Our program at Portland Rotary this Friday will three persons from the Portland Ballet, Eugenia O'Brien, Jennifer Jones and Melissa Lin. 

ImageEugenia L. O'Brien – Artistic / Executive Director, Founder of Portland Ballet (PBC), is a graduate of the Boston Conservatory with a BFA in Dance and she was their 2012 distinguished Alumni Award recipient. She has performed with Movement Laboratory, Concert Dance Company, Boston Dance Theater, and represented the U.S. at the International Academy of Dance, Portugal. She completed the Academic Classical Ballet course with Egon Bischoff at the International Ballet School in Jackson, MS and attended the 2006 Balletto Internazionale Americano-Adriatico Teacher’s Seminar in Ascoli Piceno, Italy. She promotes education through dance establishing CORPS (a performing arts partnership for high school credit), City Dance (dance instructors teaching in the public schools), Dance Discovery Days (performances at the schools), and Youth Concerts (schools come to the theater to see dance). She continues to serve as the Artistic and Executive Director for both the Portland School of Ballet and the Portland Ballet Company – and is assisting in the Executive Director search for her exit in June.
 

ImageJennifer Jones came to PBC in 2010 after four seasons as a Principal Dancer with The Northwest Florida Ballet. Previous to dancing in Florida, she danced as a Soloist with Montgomery Ballet, and an Apprentice with Dance Connecticut (formerly Hartford Ballet). Her repertoire includes both classical and contemporary works (from Kitri in Don Quixote to Tiger Lilly in Alice in Wonderland) with Portland Ballet credits which include Katrina in the 2011 production of The Legend of Sleepy Hollow; Giselle in Giselle, and the Sugar Plum Fairy in PBC’s 2014 The Victorian Nutcracker. She will be Portland Ballet’s Titania in their upcoming production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream in April.   

ImageMelissa Lin's passion for leadership and civic duty began with her love for community service growing up. Melissa currently serves as Board President of the Portland Ballet. By day, Melissa is a senior healthcare consultant at Stroudwater Associates and travels to hospitals nationally to help them find new solutions that address the complexities of healthcare delivery. Prior to the Portland Ballet, she served as the Board Vice President and Sponsorship Chair for the Chinese and American Friendship Association of Maine, and has participated with Lift360 in both their Young Emerging Leaders program and Leadership Intensive program. In her remaining spare time, Melissa loves to cook and eat food, is an avid photographer, and performs Chinese folk dance in her spare time.