To contact any of our staff members at the Northwest Florida Ballet, please use the email link provided or call 850.664.7787.
Todd Eric Allen
Artistic Director/CEO
850.664.7787 ext. 12 | TAllen@nfballet.org
Todd Eric Allen
Todd Eric Allen is the Artistic Director/CEO of the Northwest Florida Ballet. He grew up in Fort Walton Beach, Florida and began his training in classical ballet at the age of 14 with Bernadette Clements. One year later he received a scholarship to attend the Joffrey Ballet School in New York City, where he studied for five consecutive years; he attended Virginia Intermont College as a scholarship student and was awarded a Dance Magazine Scholarship in 1985 to the Choreographer’s Conference in Geneva, New York.
Mr. Allen has danced with the Louisville Ballet, Boston Ballet and Les Grands Ballets Canadiens and has performed as a guest artist and teacher throughout the U.S., Canada and Europe. He has also had the honor of performing at the prestigious Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington D.C., on two separate occasions, for Presidents George Bush and Bill Clinton. Allen has an extensive background in the classics and Balanchine ballets, and has performed featured roles in ballets by Elisa Monte, Twyla Tharp, Mark Morris, Nacho Duato, James Kudelka, Hans Van Manen and Lucinda Hughey. In May of 2000 Mr. Allen was one of fourteen dancers asked to perform in Ocean Dance 2000 featuring Mikhail Baryshnikov and the White Oak Dance Project. In 2004 he was invited to perform with the Broadway cast in the Tony Award winning Musical, Movin’ Out, choreographed and directed by Twyla Tharp, music by Billy Joel.
He has choreographed 30 original works and classical ballets and 8 operas, has taught at The USA International Ballet Competition and many master classes and workshops in the US and internationally and has served on the jury of NBA Ballet’s Japanese National Ballet Competition in Tokyo, Japan.
In the summer of 1995 Todd returned to his hometown of Fort Walton Beach, Florida as Artistic Director/CEO of the Northwest Florida Ballet. Over the past 20 years, he has committed himself to his community by developing young minds and bodies through innovative dance education programs, creating an awareness of dance in Northwest Florida and exposing his audiences to a variety of classical and contemporary works. In 2003 Mr. Allen received the Cox Bravo Champion of the Arts Award in Northwest Florida for his work in establishing the NFB Académie, a free academic and artistic education elementary and middle school. He has also received the Elvie DeMarko Dance Achievement Award from The Arts Council of Northwest Florida and has served on various grant panels in the state of Florida for the Division of Cultural Affairs and the Mid-Atlantic Arts Foundation in Baltimore, Md. His groundbreaking work in arts education was featured in Dance Teacher magazine (Nov, 2004) and in Teacher Magazine, a Department of Education publication (May 2005). The Northwest Florida Ballet is now one of the largest and most respected arts organizations in Northwest Florida and has received national recognition for its innovative programs.
In 1992 while dancing with Boston Ballet Mr. Allen choreographed his first ballet, IYANU, on dancers from the company for a performance benefiting the Boston Ballet Dancer’s Career Transition Fund. Blue Tango, a tribute to Astor Piazzolla and collaboration with Argentine composer Claudio Ragazzi, once again highlighting the talents of Boston Ballet Dancers and featuring a live tango quintet, followed this first work. After the premier performance Christine Temin of the Boston Globe described Mr. Allen as “a choreographer of genuine talent”. Allen went on to create works for Festival Ballet of Rhode Island, the dancers of Les Grands Ballets Canadiens, Mobile Ballet, Sarasota Ballet, Chattanooga Ballet, Ruth Mitchell Dance Theater, Pensacola Opera, Pensacola Symphony, Mobile Opera and his own company, Northwest Florida Ballet. Allen has since been described as “one of the most original and exciting choreographers I know” by Fernando Bujones.
In the summer of 1995 Todd Eric Allen was invited to return to his hometown of Fort Walton Beach, Florida as Director of the Northwest Florida Ballet. In the nine years he has held the position of Artistic Director, Allen has committed himself to his community by developing young minds and bodies through innovative dance education programs, creating an awareness of dance in Northwest Florida and exposing his audiences to a variety of classical and contemporary works. In 2003 Mr. Allen received the Cox Bravo Champion of the Arts Award in Northwest Florida for his work in establishing the NFB Académie, a free academic and artistic education elementary school located in the NFB studios. His groundbreaking work in arts education was featured in Dance Teacher magazine (Nov, 2004) and in Teacher Magazine, a Department of Education publication (May 2005). In 2005 he accepted a 3-month engagement to perform in the Broadway hit, Movin’ Out. He served as an instructor at the 2006 USA International Ballet Competition in Jackson, Mississippi.
Sharon Allen
Assistant Artistic Director & Evening School Director
850.664.7787 | SAllen@nfballet.org
Sharon Allen
Sharon Allen, is currently the assistant director of Northwest Florida Ballet and holds a BFA in Dance from Radford University, a Professional Educators Certificate from the state of Florida Department of Education, and is a certified Pilates instructor through PhysicalMind Institute and Kathy Corey Pilates.
She has studied dance extensively with North Carolina School of the Arts, Virginia Intermont College, Richmond Ballet and Boston Ballet School. Her professional performing experience has been with Jose Mateo Ballet Theatre, Boston Dance Co., Impulse Dance Co., Mill Mountain Theatre and Southwest Virginia Ballet.
Sharon is proud to be a part of integrating dance education and creative endeavors in Northwest Florida for the past 18 years. Her past teaching experience has been with Harvard-Radcliffe Dance Department, Jeanette Neill Dance Studio-Boston, Fort Wayne Ballet, Florida Dance Association, and the University of West Florida. Her choreography has received recognition at Mamluft Dance Company in Cinncinatti and Panoply Arts Festival.
