Faculty and Staff

Led by Artistic Director, Mia Whitehead, our best-in-class instructors deliver the finest instruction in San Antonio. Mia and her team of professional ballet instructors have taught dance around the world and across the country. Their perspective reaches beyond our community, inspiring our students to succeed in the studio, on stage, and in life.

Faculty

Jessica Ramm Terry – Associate Artistic Director

Originally from Seabrook, Texas, Jessica Ramm trained at The Houston Ballet Academy for six years before completing her training with the Texas Ballet Theater. She completed training programs hosted by Boston Ballet, Milwaukee Ballet, Bolshoi Ballet Theater, Oklahoma City Ballet, and Ballet Austin. Her professional experience includes Coastal City Ballet located in Canada, Oklahoma City Ballet, Ballet Austin, Alabama Ballet, and Ballet San Antonio. As a member of these companies, she has performed in popular ballets such as The Nutcracker, Romeo and Juliet, Les Sylphides, Cinderella, Coppelia, Giselle, George Balanchine’s Rubies in addition to a variety of other classical and contemporary works. After leaving Ballet San Antonio, Jessica became a principal guest artist around Texas performing various lead roles such as Sugar Plum Fairy, Snow Queen, Bluebird pas de deux, Moszkowski Waltz and contemporary works.

With Jessica’s performance experience, she is an established choreographer who has choreographed contemporary works on ballet companies such as the Alabama Ballet and Ballet San Antonio. She has also choreographed virtually on dancers around the world.

In addition to performing and choreographing, Jessica has been teaching ballet and modern at the Ballet Conservatory since 2018.

Rachel McCalla – Lower School Principal

Ms. McCalla began her ballet training at the age of 6 with Sandra Bravo at the Performing Arts School of Classical Ballet in San Antonio, Texas. At the age of 15, Ms. McCalla expanded her dance training and joined Stellar Gymnastics in Kerrville. Ms. McCalla coached Mommy and Me classes as well as numerous other gymnastic and dance levels. In 2012, Ms. McCalla began teaching for Sandra Bravo at Bravo! Ballet School in the heart of Castle Hills. During this time, Ms. McCalla had the pleasure of working with and training under Mrs. Katia Garza, former principle dancer of the Orlando Ballet.

Ms. McCalla enjoys spending her free time with her husband in the beautiful Texas Hill Country that she calls home.

Zane Terry – Company Coordinator

Zane Terry began his training at Grand Rapids Ballet in Michigan at the age of thirteen. He continued his formal training at Michigan Ballet Academy under the Direction of Akop and Gaianne Akopian. While there, he performed leading roles in many classical ballets such as Le Corsaire, Swan Lake and The Nutcracker. In 2014, Mr. Terry joined Oklahoma City Ballet as an Apprentice and during the summer of 2015, he performed with the Atlantic City Ballet. In the fall of 2015, Mr. Terry joined Ballet San Antonio as an Apprentice, and in 2017 was promoted to Corps de Ballet. Mr. Terry has also had the privilege to study with teachers such as Nikoloz Makhateli, Wes Chapman, Maria Kowroski and Misty Copeland. His repertoire includes Balanchine’s ‘Rubies’ and ‘Prodigal Son’, Twyla Tharp’s ‘Nine Sinatra Songs’, ‘Hilarion’ in Giselle, as well as a large variety of classical and contemporary works.

Mr. Terry has been a ballet instructor with The Ballet Conservatory of South Texas since 2018.

Dede Barfield – Instructor

Born in Ft. Worth, Texas, Ms. Barfield began her training in Ft. Worth with Gayle Corkery and continued at the Etgen Atkinson School in Dallas. At the age of 14, she began studying during the summers at the School of American Ballet in New York City and by the age of 16, she move there to study exclusively.

