Ballet Fantastique

Artistic Leadership

Donna Marisa Bontrager

Artistic Director

Photos: Monovita, Woden Photo

Ballet Fantastiqe’s Canadian-born Artistic Director, Donna Marisa Bontrager, is a choreographer and expert master teacher in the Russian Vaganova Syllabus. In New York, Ms. Bontrager worked closely for many years with Vaganova pedagogy experts Karl Singleterry and Marvin Askew (Buffalo City Ballet), Bernadine deMike (Royale Dance Theatre New York), and New Yorker Howard Epstein (John Barker’s personal assistant), and studied the extensive materials of Oleg Briansky. These experts have been influential in bringing Vaganova’s notated syllabus to American teachers, dancers, and training academies. Ms. Bontrager’s performance résumé embraces work with New York companies, including Empire State Ballet, Buffalo City Ballet, Royale Dance Theatre New York, and Festival Choir Ballet. In addition, she was one of ten dancers invited to perform as part of the international Feast of the Tabernacles in Jerusalem, Israel, and has been invited to join the World Congress on Dance.

With the Chamber Company, Ms. Bontrager has overseen Ballet Fantastique repertoire and productions involving partnerships with choirs, opera, and soloist vocalists, symphony and chamber orchestras, literary and visual artists, and composers. Ms. Bontrager has staged numerous concerts and original ballets for Ballet Fantastique, including String Theory, Tales of Beatrix Potter (A Ballet), Fairytale Favorites, and Cakewalk Ballet; many critically-acclaimed Hult Center productions, including Visions d'Amour: 10 Ballets in Paris, Danse en Rouge: Variations in Red, Danse Renaissance, Tour de Suites, and Mosaico de Danza; and innovative collaborations with musicians and organizations, including commissioned work by Eugene Symphony (Carnival of the Animals) and the Oregon Mozart Players (Glazunov’s Four Novelettes). Under Ms. Bontrager’s leadership, Ballet Fantastique has also worked with Trio Voronezh, the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Ballet Fantastique Resident Composer Jeremy Schropp (Love at the Cafe Terrace), and the Slavic Festival: Star-Filled Russian Nights (Silva Concert Hall). Ms. Bontrager’s love of the arts also extends to her design work as a graduate of the University of Oregon’s School of Architecture and in the creation of Ballet Fantastique’s critically-acclaimed costumes.

Out of her many years of teaching and performance experience and as Artistic Director of The Academy of Ballet Fantastique, Ms. Bontrager has developed the complete curriculum for The Academy of Ballet Fantastique, directly following the notated Vaganova Syllabus. She works closely with all Academy of Ballet Fantastique students in their training, choreography, artistry, and performance.

Hannah Bontrager

Executive Director

Photos: Woden Photo

Hannah Bontrager has served as Ballet Fantastique's Executive Director since its inception ten years ago. Hannah graduated summa cum laude and phi beta kappa in 2007 from the Robert D. Clark Honors College of the University of Oregon where, as a full scholarship student, she earned concurrent degrees in Dance and English Literature and a minor in Community Arts through the graduate Arts Administration program. Her honors thesis, “Moving Education: Building an Integrated In-School Dance Curriculum for Elementary School Classrooms,” explores the challenges and opportunities of dance education under the No Child Left Behind Act.

Hannah has lead a number of successful and innovative educational initiatives for Ballet Fantastique, including the EXPERIENCE DANCE! Project, the Art Together Collaborative, Passport to Dance, and Project DanceREACH. Under Hannah's leadership, Ballet Fantastique has earned grant awards from Meyer Memorial Trust (2010), Lane County Cultural Coalition (2010, 2011), Lane Arts Council (2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011), US Bank Corporation (2008, 2010), the Celebration Foundation (2011), and the Haugland Foundation (2007, 2008), as well as tens of thousands of dollars in cash and in-kind corporate and individual support. Hannah has given professional presentations on behalf of Ballet Fantastique for the American Association of University Women and the Rotary Club, and is listed among the international Who's Who Among Executives and Professionals. She has extensive experience in print and web design, event planning, media relations, and the administration of volunteers and interns.

Also a trained professional dancer, choreographer, and performer, Hannah studied the eight levels of the Vaganova Syllabus and Vaganova pedagogy with Donna Marisa Bontrager (Ballet Fantastique) while creating and performing works locally. In addition, she spent two summers at the Kirov Academy of Ballet in Washington, D.C. under Artistic Director Oleg Vinogradov (also Artistic Director of the Kirov Ballet in Russia), and was one of five students invited internationally to join renowned Kirov prima ballerina Mme. Alla Sizova's advanced class. Hannah spent the 2002-2003 concert season in Denver, Colorado, under St. Petersburg Vaganova Academy graduate Inessa Pakri-Plekhanova, while concurrently training and performing with the company's apprentices. In Fall 2006 she was invited by internationally-recognized master teacher Oleg Briansky to join the summer staff of his New York summer intensive program as a teacher and student mentor. Hannah has performed professionally with the Ballet Fantastique Chamber Company since its inception, and has also appeared in soloist roles for a number of other companies across the country, including Manassas Ballet Theatre in the Washington, DC metro area for the 2008-2009 season (Sugar Plum Fairy, Nutcracker, and the lead in Vivandière/Markitenka), Co-Art Dance Company, Traduza Dance Company, and Ballet Rogue (Snow Queen, Nutcracker). Donna and Hannah have collaborated to produce collaborations with the Eugene Symphony, Oregon Mozart Players, Trio Voronezh, at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, with the Karin Clarke Gallery, violinist Matthew Fuller, pianist John Jantzi, and with Ballet Fantastique Resident Composer Jeremy DeKyle Schropp--to name just a few.

Jeremy DeKyle Schropp

Resident Composer

Photos: Woden Photo

Jeremy DeKyle Schropp is a Northwest-based composer. Jeremy's notable achievements include the composition of incidental music for “Where To Turelu,” a Kansas University Children’s Theater production, and a commissioned residency at New York University's Steinhardt School of Education. In October 2009, he worked with Ballet Fantastique at the Hult Center for the Performing Arts in the world premiere of his chamber ballet inspired by Vincent Van Gogh, “Night at the Café Terrace.” The work, including 25-part string orchestra and a commissioned backdrop by painter Rob Adams, was featured in cover stories in both the Register-Guard and Eugene Weekly. Jeremy traveled to Germany in January of 2010 for a multi-city tour of his new work for oboe and organ with oboist Amy Goeser Kolb and organist Julia Brown. Jeremy also completed a highly successful interactive and interdisciplinary dance commission for nationally recognized choreographer Brad Garner, which premiered in winter 2010 at the Robinson Theater.

Jeremy is a current PhD candidate in Music Composition and Music Theory at the University of Oregon, where he has studied with David Crumb, Robert Kyr, Steve Larson, and Jack Boss. He is completing a concurrent MM in Intermedia Music Technology under Philip H. Knight Professor of Music Jeff Stolet, and has been a Graduate Teaching Fellow in Music Theory throughout his tenure at the University. He came to Eugene, Oregon in 2004 from the University of Kansas where he received his MM in Music Composition, studying under Bryan Kip Haaheim. Though trained primarily as an “academic” instrumental and vocal composer, Jeremy has developed a persistent interest in collaborating with those involved in other artistic disciplines, as is evident in his work with Ballet Fantastique.