MEET OUR GUEST ARTISTS
Melanie Anderson Brossiet
A West Michigan native, Mrs, Brossiet graduated with artistic and academic honors from The Interlochen Arts Academy and trained at North Carolina School for the Arts, Milwaukee Ballet, and Central Pennsylvania Youth Ballet, before pursuing her professional career with The Cleveland San Jose Ballet, The Chautauqua Dance Company of NY, then advancing as a soloist, to principal ballerina with The Washington Ballet, Augsburg Ballet-Germany, and The Grand Rapids Ballet. She toured internationally to Scotland, Ireland, England, Germany, France, & Portugal, as a featured dancer, sharing the stage with the famed Rudolph Nureyev at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. After serving on the college faculty of GVSU Dance Department, she founded an injury preventative training school, Balletmore, serving as the owner, artistic director, manager, instructor, and choreographer for 17 years. Melanie is currently serving on the faculty at The Grand Rapids Ballet School, and is a proud momma of two, and married to her high school love.
Kevin Carpenter
Mr. Carpenter began his career with the Grand Rapids Ballet. He performed numerous leading roles in ballets such as Nutcracker, Swan Lake, and Our Town. Mr. Carpenter later joined the Joffrey 2 Ballet company where he stayed for one season working with the main company. The next year he was promoted to the main Joffrey Ballet where he toured the country performing “Billboards”, a ballet performed to the music of Prince. In addition to Billboards, he performed a number of other ballets by renowned choreographers including Joffrey, Arpino, Petipa, and Ashton. After two seasons with The Joffrey Ballet, Mr. Carpenter joined Ballet West in Salt Lake City. He spent five seasons with Ballet West where he was promoted to the level of soloist. He worked with numerous choreographers performing many leading roles. After retiring from ballet, Mr. Carpenter and his family moved back to the Grand Rapids area where he works as an Information Technology Manager for the Grand Rapids Police Department. While in Grand Rapids, Mr. Carpenter has appeared as a guest artist in productions with the Grand Rapids Ballet and has taught at the School of Grand Rapids Ballet.
Koa Chun
Koa Chun grew up in Bedford, MA, where he was introduced to ballet in Boston Ballet School’s Classical Ballet Program. In 2016 he was asked to join Boston Ballet School’s Pre-Professional Program and was a recipient of the Boston Ballet School Pao Scholarship. For Boston Ballet Schools 2022 Next Generation production Koa performed as Franz in the ballet Coppélia. In 2022, Koa graduated from Walnut Hill and joined Joffrey Ballet’s Trainee Program.
Liam Dunahee
Liam is a Dancer, Actor, and Musician. Born and raised in Grand Rapids Michigan; they started dancing at the age of 3 and studied many different styles ranging from Ballet to Breakdancing. They joined the Grand Rapids Ballet Junior Company in 2020, and performed in the school’s production of Aladdin in 2022. They have also been involved with some of Grand Rapids Ballet Company’s Productions such as: The Nutcracker, Cinderella, and A Midsummer Night’s Dream.
Nicholas Bradley Gray
Nicholas Bradley Gray (he/they) is a Dancer, Choreographer, and Dance Educator who works with accredited local institutions including Grand Rapids Civic Theatre School of Theatre Arts, Circle Theatre, Western Michigan University, East Grand Rapids Public Schools, and Grand Rapids Ballet School. Upon graduating from Indiana University’s esteemed Jacobs School of Music in 2018 with their Bachelor’s of Science Degree in Ballet (and Outside Field in Theatre and Drama), Nicholas moved to Grand Rapids to dance as an apprentice with Grand Rapids Ballet for the 2018-2019 season where they had the privilege to perform in the soloist roles of White Rabbit (Alice in Wonderland) and the Chinese Dancer (the Nutcracker). Please visit their website nicholas-gray.com for more details about Nicholas and their work.
Ednis Ariel Gómez Mallol
Ednis was born in the Dominican Republic, where he began his training at the age of 16. In 2007 moved to Madrid, Spain where he was chosen to study choreography and interpretive dance in the Alicia Alonso institute at King Juan Carlos University. In 2012 moved back to the Dominican Republic and joined the Dominican National Ballet. In 2014, he was invited to dance as a guest in Grand Rapids Ballet’s production of Midsummer. In the same year Ednis became a company member with the GRB until 2022.
