Ballet Faculty

Rosemary Sabovick-Bleich was born in New Jersey and trained with Gertrude Weinberg and Alfredo Corvino as a member of the NJDTE. At the age of seventeen, she performed for the first time professionally with the New Jersey Ballet Company. She then toured internationally with the Pavlova Celebration, dancing lead roles in the “Fairy Doll” and “Giselle”. Upon returning to New Jersey Ballet, she rose to be their leading principal ballerina for over 15 years. Ms. Sabovick-Bleich has toured Taiwan and Moscow with the Stars of American Ballet Theatre and Bermuda with NJBC. She is known for her versatility and technical brilliance in such roles as Sylvia Pas de Deux, DeMille’s “Cowgirl” in Rodeo and the Sugar Plum Fairy. She has worked with many noted choreographers including, Vicente Nebrada, Norbert Vesak, Edward Villella and Robert North. She is currently on faculty for NJDTE as well as a faculty member with New Jersey School of Ballet and New Jersey Ballet Company.

A native of Brooklyn, NY, Lenore Pavlakos Morales trained with Vicky Simegiatos and continued her training at Nubert Ballet School. She was awarded a trainee scholarship to study at Harkness House for Ballet Arts. She is a graduate of The Juilliard School where she received her BFA Degree in Dance. Ms. Pavlakos Morales performed with Maryland Ballet and Eugene Ballet before joining Dance Theatre of Harlem in 1993, where she danced as a soloist and principal dancer. She additionally served as assistant rehearsal director and master teacher. While with DTH, Ms. Morales toured Europe, Asia, South America, Canada, The United Kingdom, and the United States, performing ballets by noted choreographers such as George Balanchine, Glen Tetly, John Taras, and Michael Smuin, to name a few. Ms. Pavlakos Morales is a guest teacher with “Tremaine Conventions,” teaching ballet classes to hundreds of children throughout the United States. She has performed on TV for the 2000 Kennedy Center Honors Awards and has been seen in various magazines such as Oprah, Mademoiselle, Pointe, and Dance, as well as the Italian magazine Io Donna. She formerly was the Ballet Mistress and Rehearsal Director of Staten Island Ballet and currently is the Ballet Mistress of NJDTE and a guest artist with Morales Dance.

Ms. Brikké is a senior full time faculty member at LaGuardia High School in NYC since 1998. She teaches ballet technique, pointe, dance history and Pilates. She regularly choreographs for the senior showcase and concert as well as photographs dancers for the school’s brochure and concert posters. A native of France, Ms. Brikké studied ballet with remarkable teachers such as Rosella Hightower at the Centre International de Danse in Cannes, France, Marika Besobrasova at the Academie de Danse Princesse Grace in Monaco, Terri Charlesworth at the Graduate School of Dance in Perth, Australia, and Anne-Marie Sandrini from the Ballet de l’Opéra de Paris in Paris, France. Ms. Brikké performed in a wide variety of repertory ballets with the schools she attended as well as a freelance dancer and actress in Europe, Kenya and the United States.

Ms. Brikké received the Diplôme d’Etat de Professeur de Danse Classique from the French Ministry of Culture in Paris in 1993 . She is an American Ballet Theatre Certified Teacher who has successfully completed the ABT® Teacher Training Intensive in Pre-Primary through Level 7 & Partnering of the ABT® National Training Curriculum. She periodically assists ABT examiners and NTC founders Franco De Vita and Raymond Lukens during teacher examinations.

Ms. Brikké began teaching dance in 1989 in Nairobi, Kenya, where she taught the children of the expatriate community as well as founded a dance ensemble for young talented Kenyans. Back in Paris, she taught, choreographed and coordinated dance programs at the Conservatoire des Arts in Le Mée. In 1994, Ms Brikké moved to New York where she joined the faculty of the Neubert Ballet Institute at Carnegie Hall and then the faculty of LaGuardia High School in 1998. Ms. Brikké has taught for several summer programs including Paul Taylor American Modern Dance Summer Intensive in New York City, New Jersey Ballet Company, Westchester Ballet Center and Belvoir Terrace in Lenox, Massachussetts.

An avid learner and reader, Ms. Brikké regularly attends professional workshops on an array of topics pertaining to dance, teaching and wellbeing.

