Our artistic team
Shannon Hunter McConville
Founding Artistic Director
Shannon fell in love with dance at a very young age. Originally from Tennessee, she began her training at the City Youth Ballet with Susan Pace-White. She has trained all over the country with many of the nations most distinguished artist including David Howard, Edward Villella, Gelsey Kirdland and Alonzo King. She received a B.F.A from Radford University with a concentration in performance and choreography under the direction of Frano Jelincic and Dagmar Kessler. Upon graduation, Shannon became a principal dancer with the San Diego Ballet. During her time with the company she had the opportunity to dance various lead roles under the direction of Robin Morgan and Javier Velasco. After moving to Virginia, she is proud to have founded the Stavna Ballet, a non-profit dance company in December of 2010. In 2012 she opened the Stavna Dance Academy, becoming the official training school of the Ballet. Her approach to bring dance to underserved communities of RVA, sparked the Stavna Reach program, which is proud to have community partners with the Robinson Theatre, Peter Paul Development Center and The Richmond Library systems. Most recently, Shannon was awarded one of Richmond's "Top 40 under 40".
Colleen Edwards-
Ballet Master
Colleen Edwards trained at the Boulder Ballet Academy in Colorado, under the founder, Barbra Demaree as well as Jon Prinz, Ana Claire and Lucia Martin. Colleen was a founding member of world renowned choreographer Robert Sher-Machherndl ‘s company Lemon Sponge Cake Contemporary Ballet as a trainee. For her senior project in high school Colleen choreographed a 40 minute ballet and arranged the performance as well as marketed, costumed and danced in the show. After graduating, Colleen attended her first choice College The Boston Conservatory, earning her B.F.A in Dance learning from Denise Pons, Luis Fuente, Donna Silva, Jennifer Scanlon, Tommy Neblett, and Leslie Woodies. At BoCo she performed in Anthony Tudor's Dark Elegies having been cast by Donald Mauhler as the First Mother's solo. In her professional career Colleen has performed soloist and principle roles in ballets such as Cinderella, as the Winter fairy and Fairy Godmother, A Midsummer Night’s dream, as Helena, and Hippolita, Dew Drop Fairy, Snow Queen and Sugar Plum Fairy in The Nutcracker, Lilac Fairy in Sleeping Beauty and a soloist in Les Sylphides. Colleen has taught in Northern Virginia, New York, Louisiana, Maine, Georgia, Massachusetts and in Richmond where she continues to challenge her students in both technique and performance. Ms. Edwards has enjoyed dancing in diverse companies including Urbanity Dance, Baton Rouge Ballet Theater, Portland Ballet, North Atlantic Dance Theatre where she was Ballet Mistress, Savannah Ballet Theater, and most recently Conflux Dance Theater. Colleen's choreography has been performed at the Boston Contemporary Dance Festival, Rhode Island Women's Choreography Project, Urbanity Dance's Professional Company, North Atlantic Dance Theatre's professional Company as well as Stavna's Gala performance of The Haunting. Colleen is enjoying her first season at Stavna Ballet as Ballet Mistress.
Misha Nikitine- Ballet Master
Misha Nikitine was born in the Russian city of Arkhangelsk, later moving to the city of Samara where he began his ballet training at the age 7. At the age 12 he attended Perm State Ballet School. After his graduation in 1992 he joined the Stanislavsky and Nemirovich-Danchenko Moscow Ballet Theatre. In December of that same year he moved to the US where he joined Hartford Ballet. After that he danced with Ballet El-Paso, Fort-Worth Dallas Ballet, Miami City Ballet, Carolina Ballet, Miami Contemporary Dance Company and Dance Now Miami. He unofficially retired from dancing in 2010.
Elizabeth Woodington- Development Coordinator
A resident of Midlothian, Virginia, Elizabeth began her career at Stavna Ballet during the first year they were open. After graduating college, Elizabeth went to Florida Southern College to continue exploring her love of dance. She graduated from Florida Southern College, where she received her Bachelor of Fine Arts in Dance Performance and Choreography with a Minor in Exercise Science. Under the tutelage of Erin LaSala Phillips, Sadie Lehmker, Alex Jones, and Leah Pinder, Elizabeth was able to have access to many performance opportunities.