Michael Lowe

Artistic Director

Born in Oakland and raised in Alameda, Mr. Lowe was encouraged at an early age to explore the joy and discipline of classical ballet to augment his coordination and strength in athletics.  With the first lesson, his love for music found a counterpart in his natural agility, leading to a new career.  Michael joined Oakland Ballet in 1974 and was promoted to principal dancer in 1976 with his debut as Alias in Billy the Kid.   A scholarship student at Alvin Ailey American Dance Center in New York City, Mr. Lowe has performed with Pacific Ballet Company, Gilbert reed Ballet Company, Los Angeles Chamber Ballet, Sacramento Ballet, North Dakota Ballet and the Old Souls New Shoes Dance Company with Mark Morris.  Mr. Lowe has worked with such legendary choreographers as Agnes de Mille, John Butler, Leonide Massine, Frederic Franklin, Anna Sokolow, Betsy Erickson, Willem Christensen and Ronn Guidi.  In 1989, he recreated the role of Beau Gosse for Oakland Ballet’s historical reconstructions of Bronislava Nijinska’s Le Train Bleu.  In recent years, Mr. Lowe has revealed himself as a gifted choreographer.   He has created a number of striking ballets, six of which have been presented by Oakland Ballet: Table for Two, Witness, The Emperor and the Nightingale, Dim Sum, Bamboo (for which he received an Izzy Award for Best Choreography 2001-2002) and Double Happiness.
In addition to his dancing and choreography, Mr. Lowe served as Assistant Artistic Director from 1997-2000, and coordinated the Company’s outreach program throughout the East Bay from 1982-1999.  In addition to his work with Oakland Ballet, Mr. Lowe was the Artistic Director of Peninsula Ballet from 2004-2008 and resident Choreographer for Moving Arts Dance where his works have been showcased in Belarus, Poland, Paris and Hawai’i.  He is currently Artistic Director of the Black Diamond Ballet Theatre in East Contra Costa County. 

Sharon Sobel

Associate Director

Sharon Sobel, a Pittsburg native began her ballet training at age 3 through the City of Pittsburg. She then studied under Helga Ishikata, Helen Pernik, and Michael Lowe at Delta Ballet Academy. She holds a degree in Dance from Cal State University, Long Beach. She is the recipient of the 2004 Jason Robins Dance Scholarship. During college Ms. Sobel studied under a wide variety of accomplished dance educators and choreographers, such as Sophie Monat, Alaine Haubert, Keith Johnson, Sharon McKinney, Douglas Neilson, and many other guest instructors. She has performed in historic ballets such as Balanchine’s Serenade, Petipa’s Les Slyphides, among many other original works while attending CSU-Long Beach. Sharon has danced with Peninsula Ballet Theatre.

She is the owner of Delta Ballet Academy and Artistic Director of Delta Children’s Ballet Theatre, She is the President of the Pittsburg Creative Arts Building Corporation, a non-profit organization dedicated to the restoration of the historic 2,000 seat big theater, and 242 little theater in Pittsburg. She's excited to be the Associate Director of the newly formed Black Diamond Ballet Theatre - East County's First Professional Ballet Company who will call the Pittsburg Creative Arts Building their home!

Heidi Buehler

Heidi grew up in the Bay Area and studied classical ballet at Costa Ballet Center in Walnut Creek. While attending college at UCSB she was a member of the Student Company that toured and performed in various cities in China. She graduated from UC Santa Barbara with a BFA in Dance and received the Alice Condodina Performance Award.   She has since performed with many Bay Area artists and companies including Peninsula Ballet Theater, Moving Arts, Anne Bluethenethal and Di Mainstone.  She loves every style of dance and is excited to be dancing for Black Diamond Ballet.

Charissa Chaban

Charissa has been dancing since age 3, and started her ballet training at age 7 under the instruction of Ronn Guidi at the Oakland Ballet Academy.  She began performing company roles in Oakland Ballet’s Nutcracker when she was 15.  Charissa went on to UC Irvine where she received her Bachelor Degrees in Dance and Biological Sciences.  While at UCI she was honored to be a part of the university’s first full length ballet:  David Allen’s Cinderella.  Moving to Oahu after college, Charissa created a ballet program for a local dance school teaching all levels of ballet as well as choreographing them a Nutcracker and Peter and the Wolf.  Charissa returned to Oakland Ballet from 2006-2009, performing in Marc Wilde’s Bolero, Nijinsky’s Afternoon of a Faun, Ronn Guidi’s Secret Garden, and his annual Nutcracker. 
In addition to dancing, Charissa received her Master in Physical Therapy Degree from Fresno State, and currently works as a Physical Therapist at Elite Sports Physical Therapy.  She is also working towards her certification in Pilates.

