Artistic Staff - Oregon Ballet Theatre

Photo by Jingzi Zhao

Dani Rowe | Artistic Director

From 2001-2015, Dani Rowe, born in Shepparton, Australia, was a Principal Dancer with the Australian Ballet and Houston Ballet and danced with the prestigious Nederlands Dans Theater. She originated roles in creations by Paul Lightfoot/Sol Leon, Christopher Wheeldon, Wayne McGregor, Alexander Ekman, Crystal Pite, and Medhi Walerski and worked with choreographers Mats Ek, Jiří Kylián, Hans van Manen, Alexei Ratmansky and Christopher Bruce. Rowe has also performed in works by Kenneth McMillan, Jerome Robbins, George Balanchine, Mark Morris, and Nacho Duato as well as the title roles in Giselle, Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, Kitri in Don Quixote and Sugar Plum Fairy in The Nutcracker.

After retiring as a dancer in 2015, Rowe turned to choreography. She has created works for San Francisco Ballet, Nederlands Dans Theater’s SWITCH program, Royal New Zealand Ballet, Co.Lab Dance (featuring dancers from American Ballet Theatre), Milwaukee Ballet, Ballet Idaho, Grand Rapids Ballet, SFDanceworks, Dance Aspen, Barak Ballet, Diablo Ballet, Oakland Ballet, and Berkeley Ballet Theater. She has been dubbed a “choreographic storyteller” (Toba Singer, Culture Vulture), and her work “merits much praise” (Allan Ulrich, San Francisco Chronicle).

Her choreographic style has been described as “using a myriad of intricate hand and arm gestures that built on each other like the blocks in a Jenga game, along with a rich, flowing, contemporary ballet movement aesthetic” (Steve Sucato, culturedGR) and “impressing with the clarity of its intentions and the easy use of a multi-lingual vocabulary” (Rita Felciano, Danceview Times).

In addition to her work as a choreographer, from 2018-2019, Rowe served as the Associate Artistic Director of SFDanceworks, a contemporary repertory company in San Francisco, California, acting as the intermediary between the Artistic Director and dancers.

During the Covid-19 pandemic, Rowe explored filmmaking as a new and lasting way to reach audiences. Her highly regarded creations include Wooden Dimes for San Francisco Ballet, The Animals for Ballet Idaho, and The Misfits for Louisville Ballet. She also collaborated with filmmakers Garen Scribner and Alexander Reneff-Olson on Shelter, I Am Spartacus, and Wilis in Corps-en-tine for the Australian Ballet, which was voted “one of the best things to come out of quarantine” by Vogue.

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Photo by Brian Simcoe

Lisa Kipp | Executive Rehearsal Director

Lisa Kipp began studying ballet in Olympia, Washington and finished her training at Pacific Northwest Ballet School.

She danced with Pacific Northwest Ballet, Pacific Ballet Theatre, Ballet Oregon, Ballet of Los Angeles, Ballet Chicago, and James Sewell Dance, and also performed in the touring company of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s The Phantom of the Opera. Kipp danced principal roles in George Balanchine’s Rubies, Tchaikovsky Pas de Deux, Square Dance, Concerto Barocco, and Apollo, and appeared as the Cowgirl in Agnes De Mille’s Rodeo. Prior to joining OBT in 2004, she was the Ballet Department Head for the school of Spectrum Dance Theater in Seattle, as well as the company’s Rehearsal Director.

Kipp was OBT’s Ballet Mistress beginning in 2004 before being promoted to the company’s rehearsal director, and senior rehearsal director in 2022. As a ballet master, she has assisted James Kudelka, Lar Lubovitch, Lola DeAvila, Nicolo Fonte, Francia Russell, Bart Cook, Christine Redpath, Christopher Stowell, Yuri Possokhov, and Helgi Tomasson. She has staged George Balanchine’s Rubies, Square Dance, and Who Cares? for OBT, and is responsible for the corps de ballet in OBT’s classical repertoire.

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Jane Green | Artistic Manager

Jane comes to Oregon Ballet Theatre with over 30 years of experience in Production and Stage Management with major ballet companies and within the performing arts. Originally from Seattle, Jane graduated from the University of Washington, then went on to work with Pacific Northwest Ballet, Boston Ballet, Texas Ballet Theatre, Complexions Contemporary Ballet, and, most recently, 18 years as the Production Stage Manager for San Francisco Ballet. Many years of touring experience around the world has fed Jane’s passion to travel to even more remote and interesting areas of the world, including the Amazon and Madagascar.

