Dance Faculty & Staff

Larry A. Attaway is Chair of the Department of Dance at Butler University and Executive Artistic Director of the Butler Ballet.  Mr.Attaway is a composer, choreographer and administrator and has been actively working in the dance field since 1971. The majority of his professional work was created in collaboration with the renowned West Coast dance innovator, Bella Lewitzky.  As Musical Director and Composer-in Residence for Ms. Lewitzky and the Lewitzky Dance Company he received commissions from the ARCO Foundation, the Krannart Center in Urbana, IL, the UCLA Center for the Performing Arts, the Los Angeles Festival and the Chateauvallon Festival in Toulon, France.   His choreographic oeuvre includes multiple works for the Jordan Dance Ensemble and the 1980 reconstruction of the Russian Avant-garde Opera, Victory Over the Sun.  In 2013 he choreographed a new production of Schoenberg’s Pierrot Lunaire as part of the inaugural season of the Schrott Center for the Arts and was featured in the Butler ArtsFest first season.  In 2014 he created two new compositions, Idylwild and Spectre de les Ballet Russes, as part of the Butler Ballet mid-Winter Dance Festival. In September 2018, he collaborated with Professor Cynthia Pratt in the creation of A Gallery Of Memories, a site specific work for 110 dancers presented on the Butler Quad.  His latest choreographic work The Mystery of Chapeau Royale was premiered as part of the Butler Ballet’s Mid-Winter Dancers in February 2019.  As executive-artistic Director for the Butler Ballet Mr. Attaway has produced full-length productions of Cinderella,Sleeping Beauty, Giselle, Coppélia, and the company’s annual presentation of The Nutcracker.  In addition to his work as department chair, Mr. Attaway is currently the Vice President of the National Association of Schools of Dance and serves as an accreditation site visitor and consultant for NASD.  Mr. Attaway is an Associate Professor of Dance at Butler and has been at the University since 1997.  Prior to his appointments at Butler, Mr.Attaway was the associate dean and member of the faculty at the California Institute of the Arts from 1972 until 1997.

Marek Cholewa, Professor of Dance, began his studies at the National School of Ballet in Poznan, Poland.  As a young dancer his talent was noted by his teachers during the early stages of his training and he received continued support by the Polish government throughout his tenure in Poland. He achieved the rank of a Soloist with the National Ballet of Poland and performed as a guest artist with the Polski Teatr Tanca-Balet Poznanski in Poznan, Poland. In 1978 he was sent by the Ministry of Culture in Poland, on full scholarship to study at the world renowned N. Rimsky-Korsakov Music State Conservatory in St. Petersburg, Russia.  While in Russia, he was able to refine and polish his ballet technique and learn classical repertoire at the Mariinsky Theatre.  He obtained his master’s degree from the N. Rimsky-Korsakov Music State Conservatory as a Choreographer/Répétiteur in 1982. That same year he was invited by Dame Margot Fonteyn to join the National Ballet of Panama where he was Associate Artistic Director/Master Teacher/ Choreographer. From 1983 to 1985 he served as the Dance Adviser for the Latin-American Dance Chapter to the INAC (Instituto Nacional de Cultura).  Although Mr. Cholewa left the Republic of Panama in 1988, he has preserved his special connection with the National Ballet of Panama, its dancers and the expansion of its cultural outreach. For 20 years (1990-2010), he has worked as a guest Artistic Director/Choreographer in Panama, Republic of Panama by staging, choreographing and directing many ballet productions such as; The Nutcracker, Sleeping Beauty, La Bayadère, Swan Lake, Les Sylphides, La Vivandière, Esmeralda, Simfonia Simple, La Simfonia de una Vida, Sarabanda Sentimental.

