Company Dancers

Constanza Elisabeth Blankenship

Assistant Artistic Director/Resident Choreographer, Dancer

Constanza joins the Eugene community this year as Ballet Fantastique’s resident Alaskan. She studied classical ballet at North Star Ballet in Fairbanks under Sue Perry and Norman Shelburne before becoming a ballet performance major at the University of Utah. While at the University, she danced with the University’s ballet company, Utah Ballet, as well as making guest appearances with Mountain West Ballet. She also discovered a love for choreography, which she has cultivated through a number of recent premieres in Utah, and which she brings to Ballet Fantastique. Constanza graduated with her BFA in ballet with performance emphasis in 2007. She has performed leading roles is such ballets as Cinderella, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, The Nutcracker, Square Dance, The Frog Prince, and Coppelia.

Hannah Joy Bontrager

Executive Director, Dancer

Hannah has studied the eight levels of the Vaganova Syllabus and Vaganova pedagogy with Donna Marisa Bontrager (Ballet Fantastique). In addition to spending 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), she was one of five students invited internationally to join renowned Kirov prima ballerina Mme. Alla Sizova’s advanced class. Hannah also trained with Vaganova Academy graduate Inessa Pakri-Plekhanova at the Academy of Colorado Ballet.

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 BA’s in Dance and English Literature and a minor in Community Arts through the graduate Arts Administration program, and participated in master classes with Dance Theatre of Harlem, Alvin Ailey, and Paul Taylor Dance Company. Hannah has performed as a guest dancer and/or contributing choreographer with a number of Northwest companies, including: Colorado Ballet, Co-Art Dance Company, Traduza Dance Company, Rose Children’s Theater, and the Staton Foundation. With Ballet Fantastique, Hannah has performed soloist and principal roles from a number of ballets, including Swan Lake, Sleeping Beauty, Cinderella, The Nutcracker, Raymonda, Le Corsaire, and La Bayadere. Her original choreography includes collaborations with Artistic Director Donna Marisa Bontrager for Ballet Fantastique productions with the Oregon Mozart Players, Eugene Symphony, and the Trio Voronezh. This season, Hannah will appear in dual performance rosters with Ballet Fantastique and with the Manassas Ballet Theatre in northern Virginia (Artistic Director Amy Grant Wolfe).

Ashley Blake Bontrager, Dancer

Ashley has studied classical ballet at Buffalo City Ballet, the Conservatory of Classical Dance, Ballet Fantastique, and the University of Oregon. Under Ballet Fantastique Artistic Director Donna Marisa Bontrager, she has performed roles such as Little Red Riding Hood, Carabosse, the Gold Fairy Variation, and the Fleur de Farine (Sleeping Beauty), Chocolat (The Nutcracker), Odette and the Four Little Swans (Swan Lake), and in numerous contemporary ballet pieces, many of which she has played an active role in choreographing. In addition to her work with Ballet Fantastique, Ashley is currently a Journalism-Broadcasting major at the University of Oregon. She has appeared in Ballet Fantastique chamber company concerts in venues ranging from the Umpqua Dance Festival, to the University of Oregon School of Music and Dance Spring Loft, to the Slavic Festival, and in the Nutcracker with Buffalo City Ballet. Register-Guard dance critic Janet Descutner applauds Ashley’s “serious performance style” (2005).

Ya Xi Fu, Dancer

Ya Xi began ballet training at the dance department in Shanghai Children’s Palace when she was four years old. In 1993, she was accepted into the Shanghai Ballet School, where she graduated in 2000. In 1997, she garnered the Best Performing Award in the senior ballet division at the Tao Li Bei National Ballet Competition in Shanghai. In 2000, she joined the prestigious Shanghai Ballet Company, where she performed Swan Lake, The Butterfly Lovers, The White-haired Girl, The Nutcracker, Coppelia, La Sylphide, Giselle and Don Quixote as a member of the ballet corps and a group soloist. From 2001 to 2004, Ya Xi danced with the Showa Performing Arts School (SPAS) in Tokyo, where she performed Coppelia and La Sylphide as a soloist. In 2002, she trained at the Royal Opera House in London as a member of SPAS. In 2005, she spent one year in Shanghai teaching ballet and Chinese folk dance. Ya Xi is currently a dance major at the University of Oregon. This is her first year with Ballet Fantastique.

