Ruth Nott brings decades of experience in organizational leadership, community engagement, and arts education to the organization. Before joining LINES Ballet, Ruth served as Managing Director of Opera Parallèle in San Francisco, where she led the organization through significant growth. Her leadership was instrumental in fostering innovation through growth and stability of personnel, business structure and procedures, and fund development. Prior, Ruth was the Education Director at the San Francisco Opera from 2008 to 2019, where she founded and led the company’s first-ever department focused on arts education and community building. Under her leadership, the team developed innovative programs that reached over 70,000 people annually, including the highly acclaimed Arts Resources in Action (ARIA), which won a Yale Distinguished Music Education Partnership Award. Ruth was also honored with the Dreamcatcher Award from the San Francisco Unified School District for her significant contributions to arts education.
Ruth has also worked with major arts organizations, such as the Metropolitan Opera Guild, New York City Opera, and Lyric Opera of Chicago, among others. She has contributed to the field in a variety of capacities, including consulting and co-founding PrimeLife Arts Learning, an online platform dedicated to enhancing the social and emotional well-being of older adults.
Ruth Nott will play a pivotal role in guiding LINES Ballet through its next phase of growth, ensuring the organization’s artistic excellence, long-term sustainability, and legacy. She will oversee efforts to expand fundraising initiatives, strengthen individual donor engagement, board member growth and giving, and institutional partnerships, in addition to the implementation of a comprehensive organizational identity campaign. Ruth will also support the development of a permanent LINES Archive to preserve the company’s rich history and artistic contributions for generations to come.
To register for classes at LINES Dance Center with David Fonnegra, visit fonnegraballet.weebly.com
David Fonnegra was born in Venezuela where he began his ballet studies at Ballet Teresa Carreno. At the age of 14, he became a principal dancer with Ballet Nacionál de Caracas and performed the leads in all the great romantic ballets including Raymonda, George Sans, Swan Lake, Giselle, Romeo & Juliet and Don Quixote. While on tour in 1995, Mr. Fonnegra joined the Miami City Ballet with its legendary founding director, Edward Villella. During his seven years at Miami City Ballet, he danced many principal roles in their Balanchine repertoire in addition to the classics. In 2002, Mr. Fonnegra came to California dancing with State Street Ballet and Channel Island Ballet as a guest artist. In 2004 he joined Diablo Ballet, where he continues to perform and choreograph on the company. As a dancer with Diablo Ballet, Mr. Fonnegra has been featured in The Legend of Taj Mahal, Petrushka, Who Cares?, Stars and Stripes, Once upon a Ballroom, and Jazz Fever to name a few. He continues to be a sought-after guest artist in the United States, Europe, and South America: as a performer, teacher, and choreographer. He has taught extensively in the Bay Area for almost a decade for such organizations as Lines Ballet, Contra Costa Ballet, Benicia Ballet, Ayako Ballet School, Livermore Ballet school, Western Ballet, Diablo Ballet, and Peninsula Ballet Theatre as well as for New World School of the Arts (Miami), Ballet National De Caracas, and Houston Ballet. His ultimate dream is to one day create his own company and studio.
Alonzo King LINES Ballet | Dance Center
Kaori Ogasawara was born in Japan and she studied ballet with her grandmother, Kazue Ogasawara, and Takao Hisamitsu. In 1993, she came to the US to train at the Boston Ballet School and later danced at Boston Ballet before joining Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre in 1999 with her husband, Christopher Rendall-Jackson. She was promoted to soloist in 2004. She has performed in several galas and appeared as a guest artist in the roles of Swanhilda in Coppelia, Aurora in Sleeping Beauty, the Sylph in La Sylphide, and the balcony Pas de Deux from John Cranko’s Romeo and Juliet. After joing PBT, she performed many featured roles including the Sugar Plum Fairy and Marie in Terrence S. Orr’s The Nutcracker, Myrtha in Giselle, Mercedes in Don Quixote, Svetlana in Ben Stevenson’s Dracula, Queen of Hearts in Derek Dean’s Alice’s Adventure in Wonderland. She also had many opportunities to dance George Balanchine’s ballet including the Russian Lead Girl in Serenade, Sylvia Grand Pas de duex, Theme and variation, Divertimento No. 15, and Who cares?. She has also performed in contemporary ballets by choreographers such as Paul Taylor, Dwight Rhoden, and Jean-Christophe Maillot. Ms. Ogasawara and her husband retired from the stage in 2009, and they are the proud parents of two children, Emiya and Hana.