Jackson Mitchell
From San Francisco, California, Jackson Mitchell began his ballet training while 16 years old under Nikolai Kabanaiev at City Ballet SF. While at City Ballet he performed leading roles in multiple ballets such as the Talisman Pas de Deux, Lankendem in Le Corsaire, and Cavalier in Nutcracker. In 2022 he joined the trainee program at The Joffrey Ballet in Chicago, Illinois where he has performed in Raymonda, Yoshihisa Arai’s Adagio Sostenuto, and Christopher Wheeldon’s Nutcracker.
Attila Mosolygo
Attila was born in Kisvarda, Hungary. He received his early training at the National Ballet Institute in Budapest. After moving to the United States, he joined the Joffrey Ballet School. He has performed as a guest artist with Mobile Ballet, Bravo Dance, Harrisburg Ballet, Ballet Theatre of Chicago and the Joffrey Ballet of Chicago. Attila spent sixteen years as a company dancer and eight years as a Ballet Master at Grand Rapids Ballet. As a company dancer, a few of his notable roles include The Prodigal Son in George Balanchine’s Prodigal Son, Max in Septime Webre’s Where The Wild Things Are, Charlie Chaplin in Gordon Peirce Schmidt’s Flickers, Tibalt in Mario Radacovsky’s Romeo and Juliet, and Melancholic in George Balanchine’s The Four Temperaments. Attila became the Director of the Grand Rapids Ballet School Junior Company in 2011 and School Director in 2017. For the Junior Company, Attila has choreographed Snow White, Peter Pan, Beauty and the Beast, Carnival of the Animals, Mother Goose Nursery Rhymes, and The Wizard of Oz.
Jon Upleger
Jon Upleger spent 22 years performing with the Nashville Ballet where he also served as ballet master for the company. He had the pleasure of performing principal roles in ballets such as Swan Lake, Sleeping Beauty, Giselle, Cinderella, Romeo and Juliet, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, the Nutcracker, Peter Pan, Dracula, Firebird, Sinatra Suite, Who Cares, Carmina Burana and A Streetcar Named Desire to name a few. He was fortunate to work with choreographers including Christopher Wheeldon, Twyla Tharp, Jiri Kylian, Christopher Bruce, Annabelle Lopez Ochoa, Val Caniparoli, Gina Patterson, Jennifer Archibald, Christopher Stuart and Paul Vasterling. In 2021 Jon started the Grand Rapids School of Dance, a school where students can foster their love of dance, with a foundation in ballet, that will continue on for a lifetime.
Jon Van Harn
Joseph Van Harn is a dance performer and educator living in Providence, Rhode Island. Born and raised in Grand Rapids, Joseph received his dance training at Grand Rapids Ballet School under the direction of Amanda Smith-Heynen and Attila and Mindy Mosolygo, where as a student he performed locally and on tour with the junior and professional companies from 2005 to 2014. Joseph has performed works by accomplished choreographers such as Nicole Laliberte, Tess Sinke, Trey McIntyre, Ja Malik, Eugenia Zinovieva, Viktor Plotnikov, and George Balanchine; and he has performed with dance companies and schools across the country, including Deos Contemporary Ballet and Ballet Kalamazoo. Joseph graduated in 2018 from the University of Oklahoma with a B.F.A. in Ballet Pedagogy and a B.A. in Professional Writing.
Nicki Young
Nicki Young holds a BFA in Ballet Performance from the University of Oklahoma and a MFA in Dance from the University of Michigan. She has performed with dance companies throughout the country, including Nashville Ballet and Dance in the Annex (Grand Rapids), and has taught on numerous dance faculties in Michigan, including Grand Rapids Ballet School, University of Michigan Dpt. of Dance, and Grand Valley State University. She is currently working in public accounting at Hungerford Nichols CPAs + Advisors, and enjoys getting to work with many nonprofit organizations throughout West Michigan.
