Meet Our Summer 2025 Guest Artists

Julie Chapnick

Julie Chapnick began her career classically trained in the Cecchetti ballet method. She studied with the Atlantic Contemporary Ballet, American Dance Machine and Central Pennsylvania Youth Ballet. Julie received a BFA in Dance from New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts and went on to earn an MA in Dance and Dance Education with a concentration in K-12 from NYU’s Steinhardt School of Education. Working with world-renowned teachers and choreographers alike, Julie performed in numerous works during her undergraduate and graduate studies. She danced with the New Dance Ensemble, 2nd Avenue Dance Company, New Dance Collective and American Dance Art with whom she performed at the Fringe Festival in Edinburgh, Scotland. Julie has served as Director of summer dance camps and intensives, worked as a Ballet Mistress and has presented her choreography in dance festivals and regional competitions. She has taught for privately owned studios, the public school system and as a volunteer for community outreach programs. She was appointed Adjunct Dance Professor at Central Piedmont Community College and Johnson C. Smith University. Since moving to Chicago, Julie has had the pleasure of being a teaching artist at the School of Performing Arts, Academy of Dance Arts, Hubbard Street Dance Youth Program, Dance Center Evanston and Grainger Academy, the official school of the Joffrey Ballet.

Asha Gangolli

Asha Gangolli, a native of Evanston IL, began her dance training locally with Kerry Hubata and Bea Rashid. As a student she trained across the U.S. with Houston Ballet, Boston Ballet, and as a trainee with The Joffrey Ballet under the tutelage of Alexei Kremnev and Anna Reznik. During this time she worked and performed with the company in Robert Joffrey’s The Nutcracker, as well as Stanton Welch’s La Bayadere and Krzysztof Pastor’s Romeo and Juliet. Asha joined Alabama Ballet in 2014 and was promoted to a company dancer in 2017. Since then she has enjoyed performing principal roles including Sugar Plum Fairy and Coffee in George Balanchine’s The Nutcracker®, Lilac Fairy in The Sleeping Beauty, Fairy Godmother in Cinderella, Myrtha in Giselle, Rancher’s Daughter in Agnes De Mille’s Rodeo, Fourth Movement Principal in George Balanchine’s Western Symphony, Long Tall Sally in Dennis Nahat’s Blue Suede Shoes, Barbara Allen in Christopher Bruce’s Sergeant Early’s Dream, Lady Jane in Christopher Bruce’s Rooster, All the Way in Twyla Tharp’s Nine Sinatra Songs, and Twyla Tharp’s Baker’s Dozen. Asha is on faculty at the Alabama Ballet School and also teaches classical Pilates in the Birmingham area.

Robert Mckee

Andi Learman