ROBERT ROSENWASSER is a co-founder of LINES Ballet. As Creative Director, he oversees each project’s aesthetic and artistic direction at the LINES Ballet company, including conceptual design and production. Alongside his artistic work with LINES Ballet, as General Manager for 32 years, he built the Company’s touring program into one of the nation’s most expansive.
Robert Rosenwasser served as Executive Director from 2018 to April 2025. In addition to his work with LINES Ballet, he has designed for Ballet de Monte Carlo, Béjart Ballet Lausanne, the Royal Swedish Ballet, San Francisco Ballet, Joffrey Ballet, Frankfurt Ballet, and Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater. He has also collaborated on book projects with artists and poets Richard Tuttle, Mei-mei Berssenbrugge, Kiki Smith, Cecilia Vicuna, and Barbara Guest. His work is found at the New York Museum of Modern Art in the Department of Books and Illustrated Prints, at the Whitney Museum, and the Spencer Collection of the New York Public Library.
Mr. Rosenwasser grew up in New York, attending Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts, Cooper Union, and California Institute of the Arts.
Chanel was born in Sacramento, California and moved to San Francisco in 2021. She began her journey with movement and wellness 10 years ago when she started taking yoga classes for stress management. She developed her love for community, culture and art after spending 3 years backpacking through Europe, Asia and Australia. She was introduced to the Pilates Method when traveling Australia, which led her to get a certification in Mat Pilates. She continues her education with Polestar Pilates and is currently becoming a Certified Personal Trainer through the National Academy of Sports Medicine. You can find her taking beginning Ballet classes at the dance center!
Roseann is a dancer and movement educator and has been training in the GYROTONIC® & GYROKINESIS® methodologies for over 20 years. She is a certified trainer in both the GYROTONIC® & GYROKINESIS® systems as well as a GYROKINESIS® Pre-Trainer. She teaches at San Francisco GYROTONIC®, LINES Ballet BFA at Dominican University, & the LINES Ballet Training and Summer Programs. She holds her BFA in Dance from the State University of New York at Purchase College. She has danced with Nelly van Bommel’s NØA Dance, Garrett+Moulton Productions, LEVYdance, and Bellwether Dance Project to name a few. She also creates her own work with her project Rose Moves. Roseann is a believer in the inherent benefits of the GYROTONIC EXPANSION SYSTEM® and looks forward to sharing the experience of movement freedom, connectedness and the powerful feelings that inspire this beautiful system.
Alonzo King LINES Ballet | LifeLINES Online Winter Intensive faculty
Ananda Bena-Weber is an interdisciplinary performing artist and choreographer whose award-winning work tours the United States and abroad. She recently returned to the Bay Area from New York City where she taught for 16 years at Marymount Manhattan College, Dance Theater of Harlem, and Mark Morris Dance Center. Ananda is the Associate Artistic Director of the Sierra Nevada Ballet, and an adjudicator for Regional Dance America. She specializes in applying deep relaxation and specific alignment to ballet technique to heal and prevent injuries and to maximize pleasure in movement. Bena-Weber is a member of Actors Equity Association, the International Association of Dance Medicine and Science, and a board member of North American Performing Arts Managers and Agents.
Alonzo King LINES Ballet | TEENS at LINES
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