Clarice
Geissel Rathers
Ballet Mistress
Clarice Geissel-Rathers enjoyed a 20 year dance career with Nevada Ballet Theatre beginning in 1983. She retired from the company as Principal Dancer in 2004.
Clarice began ballet at the age of seven with the Ballet Petit Company under the supervision of Delores Kerr. The highlight of Clarice’s early dance training took place when she performed Stars and Stripes with the Air Force Symphony for the Kennedy Family.
A graduate of North Carolina School of the Arts, Clarice went on to become a member of the Arizona Ballet Theatre and shortly thereafter, was promoted to Soloist. She later joined Ballet West, then under the direction of Bruce Marks. Clarice danced Demi-Soloist roles in William Christensen’s The Nutcracker . During this time, she also performed roles in Allegro Brilliante, Etudes, Serenade, Symphony in C, Concerto Barrocco, Carmina Burana, Billy the Kid and Giselle .
Clarice enjoyed a celebrated dance career, working under several famous choreographers and teachers including Sir Frederick Ashton, Eugene Loring, Toni Launders and Anton Dolin, as well as Louis Godfrey and Denise Schultz.
At Nevada Ballet Theatre, Clarice worked her way through the ranks to become a Principal Dancer and performed such roles as Odette/Odile in Swan Lake , Sugar Plum Fairy in The Nutcracker , Aurora in Sleeping Beauty , as well as lead roles in Carmen, Anna Karenina and Paquita . Clarice also danced principal roles in Bruce Steivel’s Romeo and Juliet, Coppelia, Giselle and Peter Pan .
Nevada Ballet Theatre also created several works especially for Clarice including Vassili Sulich’s Afternoon of a Faun and Steven Jenkins’s Dream Dimension .
In addition, Clarice was awarded the Governor’s Arts Award in 1993 for Distinguished Service to the Arts.
Ballet Master
Kyudong Kwak was born in Daegu, Korea. He began his ballet training at an early age at the Korean National Ballet and at Universal Ballet. He received additional training at the Kirov Ballet Academy in Washington D.C. In 1989, he won the gold medal at the Korean Dance Competition and in 1992, he won the silver medal at the Dong Ah Dance competition.
In 1993, he was the first Asian Guest Principal Dancer at the Kirov Ballet where he danced the role of Blue Bird in their production of Sleeping Beauty.
Kyudong danced with the Universal Ballet for seven years and with Seoul Ballet Theatre for five years as a Principal Dancer before joining Nevada Ballet Theatre in 1998. His repertoire includes Bruce Steivel's Romeo & Juliet & Giselle, as well George Balachine's Allegro Brilliante, Who Cares? and Val Caniparoli's Lambarena, as well as works by Choo San Goh, Vincente Nebrada, Roy Tobias, Bruce Marks, James Jeon and Peter Anastos.
Kyudong has an extensive fan base in the Las Vegas community. He is married to fellow Principal Dancer Yoomi Lee and they share a son, Samuel.
