Les Jordan III
Mr. Jordan began his early training with William Martin-Viscount and the Fort Worth City Ballet. He also studied with Margo Dean and performed with Ballet Concerto.
He trained extensively in Dallas with such teachers as David Kirby, Jane Quetin and Key Meersman. He then moved to the University of Arizona in Tucson where he majored in ballet and modern dance. Upon returning to Texas, he joined the Dallas Metropolitan Ballet under the direction of Ann Etgen and Bill Atkinson, where he spent nearly six years before founding his school, The North Central School of Ballet and the North Central Civic Ballet Company. Mr. Jordan has received and accepted many honors in the field of dance including full scholarships to study with the Kiev Ballet, U.S.S.R., the Joffrey Ballet in New York, and the Hartford Ballet.

He has staged numerous classical works including, The Nutcracker, The Sleeping Beauty, Cinderella, A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Coppelia as well as many of his own original ballets including, Liberty, Tribute, Baby’s Got The Blues, Etudes on Ivory, Journey and La Danse Amour. Mr. Jordan is also well known for his coaching abilities in classical and neo-classical pas de deux.

He serves on the Board of Directors of Regional Dance America and had served as President of the Affiliate groups for the Arts Council of Northeast Tarrant County. He has also served as the Vice-President of Membership for the Dance Council. In 1999, he received the Northeast Arts Treasure Award for outstanding commitment to the arts and education in the community and the prestigious Distinguished Teacher Award from the National Foundation for Advancement of the Arts.

Nicole Buyskes
A professional dancer and teacher for 15 years, Mrs. Buyskes has performed and taught all over the world. She began her ballet training in Dallas, with Dallas Metropolitan. At the age of 16 she joined Hartford Ballet in Connecticut where she spent seven years dancing many principal and soloist roles in ballets by George Balanchine, Choo San Gogh, Jean Grande Maitre, Graham Lustig, Anthony Tudor and the company’s artistic director Kirk Peterson.

After her tenure at Hartford, Nicole accepted a scholarship to attend Benesh Institute of Choreology in, England. She is now a certified Benesh notator, noting ballets of renowned choreographers all over the country. She has since returned to Dallas and danced with the Texas Ballet Theater under the direction of Ben Stevenson, O.B.E., until this past year when she retired. While with TBT she enjoyed dancing in such ballets as Cinderella, Peer Gynt, Swan Lake, Serenade and Nutcracker. Nicole teaches at several local ballet studios including North Central Ballet where she has been Ballet Mistress for eight years.

Maura McKenna Larsen
Ms. Larsen joined the staff of North Central Ballet in August 2006.

She was trained at the School of American Ballet and Joffrey Ballet School in New York City. Her professional experience includes dancing as a principal with the State Ballet of Missouri and also as a principal with Fort Worth Dallas Ballet. Maura taught students at the Fort Worth Ballet School, many of whom went on to dance with
Fort Worth Ballet and New York City Ballet.

Lillian Guillot
Ms. Lillian Guillot has been dancing and teaching for North Central Ballet for three years. Ms. Guillot’s professional career began in Baltimore MD, dancing for the (then) Annapolis Ballet.  From there Ms. Guillot move to Philadelphia to work for three small companies and also received her Vaganova Certification for teaching. Ms Guillot then moved and stayed in Dayton Ohio, dancing for the Dayton Ballet and on staff for Dayton Ballet School for two years. Some of her favorite ballets include, ‘A Mid summers Night Dream’, ‘Dracula’, ‘Giselle’, ‘Don Quiote’, and  ‘The Nutcracker’.

Wil McKnight
Wil McKnight, Artistic Director and Executive Director of Texas Dance Theatre, began his dance training with The Baton Rouge Ballet Theatre, under the direction of Molly Buchmann and Sharon Mathews. At the age of 14, he received a full scholarship to attend a summer course at the School of American Ballet (SAB), the official school of New York City Ballet. At the age of 15, he moved to New York City to study at SAB year round. He also received scholarships and trained with Kirov Academy of Ballet, San Francisco Ballet, Joffrey Ballet, Boston Ballet, and Houston Ballet Academy. Wil has performed professionally with Colorado Ballet, New York City's Ballet for Young Audiences, Ballet Long Island, and the former Ballet Dallas. He was a member of The Carlisle Project in Aspen, Colorado, where he performed original works by choreographer Toni Pimble.   In 2008, McKnight choreographed Fast, his first ballet for Texas Dance Theatre. Set to music by Steve Reich, this piece is inspired by art work created by Daniel Corona. A veteran of the Afghanistan conflict, Corona returned to the United States to discover his artistic self as a means of important self-expression in order to communicate.

Beth Reid Allen
Beth Allen trained at School of American Ballet and American Ballet Theatre in New York, the recipient of multiple scholarships starting at age 13.  She learned from renowned dance masters Myrtha Rosello, Arthur Mitchell, Leon Danielian, Fernando Schaffenburg, Igor Youskevitch, Edward Villela and Violette Verdi among others.  As a teenager, she was a soloist with the acclaimed Texas Civic Ballet where she shared the stage with a youthful Fernando Bujones.
 
Expanding her performing arts experience beyond dance, Beth studied music, theatre and directing at Southwestern University, earning the Bachelor of Fine Arts degree.  She went on to teach acting, script analysis and theatre literature at Northlake College, and has directed plays and musicals for numerous colleges, community and professional theatres.
 
For the last 5 years, Beth has taught ballet and acting for Ballet Academy of Texas, teaching beginning ballet thru level 3, Teens, as well as adults. She was also involved in launching a youth acting program for Ballet Academy of Texas, teaching 3 levels of acting for ages 7 -18; as well as, directing Disney’s Sleeping Beauty for Academy Children’s Theatre’s inaugural season.
 
Beth is passionate about kids and the performing arts, and approaches teaching and directing youth as an opportunity to channel their exuberance and creativity, adding the elements of discipline and teamwork to build character through shared creative expression, resulting in emotional awareness and maturity.
 
Away from dance and theatre, Beth plays wife to Bruce, a former professional actor/singer/dancer, and home schools their three talented and unique children.