JSB company members lead classes in various styles. Click HERE to read their bios.

Leah Gallas has been a performer and teaching artist for over two decades. Her dance experience includes being a member of Colorado Ballet, Dayton Ballet, Virginia Ballet Theatre, Minnesota Ballet, Tulsa Ballet and James Sewell Ballet. Leah has performed many roles in various classical and contemporary ballets including Swan Lake, Sleeping Beauty, Cinderella, Stanton Welch’s Bruiser, Balanchine’s Serenade, Ben Stevenson’s Dracula and Paul Taylor’s Black Tuesday, among others. Leah received the majority of her training at Ballet Arts Minnesota studying primarily under Bonnie Mathis and Lirena Branitski while also spending summers training at the San Francisco Ballet School and the Boston Ballet School on full scholarships. Leah’s teaching experience includes TU Dance Center, Ballet Royale Minnesota, Saint Paul Conservatory for Performing Artists, James Sewell Ballet and Ballet Co. Laboratory. She also teaches private lessons throughout the Twin Cities. 

Sabine Ibes has been dancing as long as she remembers; She started focusing on Argentine Tango in 2003 after she was captured by the fluid movements to magical music. Tango has pushed her life in directions that she could not have imagined. It has brought her to places like Maui, Paris, Istanbul. In 2014 she was awarded a study grant by MRAC and spent over a month in Buenos Aires, similar in 2015 and 2016. She has taught in Buenos Aires at the renowned tango congress : CITA by invitation of Fabian Salas and Lola Diaz. In addition to her travels she has studied with many masters of Argentine Tango. (Gaston Torelli, Chicho Frumboli, Gustavo Naveira, Melina Brufman, Homer and Cristina Ladas, Brigitta Winkler, Tomas Howlin to name a few) She also has a deep interest in learning and teaching techniques, and a person’s ability to process information through body movement, control, and expression.

Born and raised in St Paul, MN Kerry has been a company member of Pacific Northwest Ballet, Vienna State Opera Ballet, and Ballet of the Dolls. Kerry spent her early years studying with Jo Savino, Janet Smith, Frank Bourman, Bonnie Mathis, Lirena Branitski, Sylvia Bolton, David Voss, and Loyce Houlton. She also spent time studying at Milwaukee Ballet School, School of American Ballet, and Pacific Northwest Ballet School. Kerry brings nearly twenty years of teaching experience, and an extensive knowledge of ballet, to students of all ages. She also teaches the Gyrotonic®
Expansion System and Gyrokinesis® in The Chapel at Center for Performing Arts.

A Minneapolis native, Mr. Sewell moved to New York and studied at the School of American Ballet with David Howard, and began performing with ABT II. He was a lead dancer with Feld Ballets/NY for six years and has performed as a guest artist with the New York City Ballet, Zvi Gottheiner and Dancers, and Denishawn. He has choreographed more than 70 ballets for companies in the United States and around the world. Projects include the New York City Ballet’s Choreographic Institute, the New York State Council on the Arts grant to create “Independence In Dependence” for Feld Ballets/NY; “Aida” (1998) for the Minnesota Opera and 11 other opera companies; James Sewell Ballet’s “Amahl and the Night Visitors” (1995); “Musical Toys” (1996) and “Nutcracker: The Untold Story” (1997) for the Minnesota Orchestra; and “She Loves Me” (2005) and “1776” (2007) for the Guthrie Theater.

Yuki Tokuda is a ballet dancer, choreographer and teacher, based in the Twin Cities. She is originally from Japan and was trained under Mikiko Dei, Hideo Fukagawa and Jun Ishii, internationally recognized dancers, teachers and competition judges. She moved to the US in 2000 to continue her training in New York at the Joffrey Ballet School. Ms. Tokuda has danced professionally with USA Ballet, Peoria Ballet, Metropolitan Ballet and she was the principal dancer at Continental Ballet for 7 years. With diverse training in classical, contemporary, modern and jazz, she is an international guest dancer and collaborator with many companies, including James Sewell Ballet and Minnesota Dance Theatre. While training in New York, Ms. Tokuda’s instructors included David Howard, John Prinz, Fabrice Herrault, and Michael Vernon. At Steps on Broadway in New York she was one of the first International Visa Program students. She has, also, trained with Boston Ballet and Connecticut Ballet. She has performed many principal roles, most notably in: Le Corsaire, Don Quixote Pas de Deux, Les Sylphides, Pas de Quatre, Agnes de Mille’s Rodeo, Princess Aurora, Lilac Fairy and Princess Florine in The Sleeping Beauty, the Sugar Plum Fairy and Clara in The Nutcracker, Odette and Odile in Swan Lake, Coppelia, A Midsummer Night’s Dream and the title roles in Romeo and Juliet, and Giselle. She has performed at The Walker Art Center, The Ritz Theater, The State Theatre, The Tek Box, The Ted Mann Concert Hall, The O’Shaughnessy, The Pantages Theatre, The Intermedia Arts, The Lab Theatre and Peavey Plaza.

Ms. Tokuda is a faculty member at Minnesota Dance Theatre, Ballet Co.Laboratory, Community Movement Collective and a certified STOTT Pilates Instructor. She has taught many master classes in Japan and the US including at Cathedral Dance Festival and Interlochen Center for the Arts. Her choreography was chosen for Choreographer’s Evening at The Walker Arts Center and commissioned by Wayzata Symphony Orchestra, Wooddale Church, Cerulean Fire, Japan America Society of Minnesota, Saint Paul Conservatory for Performing Artists and Threads Dance Project. She is a recipient of Minnesota State Arts Board and St. Louis Park Arts & Culture Grant. She is a co-director with Rie Tanaka of Mirage Performing Arts where their mission is envisioning, enriching and enhancing both the cultures of Classical Music and Ballet.

She is the owner/designer of YukiTard, a custom dancewear company, as well as, the owner/instructor of Tokuda Ballet, a private ballet school. www.yukitokuda.com