Coreen Danaher

Rehearsal Assistant

Coreen was born in Vallejo, CA and trained there in the Royal Academy of Dance syllabus under Patricia O'Reilly. She later studied with Sally Streets at Berkeley Ballet Theater. After graduating highschool Coreen participated in the Adeline Genee Awards Competition in Athens, Greece as a member of the R.A.D., and afterwards joined Peninsula Ballet Theatre. Dancing with both Peninsula Ballet and Moving Arts Dance Company over the past few years, Coreen has had the opportunity to be featured in works by choreographers including Michael Lowe, Mario Alonzo, Reginald Ray-Savage, Anandha Ray, and Carlos Carvajal.

Sarah Hernandez

Sarah has been dancing since she was 4 years of age, beginning with the Delta Childrens' Ballet Theatre.  From 2000-2003 and in 2006, she danced for Oakland Ballet under the direction of Ronn Guidi.  In OBC's yearly productions of The Nutcracker, she has been cast in the roles of Marie and Louise, as well as a Snowflake, Flower, and in Spanish Chocolate.  Other productions by Oakland Ballet in which Sarah has performed include “The Secret Garden”, “Les Biches” and “Hansel and Gretel”. Currently, she is dancing for COterie under the direction of Kimberly Valmore and the the Black Diamond Ballet Theatere..  When not up on her toes, Sarah is a teacher's assistant at Silverwood Elementary School in Concord, CA, as well as a student at Cal State East Bay where she is pursuing her degree in psychology.

Julianna Johnson

Julianna was born in Walnut Creek, California. She has trained since the age of three with Arlene Newhouse, Director, Academy of Arts and Ballet. As a member of Ballet Celeste International she has performed with the Theatre Ballet of San Francisco and the Moscow Festival Ballet. She attended summer programs with Oakland Ballet, Diablo Ballet, Moving Arts Dance and American Ballet Theater, Detroit. She danced for Peninsula Ballet Theatre as an apprentice since 2006.

Terrin McGee-Kelly

Terrin Kelly is a native of Antioch, and is very excited to be performing with the East Bay’s first professional ballet company!  Terrin began her classical ballet training at Delta Ballet Academy with Helga Ishikata, Helen Piernik, and Michael Lowe, and after went on to study with Arlene Newhouse at Ballet Celeste International.Over the last fourteen years, Ms. Kelly has been performing throughout California as well as touring nationally and internationally dancing with various companies including: Theater Ballet of San Francisco, Oakland Ballet, Peninsula Ballet Theater, and Moving Arts Dance, to name a few.  She was hired as a featured dancer for the Darren Romeo Magic Show by Sigfreid & Roy last year, and has held numerous titles in the Miss America Program, as well as winning the coveted Leni Arnhym classical performer award.  Ms. Kelly was also recently featured in a global commercial for Sony.

Maria LaMance

Bay area native, Maria LaMance trained at the San Francisco Ballet School and received her B.A. in Dance from San Francisco State University.  Maria has performed internationally in Scotland, Poland, France and Belarus, and just recently completed a fifteen city national tour for the circus show, The Moscova Affair.  A cross disciplinary artist, Maria has worked professionally with numerous ballet, modern dance, dance theatre, and circus arts companies, as well as with film makers in the bay area.  Most currently, Maria has appeared with Moving Arts Dance, Huckabay McAllister Dance, Peninsula Ballet Theatre, ArtFace, Vau de Vire Society, and Oakland Ballet.  Maria is very excited to be working with Black Diamond Ballet in it's inaugural year.

Devon LaRussa

Devon began dance classes at the age of 2 and hasn't stopped since!  She is a currently a principal dancer and Assistant Director with Moving Arts Dance Company with which she has toured all over the world.  She was a member of Oakland Ballet from 1995 - 2005 where she performed principal roles in Michael Lowe's choreography as well as numerous other famous choreographers. She danced in "The Matrix 2 & 3" movies as well as a Carlos Santana music video and has recently added musical theater, performing in "Evita" and "Will Roger's Follies".  Devon has been a freelance professional flamenco dancer since 2005 and has been a guest performer with many distinguished artists. She is currently studying and performing with Emmy award winning flamenco dancer and choreographer Yaelisa.

Kollyn Muangmaithong

Kollyn began her ballet training at the age of 9, under the tutelage of Helga Ishikata and Helen Piernik, at Delta Ballet Academy. Kollyn was accepted to UC Davis in 2000. While studying at Davis, Kollyn began her professional career with Oakland Ballet under Ronn Guidi in 2001. In 2002, she trained with Colorado Ballet and was offered positions at State Street Ballet and Ballet Memphis, but decided to stay and complete her college education in Northern California. She graduated from UC Davis in 2004, with a double major in Sociology and Communications. In 2005, Kollyn was crowned the title of Miss Asian America, where she participated in over 100 community service events during her reign. She continued dancing with Oakland Ballet until 2008. While at Oakland Ballet, Kollyn performed lead roles as the Sugar Plum Fairy, Snow Queen, Rose Queen and various Corps de Ballet roles in The Nutcracker; the Dew Fairy in Hansel and Gretel; and various roles in The Secret Garden. At one point, Kollyn was dancing with Oakland Ballet, working full-time at Bank of America corporate offices and teaching 17 dance classes a week. She continues to emcee public events for the Miss Asian America organization and has recently become a member of the hip-hop group, the Groove Monkeez. Currently, Kollyn dances full-time with Black Diamond Ballet and teaches ballet and jazz to young dancers in the bay area.  