Photo by Isaac Aoki

Steven Houser | Rehearsal Assistant

Steven Houser began his ballet training at the age of 6 in his hometown of Portland, OR, and spent summers studying at San Francisco Ballet School, Pacific Northwest Ballet School, and the School of Oregon Ballet Theatre. Steven joined Oregon Ballet Theatre as an apprentice in 2004, was made a full company member in 2005, and was promoted to soloist in 2007. In 2011 he joined Grand Rapids Ballet where he danced for a further 11 seasons. During his career he performed featured roles in works by George Balanchine, Christopher Stowell, Kent Stowell, Paul Taylor, Helgi Tomasson, Yuri Possokhov, Peter Martins, Julia Adam, Nicolo Fonte, Val Caniparoli, James Kudelka, Christopher Wheeldon, Penny Saunders, Dani Rowe, Olivier Wevers, Annabelle Lopez-Ochoa, Brain Enos, David Parsons, Gerald Arpino, and William Forsythe. In 2017 he was made a Ballet Master with Grand Rapids Ballet, and was responsible for works by Val Caniparoli, Penny Saunders, Christopher Stowell, Dani Rowe, and Brian Enos. Since retiring from performing in 2022, he has worked as a rehearsal assistant, teacher, and stager throughout the United States.

Jamie Lynne Simons | Stage Manager

Raised in the Pacific Northwest, Jamie received a BFA in Applied Theatre Arts from the University of the Arts, Philadelphia. Their career has varied from large stage opera to black box puppetry, from Las Vegas style shows with pyrotechnics, dancers in feather backpacks, magic, and aerial artists – to, now in the Covid era, also calling remote live-stream and hybrid productions. With nearly five years on Carnival Cruise Lines, Jamie went as far west as Melbourne, Australia and as far east as St. Petersburg, Russia. Tour: Hundred Days (production stage manager). Other local credits: Jefferson Dancers, Portland Opera, Portland Center Stage at the Armory, Artists Repertory Theatre, Third Rail Repertory, Portland Playhouse, Profile Theatre, Chamber Music Northwest, Portland Baroque Orchestra, Third Angle New Music, and Oregon Health & Science University. Jamie is both a member of the American Guild of Musical Artists and Actors’ Equity Association.

Guest Artists

Nicolas Blanc, Choreographer | At night’s delicious close

Nicolas Blanc started his dance training in Montauban, France, later attending the Academie de Danse Classique Princess Grace in Monte-Carlo. After winning a scholarship in the 1994 Prix de Lausanne, he completed his education at the Paris Opera Ballet School. He went on to dance for Nice Opera Ballet, Deutsche Oper am Rhein in Dusseldorf, Zurich Ballet, and San Francisco Ballet, where he was made Principal Dancer in 2004.

Blanc was awarded a special prize in performing arts by the city of Düsseldorf in 1998 and a special award of recognition by his hometown in 2004 and 2013. He was named one of the “25 to Watch” by Dance Magazine. In 2010, he was nominated with Tina LeBlanc for an Isadora Duncan Dance Award (Best Ensemble in Christopher Wheeldon’s Within The Golden Hour).

He joined Scottish Ballet as Ballet Master in 2009 and has been a Rehearsal Director and Principal Coach for the Joffrey Ballet since 2011. Blanc has created several works for the Joffrey Ballet, notably Evenfall, Purple, Encounter, and Beyond the Shore, commissioned and supported by the New York Choreographic Institute and Cal Performances in Berkeley, CA.

In July 2014, Blanc received the Choreographic Award at the IBC in Jackson, Mississippi, for his duet Rendez-Vous. Blanc was selected to participate in the 2015 National Choreographers Initiative (NCI), creating Orphée. He was also chosen to participate in New York City Ballet’s New York Choreographic Institute, where he created Mothership, which premiered in New York City Ballet’s 2016 Spring Gala. Blanc created Tableaux Vivants and Desert Transport for Barak Ballet, CA in 2016 and 2019. That same year he also created Aquatic Hypoxia for Grand Rapids Ballet. Under the Trees’ Voices was initially presented for the Joffrey Ballet digital series during the Pandemic before its stage premiere at the Lyric Opera in 2021.

From Afar was his first commission with Rome Opera Ballet in 2022. Blanc was one of nine choreographers chosen to participate in San Francisco Ballet’s Next @90 Festival where he presented Gateway to the Sun in 2023.