Ms. Barfield joined the Pennsylvania Ballet in 1984, was promoted to Soloist in 1987 and to Principal in 1990. Her repertoire includes a wide variety of classical roles including Odette/Odile in Swan Lake, Myrtha in Giselle, Vera in Robert Weiss’ full-length production of Winter Dreams, Les Sylphides, the title role in Ben Stevenson’s Cinderella and Juliet in John Cranko’s Romeo and Juliet. On June 12, 2004, she gave her last performance as a professional dancer as her favorite role of Odette/Odile in Christopher Whealdon’s Swan Lake.

Since leaving the Pennsylvania Ballet, Ms. Barfield has been busy teaching at Bryn Mawr College, The Performance Garage at Jeanne Ruddy Dance, The South Jersey Ballet School and with the Pennsylvania Ballet’s Outreach Program. She has been a guest teacher for the Chamberlain Ballet in Plano, Texas, the Country Day School in Ft. Worth, the Brandywine Ballet and the Dance Theater of Pennsylvania. Ms. Barfield also taught ballet classes at the University of Las Vegas during the 2007 Spring semester.

In addition to Ms. Barfield’s extensive ballet training and experience, she has studied Pilates since 1979 and in recent years completed a 2-year advanced teacher training seminar with her mentor of 20 years, Karen Carlson. She is certified in all apparatuses and mat. She has been with the Ballet Conservatory since 2007.

Micaela Morris – Instructor

Micaela Morris received her early dance training with Georgia Academy of Dance and Georgia Dance Theater in Peachtree City, Georgia. Following high school, she attended Belhaven University and now holds a BFA degree in dance. Throughout her collegiate training, she had many performance opportunities with classical, modern, and contemporary pieces and focused her education on ballet pedagogy, teaching methods, and kinesiology. After graduation in 2018, Micaela performed as a company member with the Montgomery Ballet. Her favorite rolls while performing in Montgomery include Spanish in The Nutcracker, the Sylph Pas in Graduation Ball, and Fish in Carnival of the Animals.

Micaela also loves musical theater and has most recently appeared as Brenda in Hairspray and in the ensemble in The Music Man. In 2019, Micaela and her husband moved to San Antonio to be Artist in Residence with San Antonio Metropolitan Ballet. With SAMET, Micaela performed the Spun Sugar pas de deux in Hansel and Gretel, the Lady of Summer in The Snow Queen. She also performed in Dominic Walsh’s Sucumbir. Most recently, Micaela appeared in Ballet Conservatory of South Texas’ performance of La Boutique Fantasque as the Shopkeeper’s Wife.

Since arriving to San Antonio in 2019, Micaela has had many opportunities to teach in San Antonio and loves teaching dancers of all ages. Micaela began teaching at Ballet Conservatory in 2021 and looks forward to continuing to educate young dancers for years to come!

Hannah Satchell – Instructor

Hannah was born and raised in Kerrville, Texas. She received her dance training at Peggy Anne-Cece Jean’s Studio. It was at this studio where she fell in love with dance. Hannah began teaching ballet and cheerleading for Peggy Anne-Cece in 2019, and she joined The Ballet Conservatory of South Texas family in 2021, teaching Creative Movement I and II.

Hannah loves spending time with her 11 siblings, 5 of whom are growing into beautiful dancers, and playing in the rain any chance she gets.

Magen Sevilla – Instructor

Originally from Corpus Christi, Texas, Magen Sevilla relocated to San Antonio for graduate school in 2014. Ms. Sevilla joined The Ballet Conservatory of South Texas in 2022 as a certified Pilates instructor. In addition to her successful career as a health and fitness instructor, she is also the owner of Bloom + Stem, a full service online floral business that she started in 2019.

Rose Mary Forte Hensley – Guest Instructor and former Artistic Director

Rose Forte (Rosie) Hensley began her dance training at Capital Area Dance Theater in Enola, Pennsylvania. She later joined the pre-professional program at Cumberland Dance Company. Mrs. Hensley has performed at regional festivals and received a variety of awards, including the Monticello Award for Best Performer. During an attendance at Joffrey Ballet Summer Intensive in New York, she auditioned and was selected to perform La Bayadère with the Kirov Ballet at the Metropolitan Opera House. In 2004, she participated in the Cultural Dance Festival in Germany.

