Ballet Faculty
Molly is an American Ballet Theatre Certified Dance Teacher with over 20 years of experience teaching in the Performing Arts. Her first ballet class was at the age of 5 at Mary Coudin Snyder’s Dance Studio. Her dance training continued at American Dance and then on to Academy of Dance in San Luis Obispo where she spent many years studying ballet and jazz as a young dancer. At the age of 10, Molly auditioned for Ballet Austin and was accepted to their Junior Company program for 3 years of classical ballet training under the direction of Eugene Slavin and Alexandra Nadal of Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo. She performed many of the children’s roles in their acclaimed production of The Nutcracker.
Upon returning to Academy of Dance, Molly became a member of the Civic Ballet of San Luis Obispo. For more than 12 years she performed corps de ballet, solo and principal roles for the ballet company including Snow Queen, Rose Queen and Sugarplum Fairy. In addition, she danced contemporary roles in Alice in Wonderland, West Side Story, Where the Wild Things Are and soloist for Jon Anderson’s “Earth Mother Earth”. She was hired as Lead Guest Artist for 2 seasons of Ballet Fantastique’s Nutcracker and went on to further her training with Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre.
Molly’s devotion to dance transitioned seamlessly into teaching and choreographing. She was appointed Artistic Director for 2 seasons of the Civic Ballet’s well received Sleeping Beauty at the Cal Poly Performing Arts Center, Master Ballet Teacher for Dance in Action’s Summer Convention in Hawaii, Guest Choreographer at The San Luis Obispo Little Theatre for “Frank Sinatra, Johnny Cash and Roy Orbison Legends Shows” and Co-Director for their ACT Children’s Broadway Camp programs, Artistic Director for The San Luis Jazz Dancers, Choreographer/Master Teacher for Mission College Prep, Morro Bay High School, Alan Hancock’s Spectrum and Cal Poly’s Orchesis Dance Company, performer/choreographer for Academy of Dance’s International Dance Festivals in China, Cuba and Spain, creator and Teacher for San Luis Coastal Unified School District’s Elementary PE/Dance program which provided an enrichment through dance for over 2000 students a year. She has been recognized for her collaborative and choreographic works with the San Luis Obispo Symphony in “Carnival of the Animals”.
Molly was the Artistic Director of Coastal Chamber Youth Ballet from its inception and spent 9 years developing a quality ballet program through training, performances and outreaches. Molly created CORE’s “Ballet Conservatory”. This program provides students from Pre-Ballet to Adult an encouraging and inspiring environment to train classically.
Most recently, Molly furthered her education with American Ballet Theater’s “Raising the Barre” workshop in NYC under the direction of Cynthia Harvey and Robert La Fosse.