Other premieres this season included Les Boeufoons as part of a collaboration between the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and the Joffrey Ballet. He will debut All That Remains with the Joffrey Ballet on tour in Tennessee in June 2025 and Cantus Cygnus in France for the Ballet du Capitole in Toulouse in the winter of 2026.

Blanc is thrilled to create At night’s delicious close, his first collaboration with Oregon Ballet Theatre.

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Photo by Brian Simcoe

Lauren Flower, Choreographer | Of Three

Lauren Flower is from Tucson, Arizona and trained with Tucson Regional Ballet and Ballet Arts. Following her time in Tucson, Flower joined Houston Ballet II under the direction of Claudio Muñoz and Sabrina Lenzi, and later danced with Ballet Arizona from 2013-2017. After four seasons with Ballet Arizona, she joined Boston Ballet as an Artist from 2017-2020, and later moved to San Diego, California where she was a Soloist with Golden State Ballet, as well as an Artist and Resident Choreographer with The Rosin Box Project. Throughout her career, Flower has had the pleasure of performing works by choreographers William Forsythe, Justin Peck, Alejandro Cerrudo, Andi Schermoly, Stanton Welch, and George Balanchine. She has also had the opportunities to choreograph on dancers of Ballet Arizona, Boston Ballet, Boston Ballet II, The Rosin Box Project, and various students for ballet competitions.

Photo by John Gress

Or Schraiber, Choreographer | Quartet for Five

Or Schraiber was born in 1992 in the city of Jerusalem, where he studied at the Jerusalem Academy of Music and Dance. In 2010, Or joined the Batsheva Dance Company, where he danced for seven years. In 2017, Or moved to New York City to study acting at the Stella Adler Studio. In 2018, he co-choreographed and starred in Boaz Yakin’s feature film ‘AVIVA’. In 2019 Or joined ‘The Band’s Visit’ National Tour. Throughout the years, Or has appeared in numerous films, choreographed with his partner, Bobbi Jene Smith, numerous original dance works for some of the world’s finest companies (including the Paris Opera Ballet, Royal Danish Ballet, Ballet BC, Ensemble Batsheva, L.A. Dance Project, GöteborgsOperans Danskompani, to name a few), and directed various award-winning short films and music videos. Or made his off-broadway debut in 2023, choreographing (in collaboration with Bobbi) ‘Danny and the Deep Blue Sea’. Or is a founding member of the American Modern Opera Company.

Photo by Smith Baranova

Bobbi Jene Smith, Choreographer | Quartet for Five

Bobbi Jene Smith is from Ames, Iowa. She is an alumnus of the Juilliard School, North Carolina School of the Arts, and the Royal Winnipeg Ballet School. From 2005-2014, she was a member of the Batsheva Dance Company under the artistic direction of Ohad Naharin. In collaboration with Or Schraiber, she has choreographed original works for the Paris Opera Ballet, The Royal Danish Ballet, Martha Graham Dance Company, Ballet BC, Los Angeles Dance Project, VAIL Dance Festival, the Batsheva Ensemble, Theater Basel, GöteborgsOperans Danskompani, Ballet BC and others. She is a founding member of American Modern Opera Company.

Monica Ohuchi, Pianist

Monica Ohuchi’s “commanding pianism” (The New York Times, Anthony Tommasini), performing “with beauty, clarity and drive…[offering a] warmth…expressiveness [that’s] irresistible and deeply moving” (The Times Argus, Vermont) allows her an active career as a piano soloist, chamber musician, and pedagogue. “Dutifully and gracefully” (San Francisco Classical Voice) attentive to musical depth and detail, Ohuchi is the pianist and Executive Director of Fear No Music, and also performs locally with Chamber Music Northwest, Classical Up Close, 45th Parallel, the Chintimini Chamber Music Festival, among many others. Ohuchi’s engagements include collaborations with David Parsons Dance Company and the Oregon Ballet Theater, and soloing with the Colorado Symphony Orchestra, Marin Symphony Orchestra, Newport Symphony Orchestra. She is a frequent guest clinician and adjudicator for the Oregon State and Washington State Music Teacher Associations, as well as the Oregon state chapter of the National Federation of Music, and a regular performer on All-Classical Portland radio. Her solo album released on Helicon records label, “Monica’s Notebook”, is a series of piano Études written expressly for her by her husband, Kenji Bunch. Ohuchi is currently a Program Director at Reed College in the Performing Arts Music Division, where she also teachers piano and chamber music. Ohuchi holds advanced degrees from the Juilliard School in Piano Performance.