Ricky Navarro

Ricky Navarro, I was born in Pittsburg and trained at dance schools all over Contra Costa County, including Delta Ballet Academy.  He later attended the California Academy of Performing Arts under the Direction of Joan Robinson, where he studied Ballet, Jazz and Lyrical, and Tap.  While at the California Academy of Performing Arts he participated in several competitions and was awarded many high honors and titles from those competitions.  

In later years he attended San Francisco Ballet School and studied under some of the world’s best ballet master and mistresses, primarily in classical ballet, with an emphasis on Balanchine’s stylistic technique.  Following his many years of training at SF Ballet, he danced as a company member  and performed beautiful ballet pieces such as Helgi Tomasson’s  Romeo and Juliet, Sleeping beauty, Balanchine’s Donizeti, and Stars and Stripes. Once leaving SFB in 2002 Ricky began teaching dance at Delta Ballet Academy, and is now dancing for Black Diamond Ballet Theater.

Nora Roach

Nora began her dance training with City Ballet School, in San Francisco, with Damara Bennett and Henry Berg. There, she became a member of Bay Area Youth Ballet, and was able to perform many different works including those by George Balanchine, Alonzo King, and Val Caniparoli. In 2007, she graduated from the University of California, Irvine with a Bachelor of Arts in Dance, under the direction of David Allen, Jodie Gates, Donald McKayle and Leslie Peck, performing many classical and contemporary works. She has also performed with Peninsula Ballet Theatre under the direction of Carlos Carvajal, Michael Lowe, and Mario Alonzo.

Isabelle Sjahsam

Isabelle Sjahsam received her early dance training at Marin Ballet, and with Royal Academy of Dance teacher, Connie Vaughan.  As a teenager she studied ballet in England.  Later on she attended the Taylor School in New York and completed her BA in dance at Mills College.  Since then she has worked as a performer, teacher, director, and creator in works ranging from traditional ballets to interdisciplinary public performance installations.  Sjahsam has performed in the Bay Area and throughout the United States with Moving Arts Dance, EmSpace Dance, Anna Halprin, and Leyya Tawil's Dance Elixir.  

Mio Takahashi

Mio was born in Nara, japan. She studied ballet at Homura Tomoi Ballet School for seven years. She also trained with Mika Nakamura(New National Theater Tokyo  Principal) , Yoko Minami for ten years. Mio  graduated from Osaka University of Arts in 2006 and studied with Jyu holiuchi and Taeko Kanashige.She joined Kaitani Ballet Company in 2006 and Dance Project H  by  Jyu Horiuch. She danced with Peninsula Ballet Theater,, Oakland Ballet, Moving Arts Dance Company.  She is happy to be a part of Black Diamond Ballet Theatre.

Paris Wages

Paris Wages began her ballet training with Harvey Hysel in her native New Orleans.  After attending Cal Poly Pomona, Paris earned her MFA in dance at Florida State University.  She has since danced with several companies including Tallahassee Ballet, Los Angeles Classical Ballet, San Pedro City Ballet, Los Angeles Opera, San Diego Opera and most recently with the San Francisco Opera Ballet.  She is currently a member and choreographer for Moving Arts Dance.  Paris is very happy to be a part of BDB’s inaugural season! 

Zachery Weintrau

Zachery began dancing and the age of 8 and has taken classes for years around the Bay Area.  He has studied at the Joffrey Ballet School and at the Nutmeg Conservatory  trained intensely with Kristine Elliott and Alexi Tchernichov.   Zachery is happy to be with Black Diamond Ballet Theatre this year.

Elaine Yu

Elaine is from Pleasanton, CA has been dancing since the age of 4. She has been studying throughout the Bay Area for the past 11 years training in hip hop, ballet, lyrical, jazz, and contemporary. Highlights in Elaine’s performance experiences include performing as the Youth Guest Dancer with the San Jose Ballet Company, and Principal Child Dancer with ODC Dance Company of San Francisco. Elaine has earned several prestigious awards through competitions and conventions. For the past three years, Elaine has toured nation wide assisting classes for the faculty of the Pulse on Tour Convention. Currently, Elaine continues her training with the Black Diamond Ballet Company.