As a professional choreographer Mr. Cholewa has been working on a commission basis since 1982, and his works have been shown throughout the United States, Central and South America, and Europe. Over the years Mr. Cholewa has been revered as an “on demand” choreographer. Among his many original works are ballet-oratorio The Messiah, Vivencias, Vocalisa, Nupsias, Adagietto, Firebird, Sarabanda Sentimental, Danzon, Dreaming with Open Eyes, At a Gathering, A Dialogue, Rhapsody, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, White Happiness, The Other Self, A Path, Displacements, Travesì in Retro, Inception

His other well known contributions to the world of dance pertain to the staging of classical repertoire such as; Giselle, Sleeping Beauty, La Bayadère, Swan Lake, Les Sylphides, Paquita, La Vivandière, Esmeralda, Le Corsaire.  Also to his credit he has choreographed the classical full-length ballets of La Fille Mal Gardée, Coppélia and The Nutcracker.

As a master teacher, Mr. Cholewa has taught for international dance programs in Denmark, Russia, Panama, Taiwan and Poland. In the United States he has taught for Boston Ballet Company, Boston Ballet’s summer dance programs, Indianapolis Ballet Theatre and a number of regional ballet schools and dance companies in St. Louis, MO, Chicago, IL, New Orleans, LA, Richmond, VA, and Fort Wayne, IN. In 1988, Mr. Cholewa began his teaching career in the United States when he joined the dance faculty at Butler University.  He has always tried to give the students and the university the wealth of his experiences and expose them to the cultures he has been associated with throughout his career. In 1995, he started international study/performance tours for Butler University’s Dance Department.  The first tour began with St. Petersburg, Russia, and since it has grown to include: Warsaw, Cracow, Poznan, Gdansk, Poland; Taipei, Taiwan; Tbilisi, Rep. of Georgia, Vienna, Salzburg, Austria, Bratislava, Slovak Rep., Prague, Czech Rep.  He has served as an Artistic Director, Choreographer, and Teacher for these international programs. These programs have allowed for cultural exchange and outreach while giving the chance for study outside of the university classroom.  Mr. Cholewa’s areas of special expertise are the full Vaganova syllabus and XIXth century classical ballet repertory learned in St. Petersburg, Russia.  At present he holds the position of Full Professor at Butler University, and has the honor of being named a Fulbright Scholar for 2003.

Rosanna Ruffo is native of Panama where she began her ballet training at the National School of Ballet.  She received a scholarship to study at the Russian Ballet Academy (Vaganova School of Ballet) in Saint Petersburg – Russia.  While in Russia Ms.Ruffo performed at The Mariinsky Theatre in Les Sylphides, The Nutcracker,Paquita and La Bayadère and others  In1982, after four years of performing in St. Petersburg and study with NataliaM. Dudinskaya, Tatiana A. Udalenkova and Konstantin M. Sergeyev, she returned to Panama and performed with the National Ballet of Panama as a soloist.  In 1985 she was promote to the rank of a principal dancer.  Under artistic direction of Dame Margot Fontayn Ms. Ruffo performed the leading roles in La Bayadère, Swan Lake, Giselle, The Nutcracker, Les Sylphides.   In 1986 the Mayor of New Orleans has conferred the title for her of International Honorary Citizen.  In 1988 Ms. Ruffo joined Indianapolis Ballet Theatre (Indianapolis, USA) and performed there the leading roles in The Nutcracker, Giselle, Swan Lake, Sleeping Beauty, Romeo and Juliet, Raymonda, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Variations Brilliante and George Balanchine’s Night Shadow.  In Indianapolis she was working with Alla Sizova, Irina Kolpakova, John Taras and others.  Rosanna has been a guest artist with ballet companies in New Orleans, New Haven, San Antonio, San Francisco, Sacramento, Saint Louis, Chicago and with the National Ballet of Panama.  In her reviews by Betsy Light: Ruffo is “(…)the guiding spirit for Giselle(…)”, and in her last dance review in 1994 from Romeo and Juliet a New York Time critic Jack Anderson said “(…)Rosanna Ruffo was an eager Juliet, who moved lightly and impulsively, as if wanting to soar upward with every step and gesture.(…)”

          Since 1995, Ms. Ruffo is a member of the dance faculty at Butler University and she teaches ballet, pointe as well she choreograph’s for Butler Ballet Company.

