~ VIRTUAL MASTER CLASS SERIES ~
Train with the Masters
Train with the Masters every Wednesday and Thursday at 11 AM CST.
Registration required. Zoom ID and Password will be sent to the registered email at 8AM CST on the day of the Master Class
Open to all Intermediate/Advanced Dancers - Ages 12 and up
Carlos Lopez is currently a Ballet Master with the American Ballet Theatre. He began his professional career at the Victor Ullate Ballet in his native country, Spain where he danced as Principal Dancer for 6 years. Some of his repertory included leading roles in Don Quixote, Giselle, Theme and Variations, Allegro Brillante, Paquita, Les Sylphides and ballets by Maurice Bejart, Rudi Van Dantzig or Hans Van Manen. With this company he toured to Argentina, Belgium, Cuba, England, Germany, Italy and the United States. Lopez joined American Ballet Theatre in 2001 and danced as a Soloist from 2003-2011. He has worked with Natalia Makarova, Gelsey Kirkland, Twyla Tharp, Alexei Ratmansky or William Forsythe. His repertoire with ABT includes Iago in Othello, the Bronze Idol in La Bayadère, Mercutio and Benvolio in Romeo and Juliet, the Nutcracker-Prince in The Nutcracker, Birbanto in Le Corsaire, Puck in The Dream, Benno in Swan Lake, the second sailor in Fancy Free, Alain in La Fille mal gardée, Eros in Sylvia, the Lead Pontevedrian dancer in The Merry Widow, the Peasant Pas de deux in Giselle, the Bluebird in The Sleeping Beauty, The Joker in Jeu de Cartes and Roles in Offenbach in the Underworld, Amazed in Burning Dreams, The Green Table, Petite Mort, Sinfonietta, Dark Elegies, In the Upper Room, Gong, Company B, Seven sonatas, Symphonic Variations, Glow Stop, Within You Without You: A Tribute to George Harrison and workwithinwork. In 1996, he won the Silver Medal at the “Paris International Ballet Competition” and in 2004 was awarded the “Les Etoiles de Ballet 2000” Prize in Cannes. As a Guest Artist, he has performed with the National Ballet of Georgia, National Ballet of Cuba, Ballet Concierto de Puerto Rico and Lar Lubovitch Dance Company among others and been invited to international ballet galas such as the “World Stars Gala” in Budapest, the“Miami International Ballet Festival”, “Stars of the 21st Century” in Toronto or the “Havana International Ballet Festival”.Lopez is an ABT® Certified Teacher in Pre-Primary through Level 7 of the ABT® National Training Curriculum. Lopez joined the Faculty of ABT Studio Company in 2013 and was appointed Ballet Master in September 2014. During this time he has participated at The Royal Ballet School Exchange in London, Miami and member of the jury at the Youth America Grand Prix. In August of 2016, Lopez was appointed Ballet Master of American Ballet Theatre.
Omar Román De Jesús (San Juan, PR) began his formal training at the School for the Performing Arts in Guaynabo, Puerto Rico. Omar was a member of Balleteatro Nacional de Puerto Rico from 2006-2011. During this period, he won the Championship Cup and Gold Medal at the National Dance Competition in Puerto Rico. He received a scholarship to the Ailey School in 2011, and after two years, he began his professional career in the modern and contemporary dance world.
He has toured nationally and internationally with Ballet Hispánico, Yin Yue Dance Company, Parsons Dance and Sleeping Beauty Dreams featuring Diana Vishneva. He has performed and led works by Gustavo Ramírez Sansano, David Parsons, Robert Battle, Mary Pat Henry, Trey McIntyre, Michelle Manzanales, Jennifer Archibald, Carlos Pons, Ephrat Asherie, and Yin Yue. Omar had the honor of performing at the 2018 TITAS Gala and the 2019 Schrittmacher Festival in Germany. Omar is currently collaborating with Erin Sullivan on an Interactive Projection Workshop titled Spine Lines, that will be presented at Yale University.
Omar's choreography has been recognized for its originality, its ability to build an emotional arc and its unconventional duet work. He has been commissioned twice by Instituto de Cultura de Puerto Rico to create work as part of the International Dance Festival of Puerto Rico, where he was awarded the Ambassador of Dance medal. Omar has won choreographic competitions including the Joffrey Academy of Dance's Winning Works Choreographic Competition and the Whim W’Him’s Choreographic Shindig. He has received several awards including the Audience Award at The Dance Gallery Festival, 1st place prize at the Reverb Dance Festival, the Parsons Dance GenerationNOW Commission for their 2017 Joyce Season, and the 2020 Jacob's Pillow: The Ann & Weston Hicks Choreography Fellowship. Omar has created original work for Whim W’Him, Parsons Dance, Jacob Jonas The Company, The Ailey School, The Joffrey Academy of Dance in Chicago, James Madison University, Booker T. Washington High School for the Performing and Visual Arts, and he is looking forward to creating works for Bruce Woods Dance, Tulsa Ballet II, and others in 2021. His newest work, Like Those Playground Kids at Midnight, was recently presented at dance festival Chop Shop: Bodies of Work and will be performed at the upcoming dance festival PRISMA in Panama.
Omar is fond of education and has experience teaching workshops and master classes all over the world for dancers, non-dancers, and children on the Autism Spectrum.