Faculty
JULIAN ADAIR
Director/Owner
Julian began her formal dance training in 1973 and earned a BFA in Dance from Creighton University in 1987. She has performed and choreographed professionally throughout the Midwest with over 200 productions to date. Her teaching history includes many of the major dance programs in the Omaha Metro area. She directed the Mercy High School Dance Department, taught at Dana College, founded Tanzlust, Inc and Dance Conspiracy, Inc both which provided choreographers and performers production opportunities. Serving on many boards, committees, her involvement includes the Omaha Modern Dance Collective, the Theater Arts Guild and the Omaha Entertainment and Arts Awards.
She has had numerous nominations for choreography including a Broadway World choreography nomination for The Secret Garden in 2018. She is a two-time recipient of the Theater Arts Guild Outstanding Achievement in Choreography Award, 1993 & 2001, the 2017 Omaha Entertainment and Arts Awards Outstanding Choreographers Award, winner of the 2020 Telly Award for her choreography in film and was recently inducted as a choreographer in the NLAPW.
In 2007 Julian wrote, produced and directed Nutcracker Delights, staged by her production company, Ever After Productions, which continues to be an annual holiday favorite, and was nominated for two Theater Arts Guild awards in 2009 and again in 2019.
In 1993, Julian successfully opened Adair Dance Academy, training dancers from pre ballet through pre-professional with countless number of dancers who have studied with her, many who have gone on to college dance programs, conservatories and dance companies. She later wrote two books, Delightful Secrets of the Nutcracker, based on the stage production of Nutcracker Delights and Advice to a Dancer, an art photography book, both published in 2017.
She is happily married to Steve Adair, Vice President of the Adair Dance Academy and together they have two daughters, Camille and Colette, both talented performers, very active in dance and theater.
CAMILLE ADAIR
Faculty
Camille has been studying dance all of her life, with training in Ballet, Modern, Musical Theater, Tap, Contemporary, Pedagogy and Composition at Adair Dance Academy, and in Paul Taylor, Missouri Contemporary Ballet and Nebraska Dance Programs. She has served as assistant choreographer at Beveridge Magnet School and the UNO Theater Department. Her performance credits included Bellevue Little Theater, Omaha Dance Project, Nebraska in Motion, Ever After Productions Nutcracker Delights, The Omaha Community Playhouse and two national tours of A Christmas Carol with the Nebraska Theater Caravan. While continuing to teach, perform and choreograph, she is pursuing degrees in political science and communications at UNO.
COLETTE ADAIR
Faculty
Colette has studied dance since she was very young with training in Ballet Modern, Musical Theater, Tap, Contemporary, Pedagogy and Composition at Adair Dance Academy, Nebraska Dance Summer Programs, Tulsa Ballet and has been on scholarship at the Next Generation Ballet in Tampa, Florida. Her performing credits include Omaha Dance Project, Bellevue Little Theater, Ever After Productions Nutcracker Delights, OPS Summer Musicals, Nebraska in Motion and a National Tour with Nebraska Theater Caravan.
HARUNA ASANUMA
Faculty
Haruna first started dancing at the Omaha Academy of Ballet in Omaha, Nebraska. In 2010, she studied abroad in London to study at Laban Conservatoire of Contemporary Dance, where she trained in Release, Limon, and Cunningham techniques and classical ballet. She later went on to graduate with her BA (Hons) Degree in Contemporary Dance from the Scottish School of Contemporary Dance.
Haruna has performed with Atelier Teatro Danza in Italy and toured Scotland with the SSCD graduate company, while in college. After graduation, she has performed in Omaha with Maya Taylor Dance Company, TBD Dance Collective, Moving Company, as well as the roles of Sugar Plum Fairy and Snow Queen with Ever After Productions. She later moved to Minneapolis and danced with Metropolitan Ballet, Minneapolis Ballet Dancers and Yuki Tokuda Ballet, where she danced both contemporary and classical works. Some of her favorite roles include Sugar Plum Fairy in the Nutcracker, Cygnets in Swan Lake and Friends in Romeo and Juliet. She has taught at several studios all over the Twin Cities and is excited to be moving back to her hometown and to meet her new students in Omaha.
MARIAN FEY
Faculty
Marian has worked in the arts for most of her professional life. She co-founded The ARTery which was the first organization to bring the Dancing Classrooms program to schools outside of New York City. As Executive Director of Nebraskans for the Arts she advocated for arts education and policy. Most recently Marian was the Executive Director of the Nebraska Cultural Endowment. Currently she is heading up a new initiative in the Millard Public Schools connecting the community to the needs of MPS students.