Ramón Flowers is an Associate Professor in the Department of Dance in the Jordan College of the Arts, at Butler University. He began his formal dance training on scholarship at the School for the Pennsylvania Ballet, and later attended the School of American Ballet. Four years after joining the Pennsylvania Ballet Company, as the first male African-American dancer, he moved to Europe as a principal ballet dancer for 12 Years. He spent seven years with the legendary, internationally renowned Maurice Béjart, performing in major cities in over 60 countries on every continent. He later moved to Germany to dance with William Forsythe, director of the Frankfurt Ballet, and then to Madrid to work with choreographer Nacho Duato and the Compañía Nacional de Danza de España. He has been offered company contracts with New York City Ballet, Dutch National Ballet, Basil Ballet, Lyon Opera Ballet, Les Ballets de Monte-Carlo, and Peter Schaufuss Ballet.

He returned to North America to dance with Montreal`s Les Grands Ballets Canadiens, where repertoire encompassed pieces by all the choreographers for whom he’d danced in Europe, as well as the works of George Balanchine, which were very familiar to him because of his first training as a teenage student. He then left Canada to return to his first love for dance, musical theatre and was featured in several Broadway shows, including Matthew Bourne’s Swan Lake, Cats, The Lion King, The Green Bird, The Boy From Oz, and Hot Feet, as well as Broadway National Tours with Chita Rivera in The Dancer’s Life, and A Chorus Line, in the role of Richie. While living in NYC he was featured in commercials, film, and Television. Ramon teaches ballet at the American Dance Festival Summer Intensive at Duke University, Alvin Ailey II, has choreographed on the Indianapolis Ballet Company, as well as workshops on the William Forsythe style of movement in NYC during his time away from Butler University. He received his BA in French from The City College of New York, CUNY, and his MFA in Dance from The University of Iowa.

DavidIngram

David Ingram began his training in Kingsport, Tennessee under Karen Gibbons- Brown. After graduating with honors from Butler University, Mr. Ingram performed with Louisville Ballet under Bruce Simpson and North Carolina Dance Theatre (now Charlotte Ballet) under Jean-Pierre Bonnefoux. He has performed the works of such choreographers as George Balanchine, Jean-Pierre Bonnefoux, Val Caniparoli, Sean Curran, Erica De La O, Mark Diamond, John Dixon, Nacho Duato, Nicolo Fonte, William Forsythe, Adam Hougland, Sasha Janes, Alun Jones, Alonzo King, Pete Lay, Robert North, John Prichard, Andre Prokovsky, Domy Reiter-Sofer, Dwight Rhoden, Choo San Goh, Uri Sands, Ben Stevenson, Twyla Tharp and Anthony Tudor. David’s choreography has been performed at Charlotte Ballet, Fort Wayne Ballet, Chautauqua Institute,Louisville Ballet, East Carolina University, and the Kentucky Governor’s School of the Arts. Mr. Ingram was a founding member of Empujon as well as a guest performer with Sinergismo.  Mr.Ingram also holds an MFA  in dance from Hollins University in association with the Forsythe Lab and the Mousonturm inFrankfurt Germany.  

Michelle Jarvis

Associate Provost   |  Professor of  Dance

mjarvis@butler.edu   |   317-940-8056

          Michelle Jarvis was appointed Associate Provost for Academic Affairs in June of 2017. Jarvis received her B.A. and M.A. from Butler University, and joined the Jordan College of Arts dance faculty in 1986 after teaching at Millikin University (Decatur, IL) and at the Jordan College Academy of Dance. Jarvis served as Associate Dean for the Jordan College from 2009 and 2011-2016, and Chair of the Department of Dance and Artistic Director of Butler Ballet from 2003-2010.  She also served as the Jordan College of Fine Arts Interim Dean for the 2010-11 and 2016-17 academic years.

