Artistic Leadership

Donna Marisa Bontrager

Artistic Director

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 Fairytale Favorites and Cakewalk Ballet; many critically-acclaimed Hult Center productions, including 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, 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, and performance.

Hannah Joy Bontrager

Executive Director

Executive Director Hannah Joy Bontrager has extensive experience as a professional dancer », teacher », choreographer, and arts administrator. Hannah graduated summa cum laude and phi beta kappa 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, and is on the forefront in the national dialogue on integrated arts education and research. Hannah has lead a number of successful, cutting-edge initiatives for Ballet Fantastique, including the EXPERIENCE DANCE! Project, the Art Together Collaborative, and Project DanceREACH. Under Hannah"s leadership, Ballet Fantastique has earned repeat grant awards from Lane Arts Council, US Bank, and the Haugland Foundation. Hannah has given professional presentations on behalf of Ballet Fantastique for the American Association of University Women and the Rotary Club.