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Donna L. Muzio
Nancy Page
Scott Jovovich
Anna Ivanova
Matthew Neenan
Meredith Rainey
Donna L. Muzio
Artistic Director and Founder
Ms. Muzio founded the Brandywine Ballet Company in l978, based on her extensive experience in classical dance. She has served continuously as the company's Artistic Director, and is founder and director of The Dance Center, the official school of the Brandywine Ballet Company. Ms. Muzio's dedication to the highest standards in training and performance has helped catapult the company and school to the top tier of pre-professional dance institutions in the tri-state area. Such excellence has made possible Ms. Muzio's staging of such classics as The Nutcracker, Swan Lake, Sleeping Beauty and Coppelia - all of which have been widely popular and enormously successful among Chester County audiences and critics alike.
During the past few years, Ms. Muzio has strived to introduce students and audiences to the increasing role contemporary dance plays in the world of classical ballet. To this end, Ms. Muzio promotes a training regiment which offers advanced-level classes in classical technique, supplemented by master classes in the development of individual expression and present-day aesthetics. Previous master class teachers have been carefully selected from such renowned cultural behemoths as the New York City Ballet, American Ballet Theatre, Pennsylvania Ballet, and Joffrey Ballet. The ever-growing addition of original works to the company's repertoire by emerging choreographers, such as Matthew Neenan, is just one of the many indicators that Ms. Muzio is successfully imparting dancers with a modern mindset firmly rooted in tradition, and presenting regional audiences with cutting-edge ballet performances.
Perhaps most notably, Ms. Muzio's stewardship has lent to an impressive output of area dancers ascending to the upper echelon of dance performance. To date, over 50 students from the Brandywine Ballet Company have gone on to lead professional dance careers in such top ballet companies throughout the United States as New York City Ballet, Pennsylvania Ballet, Joffrey Ballet, Pittsburgh Ballet, Sarasota Ballet, and Miami City Ballet. And now, with the success of Ms. Muzio's Certificate in Ballet Program through West Chester University and the Brandywine Ballet Theatre (a recently added professional wing of the company), the Brandywine Ballet has established itself as a popular destination for those looking to continue a professional career in dance.
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Nancy Page
Ballet Mistress, Teacher & Choreographer
 A native of West Chester, Pa., Ms. Page was a principal dancer with the Brandywine Ballet Company while she still was in high school. She won a full scholarship to The Pennsylvania Governor's School for the Arts and subsequently, won full scholarships with the Milwaukee Ballet, Pacific Northwest Ballet, Richmond Ballet, and trainee with the Joffrey Ballet. She apprenticed with the Pittsburgh Ballet Theater before accepting a company position with the Florida Ballet, and with that company, she danced Belong, a gold medal pas de deux choreographed by Norbert Vasak. She later became a member of the Tampa/Colorado Ballet, dancing solo and principal roles in contemporary works. She then accepted a position with the Sarasota Ballet, where she became a principal dancer and Ballet Eddy Toussaint USA. During those years, many contemporary ballets were set on Ms. Page and she performed in various classical ballets including Paquita, Sleeping Beauty, and The Nutcracker.
While dancing with the Brandywine Ballet Company, Ms. Page and partner Steven Jackson brought life to such works as Phantom, Beauty and the Beast, and By My Side, a pas de deux choreographed by Ms. Page. She danced the title role in the Brandywine Ballet Company’s Cinderella, which premiered in 1994, and performed it in 1995 at The Playhouse Theater in Wilmington, DE. Recently, she was invited to guest dance with companies in Jacksonville and Sarasota, Florida and in Haiti, with principal dancers from Ballet West and the Joffrey Ballet.
Over the past two year Ms. Page has been a Resident Choreographer with the Brandywine Ballet Company. In the spring of 2000 she premiered Voices, set to the magnificent score, Adagio for Strings, by Chester County's own composer, Samuel Barber. Presently she serves as Ballet Mistress for the Brandywine Ballet Company and Brandywine Ballet Theatre.
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Scott Jovovich
Teacher & Choreographer
BBC's newest resident choreographer, Mr. Jovovich has danced professionally for more than 20 years. He was a Principal Dancer with such companies as the Joffrey Ballet, the Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre, The Northern Ballet Theater (England), The Universal Ballet (Korea), Ballet Arizona, and the Lars Lubovitch Dance Company. His repertoire includes leading roles in works by some of the world's foremost choreographers including: Balanchine, Tudor, DeMille, Ashton, Cranko, Massine, MacMillan, Robbins, Arpino, Joffrey, Lander, Lubovitch, Naharin, and Ailey. He has danced many of the leads in the great 19th-century classic ballets.
