Maryellen Vickery

Artistic Director / ABT® Certified Instructor

Maryellen Vickery is the artistic director of The Ballet School of Vermont. She opened BSVT in 2002. Maryellen is an American Ballet Theatre National Training Curriculum® Certified Teacher, who has successfully completed the ABT® Teacher Training Intensive in Primary through Level 7 & Partnering of the ABT® National Training Curriculum. 

Maryellen has staged several full-length ballet theater productions: The Ugly Duckling, Petrushka, Hansel & Gretel, Snow White, Peter and the Wolf, Pinocchio, Cinderella, Coppelia, Alice in Wonderland, and Sleeping Beauty.

Maryellen’s student’s have auditioned and have been accepted to prestigious year round programs of American Ballet Theatre’s Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis School and Boston Ballet School, and summer intensive programs at American Ballet Theatre, Boston Ballet, Bolshoi Ballet, Kaatsban Ballet Intensive, and School of American Ballet, with one of her students receiving a full scholarship to the latter.

Maryellen and her husband Troy Pudvah just completed a large renovation of an old mill building revitalizing Stebbins street in downtown St. Albans, VT. This building is now home to BSVT. They live in St. Albans with their three children.

Grace Olds

Young Children’s Program Instructor / First Grade Teacher, SATEC

Grace Olds is a first-grade teacher at St. Albans Town Educational Center and a proud alumna of The Ballet School of Vermont and its nonprofit student company, Northern Vermont Ballet.

Grace began her ballet training at BSVT at age six and continued through age 18. During her years at the school, she performed leading and supporting roles with BSVT and NVB and competed twice at the Youth America Grand Prix in Boston. She also spent several years assisting with BSVT’s Young Dancer Program under the guidance of Maryellen Vickery, an American Ballet Theatre National Training Curriculum® Certified Teacher.

Grace began teaching her own ballet classes in 2018 before attending college. That experience sparked her love of teaching and working with children. She later earned a bachelor’s degree in Early Childhood and Special Education from Vermont State University Castleton.

Grace lives in St. Albans and is delighted to return to BSVT, where her own love of ballet began, as an instructor in the Young Dancer Program.

Sarah Tallman

Guest Teacher / Professional Dancer / Choreographer

Currently Sarah is entering her tenth season as a company artist with Wonderbound. Off-season, Sarah has been a Principal Artist with Central City Opera performing in Carmen, Anna II in Seven Deadly Sins and Dream Laurey in Oklahoma!. Since joining Wonderbound, Sarah has danced leading roles in Garrett Ammon’s Smile, When the Power Goes Out, and tomorrow came, Intersection and An Occasional Dream. Sarah has also performed in original works by Alex Ketley, Amy Seiwert, Ma Cong, Jennifer Hart and Lauri Stallings.

An accomplished choreographer, Sarah has created several works for Wonderbound. Her works with Wonderbound have given her the opportunity to collaborate with visual artists Virginia Folkestad, and Laura Merage, as well as the musicians of the Baroque Chamber Orchestra. Sarah is currently collaborating with Dancer’s Confluence String Quartet for the 2013-14 season. Additionally Sarah has created original works for Colorado Conservatory of Dance, and Burklyn Ballet Theatre.

Sarah has been a faculty member of the Colorado Conservatory of Dance, Rocky Mountain School of Dance, and Burklyn Ballet Theatre’s Intermediate Program. Sarah serves as the Ballet Mistress for The Silhouettes.

Sarah lives in Denver with her loving husband. Her interests include yoga, the mountains, snowboarding, twinkling lights, and the color orange.

Callye Robinson

Guest Teacher / Professional Dancer

Callye Andra Robinson retired from the stage in 2012 as a First Soloist with Les Grands Ballets Canadiens de Montreal. While with the company, she danced lead roles in such productions as Romeo and Juliet by Jean Christophe Maillot, Sleeping Beauty by Mats Ek, The Nutcracker by Fernand Nault, Cinderella by Stijn Celis, and the Beast and the Beauty by Kader Belarbi. Her repertoire also includes lead roles in ballets by Jiri Kylian, Ohad Naharin, Nacho Duato, and Helgi Thomasson.

Ms. Robinson was a Soloist with Miami City Ballet under Edward Villella and danced lead roles in George Balanchine’s Concerto Barocco, Stars and Stripes, Tarantella, and Glinka Pas de Trois among others. While with the company she was nominated by Mr. Villella for the Princess Grace Awards. She was a founding member of American Ballet Theater Studio Company under Jeremy Blanton and Kevin McKenzie and was a trainee at Ballet Arizona.

Ms. Robinson started ballet at the age of 3 in Yuma, Arizona with Kathleen Sinclair and Jon Cristofori, directors of Ballet Yuma, a RDA honor company. She also studied with Kee Juan Han at the School of Ballet Arizona. As a student, she attended the Joffery Summer program in San Antonio, Texas and the Bolshoi Ballet Academy in Vail, Colorado, where she was invited to attend the Bolshoi Ballet Academy in Moscow, Russia.

Ms. Robinson is currently pursuing a degree in Business Management. She lives in Essex Junction, VT, has two daughters, and is married to former Les Grands Ballet Canadiens de Montreal Soloist, John Hall.

Sally Rousse

Guest Teacher / Professional Dancer / Choreographer

Sally Rousse, a native of Vermont, is a dance artist who performs, teaches, choreographs, curates, writes, and advocates. Branded “Renegade Ballerina” Sally has received two McKnight Fellowships for Dancers (2001/14), a Sage Award for Outstanding Performer (2013) and was named Artist of the Year by CityPages (2010). She co-founded James Sewell Ballet (JSB) in New York City in 1990, serving as its managing director and artistic associate throughout its move to Minneapolis in 1993.

Since leaving JSB in 2014, Rousse’s site-specific works have taken dance off the tradition stage, into venues such as the Kwon Tung Pier in Hong Kong and up in the tree of a vacant lot. Her works feature artists who identify as LGBTTQ+, mature/aged, Disabled+, female, and BIPOC. Recently, as the Cowles Center’s first Artist in Residence, she engaged the local community through free workshops, art installations, tours, discussions, and the acclaimed promenade performance ICON SAM: Temple Dances (“Best Performance of 2018,” CityPages). Her choreography has been seen in both theatrical and commercial venues such as the Guthrie, Southern, and State Theaters; the Walker Art Center, MASS MoCA, the Cartoon Channel, and Harvard’s American Repertory Theatre. Rousse performed as a leading dancer with the Royal Ballet of Flanders and Ballet Chicago, dancing works by Maurice Béjart, Jiri Kylian, and over 75 new works created on her by contemporary and post-modern choreographers.

Sally is certified in Floor-Barre©, Reiki, and Brain Gym® and currently contributes labor to two national organizations, Creating New Futures and BreakBank, which are focused, respectively, on ethics and equity in dance and performance, and promoting balanced screen usage while de-centering whiteness.