Pedro Szalay - Artisitc Director

Pedro was born to Hungarian parents and is a native of La Guaira, Venezuela where he started dancing in a local school. He received a scholarship for Ballet Nacional de Caracas School and was later promoted to a company dancer for the National Ballet of Caracas. There he danced many of Nebrada's choreographed pieces. Later he traveled to New York City to be coached by Madame Darvish and performed with New York Dance Theatre. Szalay was a company dancer with the Richmond Ballet from 1996 to 2006 where he danced pieces from Stevenson, Orff, Canaporoli, Wainrot, Lang, Burn, Balanchine, Soleau, Winslett, and many others.Szalay was artistic advisor for Chesterfield Ballet School. He has been a guest teacher throughout South Carolina as well as in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and in Lynchburg at Virginia School of the Arts.

He has also been a guest performer with the Latin Ballet of Virginia. He served as a coach, choreographer for the School of Richmond Ballet and other local ballet schools.

Szalay was artistic advisor for Chesterfield Ballet School. He has been a guest teacher throughout South Carolina as well as in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and in Lynchburg at Virginia School of the Arts. Szalay was a coach for the Wheel Chair Miss Richmond and he choreographed the Miss Richmond pageant in 2002-2003. He has been with the Minds in Motion program of the Richmond Ballet since 2003. Since 2006 he had been instructing the Minds in Motion program in Martinsville, Virginia. Mr. Szalay taught ballet at Washington and Lee University. Szalay choreographed for Flournoy Playwright Festival in the masterpiece, The Long Christmas Ride Home. As of January 2007, Szalay became Artistic director of Southwest Virginia Ballet in the Roanoke Valley. In September 2007, he started the Minds in Motion program in the City of Roanoke.

Rebecca Weger - Ballet Mistress

Rebecca began dancing at a very young age and was trained all over North Carolina, South Carolina and many areas of Virginia. During high school she trained with Dr. Susan Muterspaughof Bridgewater, Va. Her dance and scholastic studies then carried her to Point Park University in Pittsburgh, PA. There she studied on both dance and academic scholarships and graduated, Magna cum Laude, with a B.A. in Dance. In college she had the opportunity to study many dance styles and techniques such as ballet, jazz, modern, tap, character and folk, as well as dance choreography and dance history. During her career she has worked with many esteemed teachers and choreographers such as Mary Marshall, Robert Cook, Alan Hineline, Mark Diamond, Gabriel Otevril and Elie Lazar. They have given her many opportunities for performing corps de ballet and solo works, most notably Aurora in Sleeping Beauty

Mrs. Weger has taught at the Myles Reif Performing Arts Center Grand Rapids, Mn. and at local Roanoke, Va. area schools. She has her Pilates Method of fitness training certification through FiTOUR and has taught for Roanoke College in Salem, Va. Currently she is teaching for Valley Dance Productions in downtown Roanoke, VA, for Minds in Motion as an instructor in Roanoke and Martinsville, Va, and for the Southwest Virginia Ballet as Ballet Mistress in Roanoke, Va.

Southwest Virginia Ballet is overseen by a volunteer Board of Directors.  Board members represent SVB with the highest standard of ethical conduct.  This means being correct from the standpoint of law, making sound financial decisions, and modeling honesty and integrity.

Executive Board
Pedro Szalay - Artistic Director
Executive Director - Mike Lawson
President - Nancy Kelderhous
Vice President - Karen Kalbfleish
Treasurer - Tracy Thompson
Secretary - Stacy Potter

Board Members	Backstage Coordinators
David Barchi	Shelby Bingham - Boutique
Shelby Bingham	Denise Flemming - Membership
Linda Doolittle	Carol Jesse - Event Planner
Jon Dorsey	Lenore Willis - Volunteer Coordinator
Sarah Francisico - Company Member
Beth Lewis
Sue Munson
Larry Van Daventer