Artistic Staff
LAUREN JONAS
Lauren Jonas trained at the Marin Ballet under Maria Vegh and Margaret Swarthout, and then with Sally Streets. She performed with the Milwaukee Ballet, the Oakland Ballet, the Southwest Ballet, and toured the United States with the Moscow Ballet, directed by the Bolshoi Ballet's Vaslav Gordeyev. Since Diablo Ballet's premiere in 1994, Ms. Jonas has recruited dancers from around the world to present the finest in contemporary and classical ballets. A firm believer in the need to stimulate the cultural development of future generations, she co-created the Ballet’s PEEK Outreach Program in Title-1 schools in 1995 and in 2015 she partnered with Mt. McKinley Court School and the Superintendent of Schools Lynn Mackey, to bring arts curriculum to teenagers incarcerated within the juvenile justice system. Ms. Jonas’ awards include the 2005 National Philanthropy Day honor, the 2000 Arts and Culture Commission Award of Contra Costa County, and the1998 Contra Costa County Woman of Achievement Award for the Arts. She has served as an advisor on several non-profit boards and served on scholarship and dance festival committees. Ms. Jonas has guest taught for various schools and colleges throughout California and nationally. She is the 2014 recipient of the Contra Costa Commission for Women Contributing to the Arts, Hall of Fame award and was an honoree at the State Assembly’s Women’s History Month. In 2016, Ms. Jonas was honored at the Djerassi’s Women’s Residency Program for empowering women as leaders in the field of ballet and in 2022 she was a guest lecturer at UC Berkeley speaking on Women Leaders in the Arts. She has coached all of Diablo Ballet's repertoire and staged the full-length production of Coppélia in 2022. Ms. Jonas is the Co-Founder and Director of Diablo Ballet School, which launched in 2019 and is the first school in the history of Contra Costa County operated by a professional ballet company and includes a Dance for Parkinson’s Program.
SALLY STREETS
Sally Streets performed with the New York City Ballet, Mia Slavenska's Ballet Variante, Pacific Ballet, and the Oakland Ballet. A highly respected teacher and choreographer, Ms. Streets has been a faculty member of many Bay Area schools and companies including San Francisco Ballet and Oakland Ballet. She has served as guest company teacher for the New York City Ballet and the Royal Ballet in London. Currently, Ms. Streets is the principal teacher at Berkeley Ballet Theater. Since March 1994, she has created seventeen world premieres for Diablo Ballet including Three to Tango, Solitary Hotel, Tchaikovsky in Three Movements, A Cosmic Fantasy, Opus 22, Bach Suite for Strings, Encores, Ballo D'Orfeo, Symmetry and Surprise, Mon Parasole, From Holberg's Time, Pas de Temps, Chants de Berlioz, Mouvements Musicaux, Motifs, Variations on Baroque and Love's Labyrinth.
DAWN PERRIN
Dawn Perrin was born in Madrid, Spain and was raised in Lee, Massachusetts. She received her early dance training at Cantarella School of Dance. At age 13, she became a member of The Berkshire Ballet where she danced leading roles in classical ballets such as Giselle, Coppelia, Les Sylphides, and Graduation Ball. She also attended summer intensive programs at Pennsylvania Ballet School, School of American Ballet, and The Joffrey Ballet School. Ms. Perrin danced professionally with American Ballet Theatre II, The Joffrey Ballet and The Houston Ballet. She feels very fortunate to have had a career that took her around the world performing principal roles in classical ballets such as Romeo and Juliet, La Fille Mal Gardée, The Dream, Swan Lake, and The Nutcracker, as well as works by Robert Joffrey, Gerald Arpino, George Balanchine, Paul Taylor, Agnes de Mille, James Kudelka, Jiri Kylian, and Ben Stevenson. Ms. Perrin has been teaching for 28 years and enjoys sharing her experience and knowledge along with her love of classical ballet with dancers of all ages. Photo by Cristen Wright Photography.
SEAN KELLY
Sean Kelly received his training at the Marin Ballet. He performed with American Ballet Theatre II and Houston Ballet as a principal dancer for over a decade in ballets by renowned choreographers such as George Balanchine, Christopher Bruce, Jiri Kylian, Ben Stevenson, Paul Taylor and Stanton Welch. He also won Best Partner at the International Ballet Competition in Helsinki, Finland. Mr. Kelly joined the Houston Ballet staff as a Ballet Master, where he was invited to stage Ben Stevenson's Cleopatra for Boston Ballet and Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre. He created two ballets for Houston Ballet, numerous works for Diablo Ballet, and is a featured guest teacher and choreographer across the country. Mr. Kelly performed in the Tony Award winning touring production of Swing, where he also served as Dance Supervisor. He also performed in the Tony Award winning Broadway and touring productions of Twlya Tharp's Movin' Out and served as the Resident Director. Mr. Kelly was the Resident Choreographer of the Tony Award winning musical Billy Elliot, which toured nationally and throughout Canada. He was the Associate Choreographer for An American in Paris on Broadway and was the Associate Choreographer/Resident Director for the National Tour of the production. Mr. Kelly also helmed that production that went to Asia as well as its return to Paris and mounted the Australian production of the show. He has served as the Associate Director for Bad Boys of Dance, which toured extensively throughout the world.
