Lona Gomez, Ballet Mistress

 

Lona is a native of Boston Massachusetts. She was awarded a Ford Foundation Scholarship to train with the Boston Ballet School. She became a member of Boston Ballet II as well as an apprentice with the Boston Ballet Company under founder and director, the late E. Virginia Williams. She then was offered a contract with the Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre where she danced for 9 years under the direction of Patricia Wilde, former principal dancer with New York City Ballet. She danced corps, soloist, and principle roles in full length classical ballets as well as many Balanchine ballets. Her noted soloist roles include the Scotch Lass in Balanchine’s Scotch Symphony, the soloist girl in Balanchine’s Donizetti Variations, Valse Fantasie, Tarantella, and Four Temperaments. Her noted roles in the classics include Myrtha and Peasant Pas de Deux in Giselle, Pas de trios and 4 cygnets in Swan Lake, and “Grisi” in Pas de Quatre. She has worked with noted choreographers and such as Ohad Naharin, Lisa DeRibere, Daniel Levins, Frederick Franklin, Paul Sutherland, Larry Long. As Principal of the Center for Dance education for 21 years, she has developed a successful syllabus.Under Miss Lona's direction, the Center for Dance Education continues to it's committment to inspire excellence. She has choreographed for the Advanced Division students of Ballet Spartanburg as well as for the professional dancers of Ballet Spartanburg. Under her tutelage, her students have continues to dance professionally in ballet companies across the world as well as continue their academic studies at elite higher educational institutions.