John Landovsky
John Landovsky, Director, was born in Riga, Latvia. Mr. Landovsky's extensive performing career has affiliated him with several dance companies on the mainland and abroad, both as principal dancer and guest artist, including International Ballet Company, Chicago Lyric Opera Ballet, The Roland Petit Ballet in Paris, and Wurttenberg Stats Opera in Stuttgart, Germany. He has shared the stage with many renown artists including Rudolph Nureyev, Henning Kronstrom, Erick Bruhn, and Helgi Thomasson. Mr. Landovsky was the choreographer for ten years at Chicago's Candlelight Dinner Theatre where he won the Joseph Jefferson Award for best choreography. He danced for two years in the ABC television show Polka-Go-Round.
Mr. Landovsky has taught at many prestigious schools including the University of Illinois, National Academy of Arts in Champaign, Illinois, Edinburgh Festival in Scotland, Texas Christian University, and the National Music Camp in Interlochen, Michigan. He has served as the Artistic Director of Bartlesville Civic Ballet in Oklahoma, Duluth Ballet in Minnesota, and Ballet Hawaii.
With 37 years of extensive teaching experience, Mr. Landovsky has coached many of his talented students for important ballet competitions, including the well-known International Ballet Competitions held in Varna, Bulgaria; Helsinki Finland; and Jackson, Mississippi. Other international competitions include the Serge Lifar Competition in Kiev, Ukraine; the Prix de Lausanne Competition in Switzerland; the Youth America Grand Prix Competition in New York City; and the World Ballet Competition in Orlando, Florida. Mr. Landovsky coached the first place winner of the 2010 American Ballet Competition in Austin, Texas, Hawaii State Ballet's own Erica Wong.
Mr. Landovsky teaches with passion and dedication. He has inspired many of his successful students who now dance professionally in some of the most highly acclaimed ballet companies. Mr. Landovsky is very proud of his own school where the high level of training is seen year after year as his most advanced students graduate and the next level of students step into the most demanding roles in The Nutcracker.
Gina Surles
Gina Surles, Assistant Director, was born in Chicago, Illinois. Her goal was always to become an actor until modern dance and ballet classes led her into another direction. She studied ballet and modern dance with Larry Long and Richard Arve at the prestigious Ruth Page Foundation in Chicago, and at the University of Illinois studying with John Landovsky, Beverly Blossom, and Mary Price Boday. Modern dance styles included intensive training in the styles of Martha Graham, Jose Limon, Merce Cunningham, and Alwin Nicolai. Additional studies included Dance Composition, Music, Dance for Children, Anatomy for Dancers, Drama and Theatre.
After receiving her B.F.A. in dance, Ms. Surles continued training in New York City, primarily from Finis Jhung, and danced in the Larry Richardson Dance Company. Ms. Surles has also performed with the Illinois Dance Theatre, Beverly Blossom and Company, Duluth Ballet, and Ballet Hawaii.
Ms. Surles has also studied piano with Paulette Pacific for thirteen years, as well as Music Theory and Music Composition at the University of Hawaii, Manoa.
Currently, Ms. Surles is pursuing two additional artistic endeavors, a return to her first love, acting, and screenwriting. She has been a long-time student in Wayne Ward's Actors Workshop and has participated in workshops with Cary Tagawa, Iris Klein, and Margie Haber. Ms. Surles was thrilled to be one of twenty-four local actors invited to participate in the first Hawaii Five-0 actor's workshop with Scott Rogers, Daniel Dae Kim, and Rachel Sutton. She has worked as an extra on films and television shows that include LOST, Off The Map, and the upcoming movie, Battleship, directed by Peter Berg. She has had roles in three UH/Academy of Creative Media films that have been screened at the Hawaii International Film Festival, Big Island Film Festival, Shanghai Film Festival, and the Ohina Short Film Festival. Ms. Surles is represented by the Kathy Muller Agency.
Faculty
Carrie Siko
Carrie was born in Honolulu, Hawaii. After watching Carrie dance around the house mimicking the ballerinas she would see in books and on television, her mother enrolled her in Hawaii State Ballet at age four. Carrie progressed through the levels of the Junior Program studying under both Gina Surles and John Landovsky, and became a member of the Junior Company. Carrie's true love was performing and she was given many performing opportunities as a member of the Junior Company where she danced many leading roles.
After graduating high school, Carrie attended Texas Christian University as a Nordan Fine Arts Scholar. As a dance major, her studies included ballet and modern technique, choreography, dance history, music theory, and creative dance for children. At TCU Carrie was given the opportunity to perform in original contemporary ballet and modern dance works, as well as in classical ballets such as Bournonville's Flower Festival Pas de Deux and Giselle. She was also honored to perform lead roles in original works by guest choreographers including the late Fernando Bujones' Pasion Y Fuego, Grand Pas Romantique, and as Princess Florine in The Sleeping Beauty.
In 2005 Carrie was invited to travel to Nagaoka, Japan as a Fort Worth Sister Cities ambassador, where she performed as Kitri in the Grand Pas de Deux from Act III of Don Quixote, and a solo role in Bujones' Classical Reflections. At TCU, Carrie also had the opportunity to choreograph and set her own original works, including her final project, based on Hawaiian folklore.
In 2007 Carrie graduated Magna Cum Laude with a B.F.A. in Ballet. She is currently a performer with IONA Contemporary Dance Theatre. At Hawaii State Ballet Carrie teaches Junior Program ballet and modern classes, and Adult Beginner classes. She is also HSB's School Administrator.
Carrie hopes to instill a love for dance and performing, in any form, in her students.
Yuko Kosaka
Yuko was born near Tokyo, Japan. As a young child Yuko was interested in dancing and the arts, but it was not until she was twelve years old that she was given the opportunity to pursue artistic development through gymnastics.
Yuko and her Team participated in gymnastic competitions held semi-annually, and at fourteen Yuko won her first city championship. For the next year, she continued bringing in first place at the city championships. At sixteen, Yuko started training as a rhythmic gymnast. Part of the training included learning classical ballet. The coaching she received for rhythmic gymnastics and ballet was the platform that Yuko used to begin her training as a classical ballet dancer at seventeen.
Her development of this beautiful and demanding art form continued for the next four years with private lessons with the company mistress, Yoshie Arai, of Komaki Ballet. During this time, she concurrently studied under other dancers as well, such as Keiko Nakano and Mikako Kitamura from Tokyo Ballet Company. Yuko made her debut ballet performance under Yoshie Arai as the Dying Swan in a City Ballet Gala Concert. She was also a guest performer for other City Gala Concerts, performing variations from Le Corsaire, Paquita, Sleeping Beauty, and Swan Lake.
In 2000, Yuko started with the Asami Maki Ballet Company in Tokyo, to continue her training under company mistresses Ruriko Chiba, Kaoru Ikeya, and Shizuko Moroboshui. Yuko continued with Asami Maki Ballet until 2006 when she and her husband moved to Honolulu, Hawaii. In 2008 she started teaching for Hawaii State Ballet.
Yuko believes that dancing is a necessity of the soul and wants to share the joy and art of dancing with her students and community.