Mrs. Hensley graduated from Indiana University’s Ballet Program under the direction of Violette Verdy and received a Bachelor of Science in Ballet Performance and English Literature with a minor in Contemporary Dance. She danced professionally with the Chicago Ballet and was a guest artist with the Civic Ballet of Chicago. In 2007 she was invited to perform in a music and dance festival in Rome, Italy.

Mrs. Hensley is a certified instructor in Pilates, Progressing Ballet Technique, and TRX teaching. She has attended the Central Pennsylvania Youth Ballet (CPYB) Teacher Training seminar for two years, and is proficient in teaching ballet, jazz, tap and modern to students ages 3-18. Mrs. Hensley has had the distinct pleasure of being a guest instructor for many summer intensives in the San Antonio Area, as well as Brandon Ballet in Florida, and numerous academies in Maryland. Mrs. Hensley was a former corps de ballet with Ballet San Antonio for approximately 8 years, as well as a freelance professional dancer for several dance organizations such as Alamo Arts Ballet Theatre and others. Mrs. Hensley has been an instructor at the Ballet Conservatory of South Texas (BCSTX) since 2011.

Anna Vazquez – Instructor

A graduate of the Ballet Conservatory of South Texas, Anna Vazquez began her dance training at the age of 8. Throughout her training years, Anna was awarded multiple scholarships to summer programs such as Dance Theatre of Harlem, Dallas Black Dance Theatre, and Texas Ballet Theatre. This exposure allowed her to study multiple techniques abroad, and to specialize in Ballet and Contemporary. In 2018 Anna joined the Texas Ballet Theatre’s second company. For two and a half years, Anna trained under Ben Stevenson and his staff and performed in multiple professional ballet’s such as Sleeping Beauty, Serenade, The Nutcracker, The Nutty Nutcracker, and other contemporary repertoire. She recently completed one season with the professional contemporary company — Zion Dance Project. Anna began teaching at the age of 14 in San Antonio, Texas and later moved to teaching around the DFW area. She has taught at multiple established studios, and has instructed over 100 students in the past two years. Anna enjoys the art of teaching and strives to cultivate an environment where dancers improve technically, mentally and physically. Anna joined the faculty at BCSTX in Fall 2023.

Buse Babadag – Instructor

Buse Babadag was born in Istanbul, Turkey. She started her training at Istanbul University State Conservatory with Christopher Paluch at age 10. After 5 years of intensive training with him, she got accepted to Munich Ballet Academy in Germany. She was trained with Vaganova technique by the world known former ballet stars at Munich Ballet Academy. She got to perform at Heinz Bosl Stiftung Matinee with BayerischesStaatsBallet’s Junior Company. She graduated from Munich Ballet Academy with a ‘Bachelor diploma of dance’.

She was chosen to perform Kirill Melnikov’s Cinderella pas de deux at Biennalle Dance Education 2014/Dresden Gala at Semperoper Dresden. Same year, she was invited to perform Romeo and Juliet Balcony Pas de Deux at the galas in Rome, Pisa, Toscana and Cairo.

In 2014, she moved to America and started working with Tulsa Ballet II. After performing a season with Tulsa Ballet, she got offer as a company member with Dance Alive National Ballet in Florida. In her third season with the company, she got promoted to a Soloist. In 2018, she was offered to join to Indianapolis Ballet that’s where she mostly danced Balanchine Ballets as Serenade, Rubies, Who Cares, Wals-Fantaisie, Four Temperaments, Raymonda Variations, and Allegro Brilliant.

After 3 seasons of performing with Indianapolis Ballet, she was offered a Soloist contract with Ballet San Antonio and already performed Sugar plum fairy in Nutcracker and kitri’s friends with the company in 2022.

Her repertoire includes some of William Forsythe works, Balanchine and Bournoville technique.

Ms. Babadag joined the faculty at BCSTX in Fall 2023.