Dancer: Corina Gill

Corina Gill, a Southern California native, began training in San Diego in 1994, where she studied with Sylvia Palmer, and Ahita Ardalan. In 1999, she joined San Diego Ballet, dancing soloist and principal roles. Corina earned a BA in dance from the University of California, Irvine, where she performed leading roles in ballets such as David Allan's Cinderella. She was also chosen to travel to France to dance at the Conservatoire de Paris. She then joined Eliot Feld's Ballet Tech and also guested for Sacramento Ballet. She danced with Ballet Pacifica from 2003-2005, appearing as a principal in Molly Lynch's The Nutcracker and Robert Sund's Alice in Wonderland. Corina has also participated in the National Choreographic Initiative, dancing in new pieces created by Val Caniparoli and William Soleau. Corina joined State Street Ballet in 2005.

Along with SSB, Corina currently dances with Los Angeles Ballet in their inaugural season.

Corina Gill and Yuan-Ming Chang in Rodney Gustafson's A Midsummer Night's Dream, premiered during State Street Ballet's 2005-2006 season.

Pre-performance ritual:

• 4 ibuprofen and coffee before warmup.
  
• Hair - check.
  
• Makeup - check.
• Choose and lay out pointe shoes for each piece.
• Costume - check.
• Place sweat towels along with water and Red Bull on both sides of the stage.
• Short prayer, and Merde!
  

Favorite ballet or role: Romeo and Juliet, in which I've never performed as Juliet yet, and must do so before I can retire, even if it takes me until I'm 40. The video recording of Margot Fonteyn and Rudolf Nureyev in Kenneth MacMillan's Romeo and Juliet was what inspired me to be a ballet dancer.

Favorite food: Dim sum!

Favorite step: No particular step, but I love partnering best.

Hobby: Scrapbooking.

Current music playlist: Mozart's Requiem

Guilty pleasure: cigarettes ... I know, I know...

Daily support: My husband and God.

Daily mantra: "The art of living is more like wrestling than dancing." - Marcus Aurelius

Corina Gill and Oleg Gorboulev dancing George Balanchine's Agon in Los Angeles Ballet's inaugural season.

Dancer: Alyson Mattoon

Alyson Bryce Mattoon is originally from Sedona, Arizona. Alyson attended the Virginia School of the Arts on scholarship and graduated with honors. Her affiliation with State Street Ballet began in the summer of 2000. While dancing with the company she has created the roles of White Rabbit in Robert Sund's Alice in Wonderland, and Bianca in Sund's Taming of the Shrew. Alyson has danced soloist roles in Giselle, William Soleau's Seasons, Sonnets, Five by Gershwin, Sund's Beauty and the Beast, B.A.N.D, the role of Arabian in Rodney Gustafson's Nutcracker and the Fairy Godmother in Cinderella.

Alyson also has a passion for teaching, and teaches jazz and ballet dance classes at Gustafson Dance, the official school of State Street Ballet.

Favorite ballet or role: Victoria Simon's Salute To Sinatra. The only performance of mine I've ever been completely happy with? It has to be a performance of Ballroom SSB did in Los Angeles a few years ago.

(Note: SSB will be performing Ballroom this coming season, and the picture of Alyson and Chad Bantner below is from William Soleau's Five By Gershwin, part of the Ballroom program.)

Favorite food: Ice cream, cookies ... I have such a sweet tooth!

Favorite step: Anything that stretches me: Piqué arabesque, écarté, any kind of épaulement.

Hobbies: Cross-training, like spinning, weight training, and hip-hop classes. I also love sharing good food and wine with my friends.

Guilty pleasure: Indulging my sweet tooth.

Anything else you'd like to say? Ballet is really hard, and requires a lot of discipline and practice. The ease that you see on stage is the result of a really tough, daily physical routine --- it takes a lot of hard work, but the end result is always worth it. I'd encourage everyone (women and men) who's curious about dance to come visit the studio and take a class or two, just to see what it's like to be on the other side of the curtain. It's a lot of fun, and we always welcome new beginners.