Ballet Aligned Teachers
Sabrina Jex
Sabrina, born and raised in Utah valley, trained with Rocky Mountain Ballet, Jacqueline’s School of Ballet, and Barlow Arts Conservatory. She attended intensives at Brigham Young University and the San Francisco Conservatory of Dance, and performed at the Hale Center Theatre Orem. After one year of college, she served a full-time mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Denmark. During her five seasons with BYU Theatre Ballet, her roles included Myrtha in Giselle, The Queen of Hearts in Alice in Wonderland, the Lilac Fairy in Sleeping Beauty, and Cygnes Grandes in Swan Lake. She also had the opportunity to perform works by acclaimed choreographers including George Balanchine, Gerald Arpino, and Paul Taylor. She has choreographed on ballet companies at BYU for both live-streamed and live performances. During the last two years of her undergraduate, Sabrina taught ballet technique at BYU for beginning and intermediate levels, as well as pointe technique for intermediate and advanced students. In 2022, Sabrina passed the Level 5A ABT National Training Curriculum student examination with Honors. She graduated with a B.S. in Economics and minors in Business and Ballet and is now pursuing a master’s degree in Financial Planning. Sabrina was the associate director of Ballet Aligned's "Night Before Christmas" production in 2024. She has taught at Ballet Aligned since 2022 and we are so lucky to have her on our teaching staff!
Susanna Russell
Brianne Corbridge
Brianne is happy to be back in her hometown after performing professionally with Central Illinois Ballet. She holds a BFA in ballet from the University of Utah with an emphasis in teaching. While at the U of U, she created and co-directed club, the Interdisciplinary Performance Arts Collective, which provided student-led performance art in the greater Salt Lake Community. She choreographed, composed, and produced Air Bird, a full-length work performed at the Rose Wagner Studio Theater. Before attending the U of U, Brianne trained and performed with the Cache Valley Civic Ballet, coached by Steffanie Casperson. Rolls there included leads in the Nutcracker, Sleeping Beauty, Firebird, Dracula, and others. Brianne has also performed as a guest artist in Oquirrh Mountain Ballet’s Nutcracker. She is deeply interested in pushing her boundaries and discovering her potential as a performer, artist, and teacher.
Becky Erickson
Becky performed extensively with the Cache Valley Civic Ballet, dancing leading roles in most of their productions including Nutcracker, Sleeping Beauty, Cinderella, Dracula, and Coppelia, among many others. Her other performance credits include local theater companies, Inishfre Irish Dance, Utah Festival Chorus, and even in season eight of "So You Think You Can Dance." She has judged for the Utah Dance Fest and choreographed and set choreography for ballet and theatre productions locally. She has been teaching (even internationally!) and coaching for competitions for over two decades, and many of her students have received scholarships. In addition to CVCB, she received additional training with Ballet West, Philip Beamish, Stephanie Saland, and the current director of New York City Ballet, Jonathan Stafford, among others. Becky has also worked and mentored in the world of dance photography, appearing as the cover model on two publications. Ballet Aligned is excited to have her join our staff this year to help our dancers achieve their own personal best extension, turnout, flexibility, and beautiful articulated feet. She is passionate about teaching the next generation how to thrive in both the dance world as well as in their personal lives.
Substitute - Tessa Evans
Tessa attended CEU on ballet and dance team scholarships where she choreographed for soloists, groups and teams in jazz, ballet and modern dance. After moving to Cache Valley, Tessa danced, taught and choreographed for Valley Dance Ensemble. Eventually she became the Children’s Company director and then the Artistic Director. Her experiences have given her many opportunities to work with and learn from a diverse lineup of artists including choreographers, musicians, filmmakers and visual artists. She has a love for education and enjoys teaching academic core curriculum through creative movement in classrooms as well as training school teachers to utilize movement with their students. For the last three years Tessa has been traveling full time with her family, gathering much inspiration for her movement from the diverse landscapes and people she visits. She created and owns Movement Adventure, an online creative movement program encouraging learning and exploration through dance.
Substitue - Katie Hall
Katie developed a love of dance at an early age. She was one of those little girls who insisted on wearing tutu to the grocery store and dancing down the aisles. As a result, her mother enrolled her in a dance class. Katie has 15 years of dance instruction. She loves being a mom, and learning and playing with her four children. She has a bachelor's degree in special education and a passion for teaching. She loves sharing her love of dance with her students.
Substitute - Debi King
Debi King holds a Bachelor of Science degree from Utah State University in Dance and Health Education. She began her teaching career in 1990 at the Salt Lake Dance Center. She has choreographed many award winning competition pieces for groups, solos, duos, and trios. After moving to Cache Valley in 2004, she continued teaching for Cache Valley School of Ballet, served on the Board of Directors of Cache Valley Civic Ballet for 13 years, and was the costume maker/manager for 10 years. Debi owns and has operated her own custom sewing business, King Designs, since 1994, specializing in all forms of dance costumes and classical ballet tutus. Currently, Debi teaches ballet and coaches the Sr. Ballet competition team at Salt Lake Dance Center, and Ballet Aligned is delighted to have her back in the valley to provide her 31 years of teaching expertise for our students!
Guest Instructor/Substitute - Kai Casperson
Kai has been a ballet instructor since 2020, helping to develop the curriculum for Ballet Aligned's Boy Ballet Class, and teaching and guesting at Summer Intensives throughout the state. Kai started dancing at age 9, and at age 11 decided to aim for a professional ballet career, at which point he heavily supplemented local lessons with classes from his mother and current Ballet Aligned director, Steffanie Casperson. Beginning in 2016, Kai trained full time on scholarship at the Ballet West Academy (spending only the 2019-2020 school year as a trainee with Boston Ballet). During his time at BWA, he danced a number of leading roles, most notably Prince in Sleeping Beauty and the male lead in Balanchine's "Who Cares." Kai has performed as a guest leads in other program's as well, including lead in "Don Quixote," and Balanchine's "Serenade" which he performed with the University of Utah. His summer training included Ballet West, Boston Ballet, and Pacific Northwest Ballet, where he attended on full scholarships. He was also awarded scholarships to San Francisco Ballet and Houston Ballet. Kai now performs with Ballet West as a full company member (promoted in 2024). He originated the role of Dr. Clement C. Moore in Ballet Aligned's production of "The Night Before Christmas" (which he performed for 2 years--2022 and '23), and is the primary contributor of "Going Pro," Ballet Aligned's blog about the journey of aspiring professional dancers.