ARTISTIC DIRECTOR, ASHLEY CALLIGAN
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Ashley M. Calligan is from Denver, Colorado and has been teaching ballet for 21 years. Ms. Calligan trained at The Academy of Colorado Ballet, The Academy of Russian Ballet, and Burklyn Ballet Theatre. While dancing she performed numerous roles including; Lilac Fairy in The Sleeping Beauty, Soloist in Paquita, Spanish in The Nutcracker, and many original works by Elizabeth Shipiatsky, Robert Royce, Angela Whitehill, and Thom Clower. For the 2008-2009 season she was the Ballet Mistress with Western Arkansas Ballet of Fort Smith, Arkansas.
She is currently in her 19th year as the Assistant to the Artistic Director and Ballet Mistress with Burklyn Ballet Theatre, under the direction of Joanne Whitehill. With Burklyn Ballet Theatre she has traveled numerous times to Scotland to perform in The Edinburgh Festival Fringe. Her students have gone on to dance professionally and to dance in college dance programs such as SUNY Purchase, AMDA, The University of Arizona, and The University of Oklahoma.
In May of 2019, Ms. Calligan became the Owner and Artistic Director of the Vail Youth Ballet Company and Vail Valley Academy of Dance in Edwards, Colorado.
ASSISTANT ARTISTIC DIRECTOR, CLAYTON CUNNINGHAM
Clayton joined VVAD just over a year ago from Boston, Massachusetts where he was coaching and teaching at Jose Mateo Ballet Theatre. He began his training at the English National Ballet School in London, under the direction of Kathryn Wade, of the Royal Ballet. In the summers of 2002/2004 he was accepted in the Chautauqua Ballet, in New York, under the direction of Jean-Pierre Bonnefoux, Patricia McBride, and Violette Verdy, of New York City Ballet and Paris Opera Ballet. Clayton also danced with San Francisco Ballet in 2003. While he was dancing with other companies throughout the summers he was employed as a soloist with St. Louis Ballet under the direction of Gen Horiuchi, of the New York City Ballet, from 2001-2005. Clayton went on to dance with Omaha Ballet Theatre, under the direction of Robyn Welch, and then to Metropolitan Ballet of Minneapolis in 2009-2011, under the direction of Tatiana Berenova of the Bolshoi Ballet. In 2011 Clayton temporarily retired from dancing due to knee injuries and took a temporary position as Assistant Artistic Director and Ballet Master of Ohio Dance Theatre. He then went on to become the Ballet Master at Forever Dance Alaska, in Soldotna, Alaska, for nearly 10 years. He did take a year off to return to dance again with the St. Louis Ballet, but officially retired due to a recurring knee injury. Clayton is very excited to be joining Vail Youth Ballet Company as Assistant Artistic Director, working with the students, faculty, and the community to keep the love and tradition of dance alive!