Throughout her not-for-profit career, Marian never stopped dancing and is excited to be teaching ballet and tap at Adair Dance.
TRICIA LOVEJOY
Faculty
Growing up in New Orleans, Tricia Lovejoy trained with Lelia Haller, Premierre Danseuse with the Paris Opera Ballet, who gave her students a thorough grounding in both the French and the Bournonville (Danish) systems of ballet pedagogy, as well as exposure to the Cecchetti method.
She attended high school at the Washington School of Ballet with Mary Day and with Ben Stevenson of the Royal Ballet, where she studied RAD (Royal Academy of Dancing).
With further training in Soviet Russia at the New Choreographic Institute in Moscow and the Tbilsi State Opera Ballet with Mikhail Lovravsky, Tricia found the Vaganova system provided strength of technique and refinement of epaulement.
Tricia’s career took her through the U.S., Canada, and Guatemala, affording her the pleasure of dancing many of the great classical Ballets, operas, and the works of emerging choreographers with Tulsa Ballet Theater, Hartford Opera, New Orleans Ballet, Delta Festival Ballet, and the New Orleans Opera Association.
Some of the coaches and choreographers with whom she’s worked include Georgina Parkinson, Ivan Nagy, Leon Danileon, Rochelle Zide, Roman Jasinsky, Royes Fernandez, Arthur Mitchel, and Victoria Simon.
Tricia holds certificates in “The Theory and Practice of Teaching Ballet” with Gilbert Mayer of the Paris Opera Ballet, International Teachers Seminar, and “Tbilisi State Opera Ballet Certificate of Study”, Vaktang Chabukiani and Mikhail Lavrovsky.
She is a member of the International Dance Council (CID) at UNESCO.
Tricia is a multifaceted teacher with a passion for helping dancers in their technical and artistic growth.
Having taught ballet for 35 years, her strengths lie in her musicality, understanding of anatomy, attention to detail, love of art and history, and her desire to encourage the psychological health of each student.
EMILEE ROSS
Faculty
Emily Ross is an Omaha native began studying ballet, modern, musical theater and composition with Adair Dance Academy when she was 20 years old. She has performed in over 30 productions including Nutcracker Delights, numerous dance concerts and presented works in the Choreographers Workshop Showcases. After graduating from Omaha Central High School, she attended Wayne State college on a full tuition scholarship from the Nebraska board of trustees receiving a BA in English in 2018, then went on to study theology and ministry in McDonough, Georgia. Upon returning to Nebraska she has worked at the Omaha Children's Museum, taught dance at Art is for All, is currently a Montessori teacher and has been a faculty member with Adair Dance Academy since September 2019.
LAURA SAMBOL
Faculty
Laura Sambol, former Radio City Rockette, returns to her native Omaha and joined the faculty of Adair Dance Academy in 2021. Laura's credits include the European tour of "42nd Street,” "Pleasure Island Explosion” and “The Kids of the Kingdom" at Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida. Laura danced with the Rockettes in “The Radio City Christmas Spectacular” in New York City, “The Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade,” the premier of "Miracle on 34th Street” at Radio City Music Hall, and in the “Great Radio City Spectacular” at the Flamingo Hilton in Las Vegas. Laura also performed at Salle des Toiles in Monte Carlo with Stevie Wonder, Earth Wind and Fire, and Natalie Cole. Laura is a graduate of Oklahoma City University's world-renowned Ann Lacy School of American Dance and Entertainment, and was a scholarship recipient at the premiere dance studio "Steps on Broadway" in New York City. Currently, you can catch Laura reporting news on Channel 6, WOWT-NBC TV.
STEPHANIE TEPOX
Faculty
Stephanie Tepox began her dance training, at the age of four, in Bucks County, Pa. By age eleven, she had been awarded the title of Miss Petite Dance of New York City, by Dance Masters of America. She then studied at the Rock School, in Philadelphia, and the prestigious Harid Conservatory, in Fl. At the age of sixteen she joined the Pennsylvania Ballet, as a paid trainee. At eighteen years of age she accepted a full company contract with Tulsa Ballet Theater, and at twenty, a full company contract with Ballet Omaha. Her love of the arts would then guide her into the next phase of her career. As a circus performer, she would spend the next thirteen years touring the U.S. and Canada. Performing various acts including the Roman Rings, a Quick Change Magic Act, and riding the elephants. She also began teaching ballet, during the off season. Returning to Omaha in 2012, she has been teaching throughout the Metro Area. She has been with Adair Dance Academy since 2013 and Ever After Productions, serving as a choreographer for Nutcracker Delights.