KAORI OGASAWARA
Kaori Ogasawara was born in Tokyo, Japan and studied ballet with her grandmother Kazue Ogasawara and her coach Takao Hisamitsu. In 1993, Ogasawara came to the US to train at the Boston Ballet School and then joined the Company in 1995. She and her husband, Christopher Rendall-Jackson joined Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre in 1999, where she was promoted to the rank of Soloist in 2004. There Ms. Ogasawara performed featured roles including the Sugar Plum Fairy and Marie in Terrence S. Orr's The Nutcracker, Myrtha in Giselle, Mercedes and Dryad Queen in Don Quixote, Svetlana in Ben Stevenson's Dracula, and Queen of Hearts in Derek Dean's Alice in Wonderland. She danced in George Balanchine ballets including the Russian lead in Serenade, Sylvia Pas de Deux, Divertimento No. 15, Theme and Variations and Who Cares? She enjoyed performing in contemporary works by Dwight Rhoden and Jean-Christophe Maillot and modern ballets by Paul Taylor and Glen Tetley. She's currently the Rehearsal Director for Berkeley Ballet Theater, a company teacher for ODC, Alonzo King Lines Ballet, Diablo Ballet and Oakland Ballet and she is a guest choreographer for the New Ensemble Ballet in Memphis, Tennessee. Ms. Ogasawara and her husband are also proud parents of two children, Emiya and Hana. Photo by: Patricia Possel.
PIERRE-FRANCOIS VILANOBA
Born in Lille, France, Pierre trained at the Conservatoire de Lille and The Paris Opéra Ballet School, beginning at age seven. After dancing with Paris Opéra Ballet for eight years, rising to the rank of Sujet, he joined San Francisco Ballet as a soloist in 1998 and was quickly promoted to principal dancer in 1999. His lead roles in Paris and San Francisco include ballets by: John Neumeier - the Prince in The Little Mermaid, Aminta in Sylvia; John Cranko - Onegin in Onegin; Lar Lubovitch - Othello in Othello; Mark Morris - Orion in Sylvia; Rudolf Nureyev - Benvolio in Romeo & Juliet, Abderam and Jean de Brienne in Raymonda, and Rothbart in Swan Lake; Helgi Tomasson - Albrecht in Giselle, Romeo in Romeo & Juliet, Prince Desiré in The Sleeping Beauty, Prince Siegfried and von Rothbart in Swan Lake, Espada in Don Quixote, the Nutcracker Prince and Snow King in Nutcracker. Additionally while in Paris and San Francisco he participated in the creation of principal roles in works by Neumeier, James Kudelka, Jorma Elo, Alexei Ratmansky, Christopher Wheeldon, Val Caniparoli, Tomasson, Yuri Possokhov, Matjash Mrozewski, and others. Vilanoba's broad repertory includes ballet's by Rudolf Nureyev, Roland Petit, Maurice Béjart, George Balanchine, Jerome Robbins, Marius Petipa, Serge Lifar, Vaslav Nijinsky, Leonide Massine, Serge Diaghilev, Victor Gsovsky, Nacho Duato, William Forsythe, Hans van Manen, Angelin Preljocaj, Sir Kenneth MacMillan, Sir Frederick Ashton, David Bintley, Harald Lander, Anthony Tudor, Jacques Garnier, Lila York, Caroline Carlson, and Mats Ek. He has performed at galas around the world and in several ballet films with the Paris Opéra Ballet, including Nureyev's Romeo and Juliet. In December 2008, Vilanoba was featured as the Snow King in the PBS Great Performances broadcast of Tomasson's Nutcracker. In 1999 Pierre worked with famed fashion photographer Herb Ritts on a collection produced for the French Vogue's millennium issue. His images have appeared in several books of Herb Ritts' photography as well as the traveling exhibition, HERB RITTS L.A. STYLE, curated in 2012 by The Getty Museum in Los Angeles. Since 2012, Pierre has been teaching and coaching in the San Francisco Bay Area and abroad.