PBS team

Born in Buenos Aires, Argentina, she started her ballet formation when she was 5 years old at the Colon Theatre’s Institute of Art in Buenos Aires. In 1990 she won the Revelation Award at the Varna Competition and The Encouragement Award in 1992. At the age of 14, she began working with the Ballet Argentino in Buenos Aires (Director: Julio Bocca). Two years after, she became a member of the Colon Theatre Ballet Company. In 1993, she was invited to Australia by Rudolf Nureyev to join the “Nureyev Farewell Tour”. Maximiliano Guerra chose her  in 1994 to be his partner for the performances at the Theatre de Colon and the Municipal Theater in Buenos Aires. Soon after that, she was selected by the choreographer Pierre Lacotte for the title role in his Ballet “La Sylphide”. The same year, Pierre Lacotte invited her to join the Ballet National de Nancy as Principal Dancer. In 1999 she joined the Marseille National Ballet as principal dancer under the direction of Marie Claude Pietragalla and finally in 2011 Richard Wherlock invited her to join the Ballettensemble of the Theater Basel.  She has performed every major role in the classical repertoire and has toured extensively throughout Europe, South-  and Central america and has performed in some of the world’s greatest theaters such as the Colon Theater in Buenos Aires and the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow, where she performed works of Lacotte, Bournonville, Petipa, Spada, Nureyev, Balanchine, Fokine, Kylian, Wherlock, Delente, Duboc, Pietragalla, Malandain, Redha, Brumachon, Cachulianau, Prejlocaj. Since 2013, she has dedicated herself to teaching professional ballet, preparing and forming students to different competitions and guiding them to start their professional career.  Since 2015, she is a coach for the Prix de Lausanne. As of today she is an important jury member at international dance competitions and works with prestigious schools and companies around the world in addition to being the director and teacher of Pro Ballet School.

Diego Benito Gutiérrez was born in Madrid, Spain. After completing his dance training at the conservatory there, he worked in dance companies in Spain, France and the Netherlands. In 2009 he moved to Switzerland and danced at Ballett Theater Basel for 14 years as well as doing various projects in the free scene. In 2016 he was Contemporary Coach at the renowned Prix de Lausanne and since 2022 he is artistic director of the project "UKBB Tanzt" of the Children's Hospital in Basel. He is currently doing a Master's degree in cultural management at the University of Basel.

Born in Ayrshire, Scotland, Elayne discovered ballet at the age of 2, showing passion and dedication from the start. She began her training by attending a local Royal Academy of Dance School then at the age of 11 she gained a place at the Dance School of Scotland to begin training full time. Elayne gained Distinction in all her RAD Exams up to Advanced 2 which allowed her to compete in the renowned Genée International Ballet Competition. Elayne was also a junior and senior associate of Scottish Ballet. In 2015 she graduated from the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland with a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Modern Ballet. On Graduation, Elayne was selected by dance director of Scottish Ballet to join the company as an artist completing the UK tours of The Nutcracker and Cinderella and the Asian Tour of Romeo and Juliet, before settling on a career in teaching. Elayne then went on to complete her Certificate of Ballet Teaching Studies with the Royal Academy of Dance, graduating with a Registered Teachers status in 2018. She holds an additional Certificate in Progressing Ballet Technique and is also a Member of the Scottish Dance Teachers Alliance.  Throughout this time, she continued to enjoy competitive highland dance and won several Championship titles over the years including, Scottish, British and European Championships.  Elayne loves teaching and hopes to pass on her love of dance and to inspire the next generation of dancers.

Alejandro trained at the Instituto Superior de Arte of the Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires and joined its Ballet Estable at just sixteen—an early sign of a remarkable ascent. Mentored by leading figures such as Rada Eichenbaum and Wasil Tupin, he quickly became one of Argentina’s most compelling stage artists. As a Principal Dancer of the Teatro Colón for nearly three decades, he performed leading roles across the classical and neoclassical repertoire, including Giselle, Romeo and Juliet, Don Quixote, and The Sleeping Beauty. Known for his technical precision and dramatic intensity, he captivated audiences internationally and performed widely across Europe and the Americas. A recipient of major honors including the Premio Konex and the María Ruanova Award, Parente marked a career highlight at the Teatro Colón’s 2010 reopening gala. Since his 2018 farewell performance alongside Marianela Núñez, he has become a sought-after ballet master and coach, working with leading companies such as the Vienna State Opera, La Scala, The Royal Ballet, and English National Ballet. Today, he is widely respected for shaping dancers with the same artistry, discipline, and depth that defined his own career.

Her name is Maria Libertad Pedreira and she was born in Madrid. She began studying dance at the age of 12. After she finished her diploma in classical ballet at the Conservatory for Music and Dance, she left Spain to start her career as a classical dancer in many different countries. After a long stay in Cuba, she returned to Europe. She worked in ballet ensembles in Spain, France and lastly, in Switzerland, in Basel. She settled here 25 years ago to continue her career as a professional contemporary dancer. With more than 30 years teaching experience of classical and contemporary dance, she has also taken further training in movement , yoga and fitness. Her children’s dance lessons introduce children to music and movement. In a playfully experimentally way, children experience movement, explore what their bodies are capable of, discover creativity and ways of expressing themselves, develop an ear for music and come into contact with other children. The main objective is to stimulate creativity.