Alonzo Lee Moore IV, Dancer

Alonzo began his dance training in the fall of 2002 in Loyola University’s Ballet Repertory Program under the direction of Laura Zombrano and Gayle Parmele. While there, he worked with resident guest artists from Miami City Ballet, Nashville Ballet, and Alabama Ballet. He also danced for the New Orleans Metropolitan Opera and New Orleans’ only professional ethnic dance ensemble, Komenka. While with Komenka Ethnic Dance and Music Ensemble, Alonzo participated in three separate European tours, performing across Poland, Bulgaria, and France. Since relocating in the Northwest, Alonzo danced in locally-based Traduza Dance Company, a contemporary Brazilian ensemble under the direction of Brazil native Valeria Ball, and with Rita Honka Dance Company and Dance Theatre of Oregon. Alonzo has also worked with a number of other local artist-choreographers, including Walter Kennedy, Margo Van Ummersen, Cheryl Lemmer, Robin Steihm of Ashland’s Dancing People Company, and Bonnie Simoa. Alonzo has also been a featured performer in Oregon Festival of American Music (OFAM) productions of South Pacific and Babes in Arms. He starred in OFAM’s closing night gala, performing a classic dance scene originally danced by Gene Kelly in Slaughter on 10th Avenue. With Ballet Fantastique, Alonzo has danced principal roles from Raymonda and Swan Lake, and actively contributed to the creation of a number of original works, including ”A Novel Experience“ with the Oregon Mozart Players

Nicola Juliet Thieme, Dancer

Nicola began her classical ballet training at the Conservatory of Classical Dance and studied numerous styles at Portland’s Oregon Ballet Theatre. She has been coached by Ballet Fantastique’s Donna Marisa Bontrager and Susan Zadoff at the Eugene School of Ballet and has been invited to several summer programs, including the Kirov Academy of Ballet in Washington, DC. Nicola was invited to join Santa Barbara’s State Street Ballet, and spent a season performing in a range of company repertoire. Nicola has performed many roles, including the Sugar Plum Fairy, the Giselle variation, Beauty Fairy (Sleeping Beauty), and Waltz of the Flowers in Eugene Ballet Company’s Nutcracker. Nicola is also an avid choreographer and holds a second place prize in the Youth Choreography Competition for Sevillanas, sweeping recognition from a panel of judges in competition categories from technique, to composition, to artistry. Nicola has performed and toured with Ballet Fantastique in concerts with the Oregon Mozart Players, the Trio Voronezh, and Ballet Rogue.

Amelia Unsicker, Dancer

Amelia began her ballet training at Pacific Festival Ballet at age eight under the instruction of John Gardner. In 2000, she was accepted into the School of Oregon Ballet Theatre (SOBT), where she trained for seven years while concurrently appearing in a number of company productions. Amelia attended American Ballet Theatre’s Austin, Texas summer intensive in 2003. While at SOBT, she was trained by renowned artists such as Damara Bennett, James Canfield, Elena Carter, Tracey Durbin, Tracey Katona, Elise Legere, Fred Locke, Lavinia Magliocco, Josie Moseley, and Christopher Tabor. Amelia has performed various roles in George Balanchine’s The Nutcracker, Il Distratto, La Source, Napoli, Peter and the Wolf, Raymonda, Snow White, and Swan Lake. This is Amelia’s sophomore year at the University of Oregon, where she is studying both science and dance. This is her first year with Ballet Fantastique.