Sharon feels humbled and grateful to everyone at NFB, Bernadette Clements, Dorothy D. Lister, her husband Todd Eric Allen, her son Tristan Allen, her students, and loving family. She has a passion for children, animals, art, cooking and teaching dance for over 30 years. She currently performs in NFB productions in character roles as well as continuing to perform internationally with Lightwire Theater as seen on “America’s Got Talent.”
Dorothy Daniels Lister
Ballet Mistress
850.664.7787 | dlister1934@gmail.com
Dorothy Daniels Lister
Ms. Lister received her early training at the Elvie DeMarko School in Pensacola, Florida. She continued her studies in New York at the Swoboda School, (later known as the Ballet Russe School), under the guiding hand of Madame Swoboda. Her other illustrious teachers included Frederic Franklin, Anatole Vilzak, Edward Caton, Boris Romanoff, William Dollar, Bill Griffith, Leon Danelian and Igor Schwezoff. She also attended New York University and Hunter College before joining the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo company.
She danced with the Ballet Russe for 5 years and worked with such renowned stars as Alicia Alonso, Maria Tallchief, Nina Novak, Alexandra Danilova, Igor Youskevitch, Frederick Franklin, Leon Danelian and Leonide Massine.
After leaving the Ballet Russe, she continued to pursue, develop and expand her talents, and made guest appearances with numerous Civic Ballet and Opera Companies. She performed many of the famous pas de deuxs from various ballets and such roles as The Firebird with the New York Philharmonic, the Detroit Symphony and the Hartford and New Haven Orchestras.
Her varied talents led her into musical theater where she performed on Broadway and Off-Broadway. She also appeared in summer and winter stock companies, Dinner Theaters and at the renowned Radio City Music Hall. She has worked in several theater positions advancing from the chorus of a musical to performing leading roles and to assisting directors and choreographers.
She began her teaching career at the Brooklyn Academy of Music. For two years she was on staff at the Kingsboro College of the Performing Arts, a college dedicated to the training of boys and girls at the college level. She was invited to join the teaching staff of the American Ballet Center, the official school of the Robert Joffrey Ballet Company. For 25 years, she not only headed the Children’s Department, but also taught technique and variations classes to the advanced and trainee levels. She also found time to coach dancers for various jobs and competitions, and actors and actresses for dance roles in television and film work. In 1978 she was asked to return to Broadway to perform in Michael Bennett’s musical Ballroom.
She has students performing in all mediums of dance from classical ballet companies to Radio City to Broadway and television. She was responsible for rehearsing 65 children for the New York performances of the Joffrey Ballet’s Nutcracker.
She considers correct training from the Beginner level to the Advanced level to be of the utmost importance and the teaching of children to be her forte. She developed a Pre-Ballet teaching syllabus that has been used at the Joffrey School for over 25 years. She is featured in two published books, Going to my First Ballet Class by Susan Kuklin and And they Danced On by Waltraud G.Karkar. She is the co-author of the book, Conversations with Choreographers, published in 1996.
In 1997 Dorothy moved back to her hometown and is presently the Ballet Mistress and teacher for the Northwest Florida Ballet Company and is the dance coach for the Tate High SchoolÕs Chaparrals and Cadets. She has choreographed musical shows (Fiddler on the Roof, Annie Get Your Gun, Guys and Dolls, South Pacific) for Tate High School. She continues to teach for the Joffrey School’s summer session. She was asked to be one of the prelimenary judges for the 1998 USA International Ballet Competition in Jackson, Mississippi. In 1999, she taught Ballet master classes for PANOPLY, Huntsville’s Festival of the Arts, and served as one of the judges for their 17th Annual Choreography Competition.
Amanda Wiley
Rehearsal Assistant/Company Teacher
850.664.7787 | awiley@nfballet.org
David Ott
Music Director & Conductor
850.664.7787
David Ott
Conductor, composer, author and educator David Ott was born in Michigan and spent his youth in Janesville, Wisconsin, completing his undergraduate studies at the University of Wisconsin-Platteville in 1969. His Master’s degree in Piano Performance was earned at Indiana University in 1971, and he received his Doctorate in Music Theory & Composition at the University of Kentucky in 1982.
His young music career had immediate impact, and he was named Outstanding Alumnus of the University of Wisconsin-Platteville in 1987, and Outstanding Alumnus of the University of Kentucky, College of Fine Arts, in 1996. He was inducted into the University of Wisconsin-Platteville Hall of Fame in October 2007. He has served on the faculties of Houghton College (NY), Pfeiffer College (NC), and most recently DePauw University (IN), being honored as Outstanding Professor at two of these institutions. In 1991, he was named Composer-in-Residence of the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra and retained that position until 1997.
He served as Music Director/Conductor of the Northwest Florida Symphony Orchestra from 1999 through the spring of 2002. From 2001 through the spring of 2008 David Ott was Music Director and Conductor of the Philharmonic of Northwest Florida. He has also held the appointment of Pace Eminent Scholar and Composer in Residence at the University of West Florida. Currently he serves as Director of Music Ministries and Organist at Christ the King Episcopal Church in Santa Rosa Beach.
Ranking at the top of post-World War II born American composers, Dr. Ott’s works are among the most frequently performed of any American of the era. He has been cited as “one of the greats of American symphony music composers of the last quarter of the twentieth century.” Once nominated for the Pulitzer Prize in music by renowned cellist and conductor Mstislav Rostropovich, he has composed a large portfolio of compositions in every genre of music from large-scale orchestra works to short overtures.
Lydia Phillips
Stage Manager
850.664.7787
Clay Reed
Production Manager
850.664.7787