Adrienne Telemaque is an American licensed physical therapist with a Bachelor’s diploma in Physical therapy from New York University. She has danced professionally with the San Francisco Ballet, Eglevsky Ballet, New York City Opera and in Broadway musicals in New York city. She has combined her professional dance and physical therapy knowledge to create Strength training programs specially for the student and professional dancers. Adrienne has treated and provided Pilates training sessions for the Los Angeles Ballet , Cirque du Soleil , Ballet Theater Basel, and Zurich Ballett. She is also an educator and has taught Anatomy for the pre professional student dancer at the Huber Weidermann Schule Gymnastik Diplomschule in Basel. In 2020-2022 Adrienne joined the physical therapy team at Crossklinik Swiss Olympic Medical Center and implemented the Pilates Physical therapy program with the reformer apparatus.

Věra Kvarčáková is a dancer and choreographer from Ostrava, Czech Republic where she graduated from the Janáček Conservatory. After graduating, she was a member of the National Theater in Brno, In the years 2010-2014 she worked in Ballet de l'Opéra national du Rhin under the artistic direction of Bertrand d'At and later Ivan Cavallari. In 2014 she moved to Canada to join Les Grands Ballets Canadiens. After two years, she became a demi-soloist. In 2019-2022, she was a soloist at the National Theater in Mannheim under the direction of Stephan Thoss. With these companies, she had the opportunity to dance solo roles in contemporary repertoire of the world's most important choreographers such as Uwe Scholz, William Forsythe, Johan Inger, Maurice Béjart, Marco Goecke, Thierry Malandain, Jiří Kylián, Mats Ek, Ohad Naharin, Stephan Thoss, Didy Veldman, Christian Spuck, Edward Clug, Jean-Christophe Maillot, Douglas Lee, Cathy Martson, Lucinda Childs, Felix Landerer and also in classical repertoire such as La Sylphide, Don Quichotte, Peer Gynt, Nutckracker etc. She is also choreographer in collaboration with Jeremy Galdeano. They were finalists of the International Choreographic Competition in Hanover 2020 with invitation to HANGARTFEST in Italy, finalists of the 92Y Future Dance Festival and performed in New York Joyce Theater as part of the Martha Graham Company season. They received an award for best performance of the Festival Quartiers Danses in Montreal. Vera is also certified in yoga and dance therapy by Cirque du soleil and The Canadian National Centre for Dance Therapy.

Né à La Havane, le 23 octobre 1965, il commence ses études de danse en 1975, à l’École nationale d’art de Cuba, où il reçoit les diplômes de danseur et professeur de danse en 1983. Cette même année, il intègre le Ballet national de Cuba dirigé par Alicia Alonso et deviendra, cinq ans plus tard, danseur principal de cette compagnie. Plusieurs fois médaillé d’or et d’argent lors des concours internationaux, sa carrière de danseur l’amène à quitter Cuba pour rejoindre l’Europe, d’abord en Belgique, au Ballet Royal des Flandres, puis en Suisse. Dès 1993, il intègre le Ballet Béjart Lausanne puis travaille, de 1997 à 2002, pour la compagnie équestre Zingaro, à Paris. Depuis la France, il poursuit sa collaboration avec le chorégraphe Maurice Béjart ce qui l’amènera, après un passage à l’Opéra de Nice comme maître de ballet, à réintégrer le BBL dans cette même fonction, de 2006 à 2019. Parallèlement à sa carrière de danseur, puis de pédagogue, Julio Arozarena développe une passion et des compétences reconnues pour la chorégraphie. Déjà au Ballet de Cuba puis chez Zingaro où il assiste Bartabas pour créer les chorégraphies des spectacles Eclipse (1997) et Tryptik (2000). En 2002, il initie le projet artistique L’air de rien à Bruxelles puis pour le Béjart Ballet Lausanne, il crée les ballets Song of Herself (2011), Aguas (2012), Fais ce que tu veux avec ces ailes (2014) et Corps-Circuit (2016). Il crée aussi Don Juan à l’Opéra de Riga en 2017 et Ceci est une rose au Théâtre de Cusset en 2018. En juin 2018, il présente Éclats avec le BBL au Théâtre de Beaulieu à Lausanne. Sa veine chorégraphique l’enjoint, en août 2019, à se lancer comme chorégraphe et pédagogue indépendant et Arozarena Arts Association voit le jour avec pour objectif de soutenir sa création chorégraphique, promouvoir le dialogue entre les arts et proposer des événements et formations centrées sur une vision métissée de l’art et de la création. Ses chorégraphies les plus récentes, L’Ombre de l’âme (2020) - pour la Cie. Julio Arozarena et Othello (2020) - pour le ballet de l’Opéra de Chemnitz (DE) - ont été très bien accueillies par le public et la presse, tout comme Polymère, (2021) sa création, inspirée de l’œuvre du sculpteur suisse Étienne Krähenbühl. Entre février et juillet 2021, Julio Arozarena a été directeur artistique par intérim de l’École Atelier Rudra Béjart Lausanne et a créé le spectacle Etudes présenté dans plusieurs festivals de danse à l’été 2021.