Meet Our Instructors

Kathleen Holmes is a graduate of the Performing Arts/Dance Centre of Tennessee, where she received her classical ballet training. Upon graduation, Kathleen joined the Tennessee Festival Ballet, directed by David and Anna-Marie Holmes. As a member of the corps de ballet, she immediately embarked upon a three-state tour in a full-scale production of Swan Lake. During this 27-performance tour, her exceptional lyrical qualities became apparent, and she was elevated to Demi-Soloist. That same season, she also appeared in the Russian tour-de-force Paquita.

The following year, Kathleen performed in Canada with the Banff Fine Arts Concert Group under the direction of Arnold Spohr, Artistic Director of the Royal Winnipeg Ballet. This was followed by a European tour where she was coached by Bolshoi’s star dancers Ekaterina Maximova and Vladimir Vasiliev, and she appeared in the Italian Internationale Di Danza of the Nervi Festival. Kathleen later accepted a soloist position with Ballet Hawaii, under John Landovsky’s direction, where she was featured in his Nutcracker.

Rejoining the Tennessee Festival Ballet as a soloist the following year, Kathleen toured extensively in productions of: Swan Lake, La Bayadere – Kingdom of the Shades, Beauty and the Beast, The Nutcracker, Peter and the Wolf, Don Quixote Suite, Etudes, Graduation Ball, Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, and Giselle. This tour included centers in Tennessee, Alabama, North Carolina, and Alaska. In addition to full-length productions, she also performed classic Russian miniatures and pas de deux from works such as La Corsaire, Gluck Melody, and Spring Waters.

Kathleen created the Shellshead Ballet and not only staged and rehearsed the company but also starred in productions of Cinderella, The Nutcracker, Laurencia, Peter and the Wolf, Petrushka, and Coppelia. During this time, she expanded and launched another company in Columbus, Ohio – Columbus Festival Ballet, where she staged, rehearsed, and starred in the Firebird and Paquita. Kathleen has had the fortune of working with some of the great ballet personalities of our time, including Anna-Marie and David Holmes, Violette Verdy, Erik Bruhn, Yvette Chauvire, Ekaterina Maximova, and Vladimir Vasiliev. 

Influenced by these figures and grounded in the Vaganova Syllabus of her original classical ballet training, Kathleen has developed into an exceptionally fine teacher and performing artist. Although she is equally at home teaching advanced and professional levels, she enjoys working with children. Kathleen possesses the teacher’s gift of capturing a child’s imagination and directing it toward achievement. With over 30 years of experience, she has taught in numerous schools, summer intensive workshops, and companies from coast to coast in the United States and Canada. Kathleen has coached dancers at all levels, bringing out their best qualities while maintaining a glorious sense of humor. She has an exceptional ability to make hard work enjoyable.

Jeffrey Polston, a native of North Carolina, began his classical ballet training at the esteemed North Carolina School of the Arts in Winston-Salem, NC. After graduating, he joined the Boston-based Impulse Dance Company under the direction of Adrienne Hawkins. During his time with Impulse, he collaborated with renowned dance instructors and choreographers such as Donald Byrd and Dwight Rhoden, and performed in pieces created by Warren Spears, Rael Lamb, Clover Mathis, Consuelo Atlas (a soloist with Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre and founder of Impulse), and Fred Benjamin. His experience also took him to Tokyo, Japan, where he worked with F.E.N. Promotions Company on a nationally broadcast television show, further enriching his diverse dance background which complements his training at Shellshead Ballet.

Jan Taylor has performed, choreographed, and taught in the Washington DC metropolitan area for over 40 years. She founded the Jan Taylor Dance Company and showcased her work at The Smithsonian, Dance Place, Dance Project, and WPA. Throughout her career, Jan has performed with notable companies such as Jan Van Dyke, Murray Spaulding, Pola Nirenska, and Alvin Mays. Today, she continues to inspire the next generation of dance instructors through her classical ballet training at Georgetown University and Marymount University, while also directing Fairy Tales in Motion, a ballet/theatre program for children that embraces the art of performance.