Dancers

Lucia Rogers:

Lucia Rogers is a product of Fort Wayne Ballet. Ms. Rogers began movement classes in Ashland, Ohio, but her formal dance training began with Fort Wayne Ballet in 1995. She has studied with Karen Gibbons-Brown, Derek Reid, and Radmila Teodorovic Novosel. Some of her summer studies have included working with Jeremy Blanton, David Howard, Susan Jaffe, Nancy Raffa, and Dwight Rhoden. Ms. Rogers' has attended summer intensives here at Fort Wayne Ballet, Burklyn Ballet Theartre, and American Ballet Theatre in New York City. As a performer, she is often chosen by visiting choreographers because of her adaptability and approach to her work in both classical and contemporary realms. She was chosen to represent Fort Wayne Ballet in Sicily, Italy in 2001 and again in Paris, France in 2002. Although Fort Wayne audiences have enjoyed Ms. Rogers' performances for many seasons, some of her highlight roles include Arabian Coffee and Sugar Plum Fairy in The Nutcracker, Swanhilda in Coppélia, Princess Florimunda in The Sleeping Beauty, the role of Titania, choreographed by Karen Gibbons-Brown specifically for her, in A Midsummer Night's Dream, Black Swan in Swan Lake, the title role in Cinderella, and the title role in Giselle. Her outstanding performance as Titania earned her the title of Ballerina. This is Ms. Rogers' fifth season as a professional dancer at Fort Wayne Ballet.

Joellen Wojtowicz:

Ms. Wojtowicz began her training with Sylvia Hamer, FISTD, in the Cecchetti Method of Ballet. She furthered her studies at Texas Christian University with the Nordan Fine Arts Scholarship in ballet and received her BFA. While at TCU, she studied dance with such notables as Fernando Schaffenburg, Stephanie Rand, Lisa Fusillo, Li Chou Cheng, Donna Faye Birchfield and Richard Walker. Her early performing experiences include the Ann Arbor Civic Ballet, the TCU Dance Ensemble, Ballet Concerto, Allegro Dance Theatre, and touring Europe with the Contemporary Dance Theatre. Ms. Wojtowicz joins Fort Wayne Ballet most recently from Chattanooga Ballet. There, she danced the role of Sugar Plum Fairy in The Nutcracker, Firebird in The Firebird, Eve in Frank Hay's The Creation and Dulcinea in Don Quixote. Ms. Wojtowicz has expanded her repertoire by dancing in several operas with Chattanooga Symphony and Opera, in original jazz works by Alain Arnett, Keith Lee, Peter Powlus, Annie Day, and Marcus Alford and original modern dance works by Adele Meyers, Martha Connerton, Judith Woodruff, Ann Shea and Robert Spaur. She has been a guest artist with Lancaster Ballet in Lancaster, Ohio, with Keith Lee and his Newwordance Experience at Centre College in Kentucky and Orange Grove Dancers in Chattanooga, Tennessee. This is Ms. Wojtowicz's fifth year with Fort Wayne Ballet.