             A company member of Dance Kaleidoscope and their company teacher for the 1985 season,  Jarvis has also performed with the Indianapolis Ballet Theatre. In addition to her duties at Butler University, she has been guest teacher at the Hartford School of Ballet, the American College Dance Festival, Springfield Ballet, Young Audiences of Indiana, Summer Arts Institute, True Academy of Dance Lincoln, NE and Ballet Arkansas.

        Jarvis choreographed for the Indianapolis Opera for over 20 seasons, and was named Resident Choreographer in 1999.  Credits include Rigoletto,Hansel and Gretel, La Traviata, Carmen, The Flying Dutchman, The Rake’s Progress, Die Fledermaus, Aida, Eugene Onegin and Samson and Delilah.

        As a former Artistic Director for Butler Ballet II, Jarvis received the Monticello Award in 1984 for choreographic work presented at the Midstates Regional Ballet Festival. Other choreographic credits include Gifts of the Magi for Indiana Repertory Theatre, Ragtime and Hoop-La for Springfield Ballet, 1940’s Radio Hour for Civic Theatre of Indianapolis and Nocturne for Dance Kaleidoscope.

        Jarvis reconstructed the original dances from the original National Touring Company production of Oklahoma!for the Jordan College of  Arts presentation of the musical. Among her extensive choreographic credits for Butler Ballet are Graduation Ball, Nothin’ But Gershwin, Slavic Suite, Maiden and the Nightingale, On Tap, and Pas de Grieg. Classical repertoire includes choreography for The Nutcracker, Sleeping Beauty, Swan Lake, Coppelia, Giselle and Petrouchka.

        Jarvis served as a national officer of the National Association of Schools of Dance, and as an accreditation evaluator. She is a member of the board of directors for Dance Kaleidoscope.

 Professor of Dance, was a principal dancer with the Paul Taylor Dance Company from 1977 to 1988 and served as rehearsal director in 1989. Prior to joining the Taylor Company, Ms. McGuire danced as a soloist with the Martha Graham Dance Company, which she joined in 1973. She has been on the faculties of New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts, the Martha Graham School of Contemporary Dance, the Paul Taylor School, Jacob’s Pillow, the American Dance Festival, and the summer program at Juilliard. In 1989 and 1990 she held the Sage Cowels Land Grant Chair in Dance at the University of Minnesota. Ms. McGuire was Artistic Head of the London Contemporary Dance School from 1991 to 1998. She was Director of the Martha Graham School and a rehearsal director for the Martha Graham Dance Company from January through June 2000. From 2000 to 2004 she was the Director of Taylor 2 and the Paul Taylor School. She has revived or reconstructed Paul Taylor’s work for American Ballet Theatre, the Gulbenkian Ballet of Portugal, the Rambert Dance Company in London, Houston Ballet, Milwaukee Ballet and Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre as well as several universities. Ms. McGuire currently teaches Modern Technique, Improvisation, Teaching Analysis of Modern Technique, Choreography and Music, and choreographs for Butler Ballet.