On Broadway, Jovovich recently left a five-year run of the hit Fosse. He was in the original cast of Jerome Robins Broadway, and in Carousel and Once Upon A Mattress. A frequent guest teacher around the world, he has directed his own ballet school. Far from a newcomer to BBC, he has choreographed and danced in numerous works for the company over the past few seasons.
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Anya Ivanova
 Miss Ivanova began her ballet studies at the Perm Ballet Academy in the former Soviet Union and later studied at the Frunze Ballet Academy. Upon graduation from Frunze, she performed with Cheliabinsk Opera and Ballet Theater as a principal dancer. After accepting an invitation to become a principal dancer with the Donetsk ballet, Miss Ivanova toured the eastern United States.
From 1994 to 1999, she was a principal dancer with the Russian Ballet Theatre of Delaware and, in 1998 she was a finalist in the International Ballet Competition in Jackson, Miss.
Miss Ivanova is a featured guest artist and ballet mistress with ballet companies throughout the United States. Her repertoire includes many classical ballet roles and contemporary works by choreographers including Daniel Baudendistel, Leslie Browne, Robert LaFosse, Scott Jovovich and Matthew Neenan.
Matthew Neenan
 Matthew Neenan began his dance training at the Boston Ballet School and with noted teachers Nan C. Keating and Jacqueline Cronsberg. He later attended the LaGuardia High School of Performing Arts and the School of American Ballet in New York.
In 1994, Matt joined the Pennsylvania Ballet where he has danced numerous principal roles in works by George Balanchine, John Cranko, Paul Taylor, Peter Martins, Val Caniparoli, Jorma Elo, Lila York, Meredith Rainey, Jessica Lang, Christopher Wheeldon and Jerome Robbins.
In 2000, Matt co-founded and co-directed Phrenic New Ballet, which toured extensively and featured Matt’s choreography in New York City, Baltimore and at the Jacob’s Pillow Festival in Becket, Massachusetts. Matt’s choreography has been featured by the Pennsylvania Ballet (totaling six commissions), Phrenic New Ballet, Philadelphia Opera Company, The Russian Ballet Theatre, LaGuardia High School of Performing Arts, and Ballet Pacifica. He has received numerous awards and grants for his choreography from the National Endowment of the Arts, Dance Advance funded by the Pew Charitable Trusts, the Choo San Goh Foundation, and the Independence Foundation. He is also a three-time recipient of grants from the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts.
In 2002, Matt accepted an invitation and performed and taught at the Silesion International Dance Festival in Poland. He also participated in the Fall 2003 New York City Ballet Choreographic Institute under the direction of Peter Martins. In June 2004, Dance Theatre of Pennsylvania premiered Matt’s first full-length ballet, A Midsummer’s Nights Dream. Matt was featured in the February 2005 issues of Dance Magazine and Philadelphia Magazine.
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Meredith Rainey
 Meredith Rainey former soloist with Pennsylvania Ballet began dancing at 15 in his hometown of Fort Lauderdale. In 1985 he joined the Milwaukee Ballet. In 1987, he was asked to join the newly formed Pennsylvania-Milwaukee Ballet, remaining with the Pennsylvania Ballet when the collaboration ended.
He was also a demi-soloist with the Dance Theatre of Harlem for a short time in 1997. Meredith has performed throughout Europe and the United States. His repertoire includes many principal and soloist roles in the works of George Balanchine, Alvin Ailey, Paul Taylor, Lar Lubovitch, John Butler, John Cranko, and William Forsythe. He has premiered original works by Kevin O’Day, Christopher D’Amboise, David Parsons, Lynne Taylor-Corbett, Robert Weiss, Richard Tanner, Jean Grand-Maitre, Dwight Rhoden, Ib Anderson, and Matthew Neenan.
He is the recipient of the 1995 & 2002 PA Council on the Arts Fellowship Grant for Choreography, the 2001 Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation Artist as Catalist Grant, the 2002 Independence Foundation Fellowship in the Arts and, a 2003 Pew Fellowship in the Arts Finalist.
Meredith has been commissioned to create work for Pennsylvania Ballet, Delaware Ballet, Hubbard Street 2, Phrenic New Ballet, Ballet X, Philadanco for their 25th Anniversary celebration, and has had his work performed at many festivals throughout North and South America including Jacob’s Pillow, Miami International Ballet Festival and the International Ballet Festival of Ecuador.
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