Artistic Collaborators

Artistic Director Deanna Doty has actively sought collaboration with artists in designing and staging her ballets - scenic artists, lighting designers, musicians, painters, sculptors, choreographers, dancers, actors, photographers, and more. Below are a few highlights of contributing artists who have significantly impacted the quality of CU Ballet productions:

Tracy McCabe serves as producer for Champaign Urbana Ballet productions and assists the artistic director in designing the libretto and in staging theatrical choreography for story ballets such as The Nutcracker, Coppélia and Swan Lake. He has danced in Champaign Urbana Ballet and Springfield Ballet Company productions, and has appeared in musical and dramatic theater with Springfield Muni Opera, Springfield Theatre Centre and North Shore Theater of Wilmette in Illinois. His ballet training began at 19 years of age under Grace Lutrell Nanavati at Springfield Ballet Company and Robert Dicello at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign; he later gained inspiration from the classical Vaganova instruction of Alejandro Alvarez, Deanna Doty and Fury Gold. While an impassioned balletomane, Mr. McCabe is a career academic professional working for the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Former company dancer and recent Wellesley College graduate Emily Buss returns to CU Ballet as ballet mistress this season. She performed with Champaign Urbana Ballet for six seasons, from its inception in 1998 until 2004, dancing roles such as Spanish and the Arabian Princess in The Nutcracker, the Duck in Peter and the Wolf and Medora in Le Corsaire. During this time she also studied with Deanna Doty at the Champaign Ballet Academy. Ms. Buss has expanded her training at the Jose Mateo Ballet Theatre in Cambridge, Massachusetts and with the University of Geneva Student Ballet Company in Switzerland. In addition, she was involved with Wellesley's AscenDance Ballet Company as teaching coordinator, choreographer and performer. Emily succeeds Michelle Ziegler who moved to Evanston, IL to pursue her doctorate in physical therapy at Northwestern University. Known for her excellence in working with young dancers and creativity in the classroom, Emily has acclimated quickly. Julianna Steitz is the current company manager for the Champaign Urbana Ballet, a position which she started in July of 2008. She has been involved with Champaign Urbana Ballet since 1999, where she volunteered as a costume sewer. In 2003 she accepted the position of Costume Mistress, and continues to volunteer in that capacity today. Julianna has served on the Champaign Urbana Ballet board of directors for 4 years. Production designer Andy Warfel brings a refreshing energy and unique perspective to the development and execution of branded messaging and experience marketing environments. His process-driven working method has netted some of the most successful and emotionally resonant programs and properties for clients ranging from the world's most prominent brands, to neighborhood-focused specialty retailers and non-profit organizations like CU Ballet.

He has designed television shows for CBS, Discovery, E!, ESPN, Fox News, style. Channel, Time Warner, USA, and Viacom; corporate presentations, product launches, and press events for Aston Martin, Audi, Boeing, IBM, Jaguar, Microsoft, Pepsi, Pfizer and many more; concerts including Mariah Carey's Butterfly Pacific Rim Tour and the All Access Tour featuring Kid Capri, Doug E. Fresh and Da Brat, and private concerts with acts such as The Rolling Stones, Ray Charles, and kd lang. His theatre designs have been seen on Broadway in Dream and in countless productions off Broadway and in Atlantic City, Las Vegas, and on National Tours.

Mr. Warfel earned his Masters degree in Set Design and Art Direction from New York University's Tisch School of the Arts, Department of Design for Stage and Film in 1994. He has since developed and taught new coursework for graduate students in new materials and modern techniques of stagecraft. He was employed as an art director and senior production designer at Hotopp Associates in New York City and later joined cpr-group where he was named Partner and Chief Aesthetic Officer in the fall of 2000. Mr. Warfel relocated his family in 2002 to the prairie of central Illinois, where he continues to provide creative direction and environment design for corporate initiatives, press events, promotional tours, retail, museum, television, and theatrical projects.

Ian Hobson is a British-born musician of tremendous versatility who has earned a worldwide reputation as a pianist, conductor and teacher. A finalist in the 1977 Van Cliburn International Piano Competition, he later took silver medals at the Artur Rubinstein and the Beethoven International Competitions. His international career as a pianist was launched in 1981 when he won First Prize at the Leeds International Piano Competition.

Hobson's training as a conductor began at Yale University where he worked with Otto Werner-Mueller. Subsequent studies with Gustav Meier, Daniel Lewis, Leonard Bernstein, Seiji Ozawa and Andre Previn took place at Aspen and at Tanglewood. Lorin Maazel twice invited Hobson to conduct the Cleveland Orchestra for their Young Conductors' Symposia.

Hobson founded and has served as Music Director of Sinfonia da Camera since 1984.