillar in Alice (in Wonderland), 3rd Theme in The Four Temperaments and Jeté Woman in Forsythe’s In the Middle Somewhat Elevated. In 2018, she was featured as the Sugar Plum Fairy in Devon Carney’s production of The Nutcracker becoming the first African American in Kansas City Ballet history to perform the role.
Anson Zwingelberg, Class of 2013
Anson Zwingelberg earned a BFA from The Juilliard School, where he had the opportunity to work with distinguished faculty and perform works by Richard Alston, Merce Cunningham, José Limón, Paul Taylor, Matthew Neenan, Zvi Gotheiner, Loni Landon and Takehiro Ueyama. While at Juilliard, Anson performed at The Guggenheim Museum as part of Works and Process, and received additional training at Springboard Danse Montréal and Merce Cunningham Trust workshops. In 2017, Zwingelberg joined the Charlotte Ballet, where he has performed works by Johan Inger, Javier De Frutos, Robyn Mineko Williams, Myles Thatcher, Bryan Arias and Filipe Portugal.
Jonathon Spigner, Class of 2009
Jonathan Spigner trained at Académie Princesse Grace in Monte Carlo. He joined Hong Kong Ballet as a Corps de Ballet member in 2010 and was named Coryphée in 2014. He assumed the additional role of Pilates Instructor for the Company in 2017. With Hong Kong Ballet, Spigner has danced featured roles, including Puss in Boots in Cynthia Harvey’s The Sleeping Beauty, Fritz and Spanish Doll in Terence Kohler’s The Nutcracker, and White Rabbit and Tweedle Dee & Tweedle Dum in Septime Webre’s ALICE (in wonderland), among others. His choreographic works include The Wonderful Known Tick (2011), Overview Effect (2012), SoLo (2013), Wepart (2014), Days Gone By (2015), Passion Flower (2016), BubbleGoose (2017) and Monolith (2018).