Born in Guadalajara, México, Mercedes Pablos trained with Alexander and Violette Zybine.

Throughout her career, Ms. Pablos has performed with companies such as: Chicago City Ballet under the direction of Maria Tallchief; the National Ballet of Mexico; Ohio Ballet, directed by Heinz Poll, with whom she toured in Central and South America; Feld Ballet and Charleston Civic Ballet.  In 1989 she joined Ballet Hispanico and was on the faculty of the Ballet Hispanico School for twelve years and served as School Director.  She has been guest teacher at the Dance Department of Indiana University, Sarah Lawrence College, and the New Jersey Dance Theatre Ensemble.

She received her MFA from Purchase College, SUNY, earning the MFA award and has served as a jury member for International Dance Competitions in Nyon, Switzerland and México City. She has been Teacher in Residence at the Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts in Singapore, where she taught and choreographed a piece for the graduation ceremony.   She had the honor to participate in the first Dance Series at the White House under the Obama administration. From 2012 to 2014 she was a panelist for the National Endowment for the Arts.   Mercedes currently teaches at the Conservatory of Dance at SUNY Purchase College, the Department of Dance at Hunter College, and The Ailey School in New York City.

Jessica Batten trained with New Jersey Dance Theater Ensemble under Nancy Turano and graduated cum Laude in 2005 from SUNY Purchase with a BFA in Dance. Ms. Batten has danced professionally with: NJDTE, Cedar Lake II, Connecticut Ballet, Bradley Shelver Contemporary Dance Theater, Ballet Hispanico of NY, and most currently at the Metropolitan Opera and with Nimbus Dance Works, among many other companies and choreographers.

Ms. Batten was invited to perform in Cali, Colombia in the Fifth Annual International Dance Festival 2011, representing the USA with Earl Mosely’s Diversity of Dance and has traveled the world performing and teaching. She has also performed with the Kirov Ballet at the Metropolitan Opera House in NYC. And in 2008, she appeared on the AMICI Television show in Rome, Italy as a Guest Profesionista. Additionally she has appeared in film and several more recent TV credits, such as Law & Order: Criminal Intent.

Ms. Batten enjoys teaching and choreographing in addition to her performance career, and is on faculty at The Joffrey Ballet School, NJ Dance Theater Ensemble, Columbus Pre-School, and The School of Nimbus Dance Works, and she has taught at Amherst College the last two summers.

Peter Brandenhoff is a Danish ballet teacher and former ballet dancer currently based in New York City.

As the third generation of his family at the Royal Danish Ballet, he chose to pursue a career abroad after his graduation and went on to dance with Boston Ballet II, Hamburg Ballet and San Francisco Ballet. In his 15 years with SFB he rose to the rank of soloist with a wide repertoire of lead and supporting roles spanning from the romantic classics of Petipa, Bournonville and the modern classics of Balanchine, Robbins, Taylor, MacMillan, Forsythe to the avant-garde modern of Redha. He created works with Mark Morris, Christopher Wheeldon, Alexei Ratmansky, Yuri Possokhov, James Kudelka, Helgi Thomasson, Val Caniparoli, and was critically acclaimed for his character portrayals.

As a guest he performed with Royal Winnipeg Ballet, Les Ballets Grandiva, South African Ballet Theatre, San Francisco Opera and numerous tours with the Soloists of the Royal Danish Ballet. In 2004 he helped initiate an outreach collaboration between SFB and South African Ballet Theatre, which steered him towards teaching. In 2008 he became ballet master of the boys program at Ballet San Jose School, quadrupling the enrollment in the first year. He has taught and staged Bournonville at the schools of San Francisco Ballet; Oregon Ballet Theater; Ballet San Jose; Peridance; Ballet Academy East, as well as company classes at Royal Danish Ballet; Ballet San Jose, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater.

Upon retiring from the stage he completed a BFA with honors from St. Mary’s College in California, and spearheaded a Fellowship program in Arts Administration at CalPerformances at UCBerkeley, California.

Peter Brandenhoff is a faculty member at the Ailey School in New York City, where he teaches in the Professional and Junior divisions. He also teaches his own pre-professional training program for students ages 7-14 in New York City.