Cynthia Pratt, Professor of Dance, has been a member of the dance faculty at Butler University since 1994. She received her B.A. degree in Ballet from Virginia Intermont College in 1979 and her M.F.A. degree from Temple University in 1989. In between undergraduate and graduate school, Cynthia lived in New York City where she trained extensively in jazz dance with world-renowned teacher Lynn Simonson, who became her mentor. While in New York, she began teaching Simonson Technique and choreographing on a commission basis for repertory dance companies. Cynthia has a wide range of performing experiences both in the United States and Europe in ballet, modern, and jazz companies as well as on television and in musical reviews with Jon de Mal Productions in Amsterdam. Cynthia has taught jazz dance and choreographed extensively at such institutions as the North Carolina School of the Arts, New York University, Steps, Philadanco, the National Balletacademie Theatre School in Amsterdam, the Goteborg Balletakademien in Goteborg, Sweden, the National Taiwan University of the Arts and Dance Space Center in New York. She has worked as an auditioner for the Jacob’s Pillow Summer Dance Festival Jazz Project and has served as artistic director for several choreographic showcases established to exhibit the work of new choreographers at Evolving Arts in New York. In addition, Cynthia is a Certified Movement Analyst and holds a degree from the Laban Institute for Movement Studies. Since relocating to Indianapolis, Cynthia has choreographed many works for the Butler Ballet and has frequently worked as Guest Choreographer for Dance Kaleidoscope, Indiana’s premier modern dance company. She continues to teach and choreograph on companies and in universities throughout the U.S and abroad. Cynthia is the recipient of numerous research and choreographic grants including being twice awarded the prestigious Indianapolis Arts Council Creative Renewal Grant, given to established and noteworthy artists in Indiana. Since 2004, Cynthia has been Artistic Director for Butler Chamber Dance, an innovative performing wing of the Butler Ballet Company. Under Cynthia’s direction, Butler Chamber Dance has performed at the Indianapolis Spirit and Place Festival, Penrod Arts Festival, Hope College, Wabash College and with Dance Kaleidoscope. Since 2009, Cynthia has been experimenting with large-scale, site-specific dances (between 100-500 participants) and from 2012 through 2016 was the choreographer for Streamlines, a project funded by the National Science Foundation which explored the use of the arts to raise awareness of concerns of local waterways. Her experiences in choreographing these large-scale works, and the impact they have had on community building, was published in 2017 in The Oxford Handbook of Dance and Well-Being.

Derek Reid; Associate Professor, began his training at the Jones-Haywood School of Ballet in his native Washington, D.C. He subsequently studied in intensive dance programs with Rosella Hightower in Cannes, France,Milwaukee Ballet, and Richmond Ballet. He began attending Butler University in 1984, where he received a B.F.A. in Dance. Mr. Reid’s professional dance careers panned over fifteen years, during which time he performed with the Louisville Ballet, Pennsylvania Ballet, Dance Theatre of Harlem, Les Grands Ballets Canadiens in Montreal and Ballet Met in Columbus, Ohio. He performed and created leading roles in works by such internationally acclaimed choreographers as Choo San Goh, William Forsythe, Jiri Kylian, Nacho Duato, James Kudelka, Mark Morris and Ohad Naharin. His repertoire ranged from the classical to the contemporary. His roles have included the prince in The Nutcracker, Siegfriedin Swan Lake and various roles in works by choreographic masters such as Antony Tudor, Vaslav Nijinsky, Irina Nijinska, Agnes de Mille, and George Balanchine.

Mr. Reid’s television credits include PBS’s production ofDance Theatre of Harlem’s Fall River Legend, choreographed by Agnes de Mille, as well as the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation’s Dancers for Life gala, in which he performed the pas de deux from Nacho Duato’s Rassemblement. A special highlight of his career was dancing Duato’s Cor Perdut at the Acropolis in Athens, Greece with the Gala des Etoiles, sharing the stage with dancers likeDamian Woetzel, Darcie Bussel and Carlos Acosta.

Mr. Reid’s professional teaching career began with the Northwest Florida Ballet in 1985 and continued through his Associate Directorship of the Fort Wayne Ballet from 2000-2004 and his guest/master classes across the country. In his current position as Associate Professor ofDance at Butler, Mr. Reid teaches Dance History, Classical Ballet technique, Classical and Contemporary Pas de Deux, Choreography, and his core curriculum contribution to the university Black Dance in the American Tradition. While creating original choreographic works for Fort Wayne Ballet, Northwest Florida Ballet, and Central Indiana Dance Ensemble, Mr. Reid offers original works to the Butler Ballet in both the classical and contemporary veins. With an eye towards the history and tradition of classical technique, Mr. Reid continues to search for new ideas to stimulate students and advocate for the continued embracing ofthe fine arts.   In 2012 he received a Master of Arts Degree in Organizational Leadership and Service Learning from Gonzaga University.

Natasha Tarasova received her Master of Music degree from the Rimsky-Korsakov Leningrad (now Saint-Petersburg) State Conservatory in Russia in 1983. Her specializations include piano performance, chamber ensemble, accompanying, and piano pedagogy.

