Verb Ballets has announced the 2021-22 list of dancers. We welcome apprentices Isaac Hileman from Texas and Kia Jimmy from Canada. Cleveland School of the Arts graduate Demetrius Lee returns as a summer apprentice while attending the Boston Conservatory. Local dancer Lily Cole, student of Inna Stabrova, joins as an intern.

Hunter Hoffman of Miami has been promoted to Company Dancer and is dancing his third season with the Company. Ashley Forché was promoted to intern after completing a two-year internship with the company. The first performance of the new dancers will be at the Heinz Poll Summer Dance Festival on July 30-31, 2021 at the Goodyear Metro Park in Akron. Visit https://verbballets.org/performances/ for the full list of summer appearances.

Isaac Hileman, apprentice

Isaac Hileman was born and raised in Dallas, Texas, where he began his dance training with the Dallas Ballet Center. Attending summer internships such as Ballet Chicago, Miami City Ballet, and Pacific Northwest Ballet allowed her to deepen her love for performative dance and envision a career as a professional dancer. He continued his dance training at the University of Oklahoma, where he graduated in the spring of 2021 with a BFA in ballet. While at OU he enjoyed exploring a greater variety of dance styles and techniques and had the privilege of performing the repertoire of Alejandro Cerrudo, Nilas Martins, Willam Christensen, Marianna Oliviera and Gerald Arpino, as well as no two classics and original choreographies. set by the faculty. Isaac is very happy to join Verb Ballets for the 2021-22 season.

Kia Jimmy, apprentice

Kia Jimmy was born in Saskatoon, Canada and began her dance training at the age of seven. She has participated in numerous summer workshops, including the Royal Winnipeg Ballet. At age 16, she was accepted into the professional division of the Alberta Ballet School and continued her training as part of their graduate program under the direction of Murray Kilgour, Janet Tait and Edmund Stripe. After graduating in 2019, Kia joined the US International Ballet as an intern for two seasons where she had the opportunity to play Giselle and Alice in Wonderland. Kia is delighted to join the 2021-2022 season of Verb Ballets as an apprentice.

Demetrius Lee, summer apprentice

Demetrius Lee was born and raised in Cleveland, Ohio, where he began his dance training at the Cleveland Inner-City Ballet under the direction of Chandra Ford-White. He later studied at Cleveland School of the Arts and then Tri-C Creative Arts Dance Academy from 2015-2020 while being a full-time high school student. He also studied at various scholarship summer internships including the San Francisco Ballet, Houston Ballet, Joffrey Ballet, and the American Dance Festival. Lee graduated from the Cleveland School of the Arts, in the top 10 of his class. Last year, Demetrius received the Presidential Scholarship Award for the Dance Division at the Boston Conservatory in Berklee where he will obtain his BFA in Dance in 2024. In addition, he has performed works by Christopher Huggins, Darrell Moultrie, Troy Powell, Kay Eichman, Deshona Pepper-Robinson and many more. Demetrius is so excited and blessed to be able to be a summer apprentice at Verb Ballets again for the 2021 summer season.

Ashley Forché, intern

Originally from Pickerington, Ohio, Ashley received her dance training from BalletMet in Columbus, Ohio. She trained with several other companies including Alonzo King LINES Ballet, Complexions Contemporary Ballet, Nashville Ballet, Oklahoma City Ballet, Festival Ballet Providence, Orlando Ballet, Central Pennsylvania Youth Ballet and BalletMet. In December 2019, Ashley graduated Summa Cum Laude with a Bachelor of Commerce degree from Belmont University. Professional experience includes internships with Nashville Ballet and Oklahoma City Ballet. Works she has performed include The Nutcracker, Sleeping Beauty and Swan Lake. Ashley joined Verb Ballets as an intern in 2018 and was promoted to intern in 2021.

Lily Cole, intern

Lily grew up in Richfield, Ohio, where she studied at the Ohio Conservatory of Ballet under the direction of her teachers and mentors Inna Stabrova and Dmitriy Tuboltsev. At the age of 15, Lily was accepted into the Joffrey Academy of Dance in Chicago and danced as an intern at the Pre-Professional Academy. His intensive summer training has included the American Ballet Theater (New York), Chautauqua Institute of Dance, Miami City Ballet, Ballet West, Pittsburgh Ballet Theater, Joffrey Ballet Chicago, Ballet Arizona, Master Ballet Academy and the Central Pennsylvania Youth Ballet. She has received accolades including the Top 12 at the Youth American Grand Prix, the Top 12 at the Washington Grand Prix, 8th place at the Universal Ballet Competition and 2nd place at the Allegretto Grazioso Arts Festival in Moscow. Lily also had the opportunity to work with Dusty Button, former director of the Boston Ballet, Riccardo Battaglia, former Alvin Ailey dancer and choreographer Stephanie Martinez.