New Partnership & Spark of Artistic Leadership

---

Rebecca Miller Stalcup, Artistic Director & Arkansas Festival Ballet is excited to include the teaching and choreographic talents of Trent Montgomery as Associate Director of AFB Pre Professional Ballet Company. Mr. Montgomery is also master teacher of upper level students in our partnering school, Arkansas Academy of Dance.  Trent's teaching experience, classical ballet training and professional career offer dancers in training a vibrant approach to becoming better performers  His demand for fine-tuned technique offers dancers the knowledge and details they need to enhance their skill level; while offering dancers the encouragement they need to find self worth and inspiration.  

Founding member of Arkansas Academy of Dance & Arkansas Festival Ballet in 2000, with a team of devoted supporters. With 30 + years of teaching experience, she continues to promote the highest standards of training and demonstrates a unique ability to instill, in her students, a joy for dance along with an appreciation of formal ballet etiquette. Ms. Stalcup engages the talents and expertise of established instructors to suit the demands of each level of training offered in the academy. She holds a BA in Psychology, working as an intern at Harbour House in Louisiana. She is a former company dancer with the Lake Charles Civic Ballet, Lake Charles Ballet, Delia Stewart Dance Company, Ballet Arkansas, and former Children's Division Principal of the Academy of Ballet Arkansas. Rebecca has served as Adjunct Professor at University of Arkansas Little Rock, teaching ballet and is a Mental Wellness Certified Dance Educator through Danscend, and founder and instructor of Dance for Life - a Dance for Parkinson's program. As instructor on the Arkansas Artist Roster, she has worked with teens at Pulaski County Juvenile Detention and served as artist in residence at both local and statewide public schools. Locally, Ms. Stalcup has taught dance classes at both The Anthony School, The Montessori School, and Maumelle High School and continues to work as a substitute teacher for LRSD. As Artistic Director for Arkansas Festival Ballet (AFB), she has produced, choreographed and received awards for original works and statewide recognition for her contribution to the dance community. She has been the spotlight feature in publications of AR Democrat Gazette, Inviting Arkansas, Little Rock Family, Dance Magazine, and The Idle Class. Through her leadership, AFB continues to celebrate membership with Regional Dance America/ Southwest. Under her artistic direction, AFB has worked collaboratively with local arts organizations including Arkansas Shakespeare Theatre, Arkansas Symphony Orchestra, Arkansas Shakespeare Theatre, Argenta Community Theatre, Arkansas Arts Center, ACANSA, Conway Symphony Orchestra, Little Rock Wind Symphony, Opera in the Rock, Pine Bluff Symphony Orchestra, South Arkansas Symphony Orchestra, Saint Mark Baptist, Praeclara Arts, The Clinton Foundation, UALR Theatre and Arts, UALR Concert Choir, Wildwood Park for the Arts. Ms. Stalcup has staged classic ballets The Nutcracker Ballet, The Sleeping Beauty, Coppelia, Cinderella, Les Patineurs, and has created original choreography for full length story book ballets, Peter Pan, Alice in Wonderland, The Adventures of Alice in Wonderland, Aladdin, Beauty and the Beast ( 2 versions),Snow White (2 versions), The Adventures of Pinocchio, Princess and the Frog, Babes in Toyland and Hansel and Gretel. She has created original choreography for collaborative opera productions including, The Magic Flute, Midsummer Night’s Dream, Romeo and Juliet, Carmen, Aida, Carmina Burana, Peter Grimes, Dido and Aeneas, The Sleeping Beauty, in addition to musicals The Music Man, and Pirates of Penzance. Her original choreography is also seen in award winning works, A New Influence, Aplomb, Rippling Soliloquies, Phaethon,Tangled Composition, Outrance, Kali Shu Kali Pai. Rebecca is the mother of four children, Gavin, Holland, Avaleigh and Farah.