Mrs. Tarasova came to the US in 2013 and works for Butler Dance Department since January 2014. She plays for Ballet, Pointe, Pas de Deux, Character Dance, and Classical Variations classes. She also does accompanying for Butler University School of Music, both for instrumentalists and vocalists. In August 2015 and August 2017, she played for Cholewa–Ruffo Ballet Workshop. Besides her involvement at Butler University, Natasha works for Expressenz Dance School, and often plays for ballet auditions. Since 2014, she has been invited every year to play for the Youth America Grand Prix competition in Carmel, Indiana.

Most of Natasha’s professional career came in Russia. She taught piano at Music college, and played piano duets and chamber music for more than 20 years. She also worked for a long time with young vocalists. Many of her students of all years became winners of national and international competitions for young musicians. At those competitions, Natasha herself was awarded several prizes as the best accompanist.

Natasha lived with her family for three years in Japan where she taught piano and played charity recitals herself and in ensembles with instrumentalists and vocalists, including performances in favour of people affected by Great Hanshin earthquake in Kobe, and children with cancer.

In piano pedagogy, Mrs. Tarasova proposed together with her colleague Irina Griffina a new method of teaching sight-reading (a prima vista) of piano music, and got a grant from the Committee for Musical Education of the Government of St.Petersburg, Russia, to publish a textbook. This textbook is widely used for teaching in Russia.

Paul Hansen is an actor, singer, author, teacher, and former ballet dancer. When he was based out of New York City, he performed in European and national tours, Off Broadway at Folkesbeine Playhouse, Lyric Opera of Manhattan, and with The Shaw Project, worked with regional theater and opera companies across the U.S., and appeared in numerous regional and national print, television, and radio commercial campaigns. As a ballet dancer, he appeared at Carnegie Hall, Town Hall, as a guest artist with numerous companies across the U.S., and was Principal Character Actor with Louisville Ballet. Paul teaches Acting for Dancers and performed the role of Herr Drosselmeyer in Butler Ballet’s 2023 production of The Nutcracker. 

Paul’s training includes attending The National Academy of Arts, a boarding school led by Petrus Bosman that brought in guest teachers and choreographers from American Ballet Theatre, Pennsylvania Ballet (now called Philladelphia Ballet), National Ballet of Canada, and more. In New York, he studied acting at HB Studios and continued dance training with David Howard and a host of teachers at STEPS on Broadway. 

While living in Virginia, he served as ballet master and advanced ballet teacher for Hampton Roads Ballet Company for eight years. There, he found his love of teaching and felt a “book end moment” with his career in ballet. After moving to Indianapolis, he remains in contact with several of his former  students and parents. 

After working in arts administration for over a decade and as a performing artist since childhood, Paul co-authored a book called Raising the Curtain: Technology Success Stories from Performing Arts Leaders and Artists which was released by Wiley in the U.S., Canada, and the U.K. in March, 2024. The book includes best practices and lessons learned from organizatons and artists across the U.S., including New York City Ballet’s principal dancer Chun Wai Chan, Miami City Ballet’s executive director Juan Jose Escalante, and internationally renowned jazz pianist Emmet Cohen.

Emma Huening recently graduated from Butler University with her Masters in Percussion Performance. She also completed her Bachelor’s degree at Butler before choosing to stay. During her time at Butler, Emma had the opportunity to perform with the Butler Wind Ensemble, Percussion Ensemble, and Symphony Orchestra, serving as the principal percussionist for her last two years. Eventually, she started to focus more on playing hand drums and world percussion, specifically Latin percussion. This love came from playing for the modern dance classes at Butler. Now that Emma has graduated, she has once again stayed at Butler, this time as a staff member working for the Butler Dance department. She is excited to be just a small part of this department’s long history of greatness within the dance community and is grateful for the opportunity to play for such talented dancers.

In addition to playing for dance, Emma is a percussion teacher in the Indy area with a focus on marching percussion at the high school level.

ehuening57.wixsite.com/emmahuening